Oahu single family home rentals (Honolulu, Hilo: condos, townhomes, buy)
OahuIncludes Honolulu
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"Viper, what price point is considered "cheap"? What number should we be targeting?"
Cheap is different for each individual - based on what you are describing, $2,000/month is rock bottom rent for pet friendly single family home in hard to commute areas. Based solely on what you describe - you'd probably find nice at something at $3,000 - $3,500. $4,000 definitely puts you into premium housing.
As much as a challenge with budget is inventory. Many of the pet friendly homes get snatched up very fast at the $3,000 level (often the day they get listed) - there aren't a lot of examples out there to look at the moment. Oahu in general is not a pet friendly rental market.
Hard to commute areas are basically anything west of downtown - Ewa Beach/Kapolei/Mililani. The traffic button whether it be online or watching on TV lately is a little skewed this time of the year. Traffic times are often 50% less than usual due to people on vacation and school being out. Last week, the commute times from Mililani were running 35-40 minutes where the "normal" commute from that area is over an hour.
Oh my, lovely home but when I see satellite view...it's in an uber-crowded area.
Again, while we can "afford" $4K a month I will put my foot down and say it is foolhardy. Our big dream in life is to travel frequently and that puts us either in the $2k/month realm or the "no vacations" realm.
This is why it's so good to ask people who live in HI about this stuff...I thank you...I think you're going to help me win the "there's nothing we can afford to rent that we will tolerate" battle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wooliemonster
Even though it's at least a year until I'd move, I've made some of the same conclusions. My housing expenses here in TX are about $2000/mo plus another $500/mo or so for utilities. So, I set my initial budget for Honolulu at about $2000/mo for a 2 bedroom (or large 1 bedroom with office), doesn't explicitly say "no pets", as well as one of the following 1) good view from st louis/maunalani heights or 2) walking distance to beach.
We might both end up working remotely, so commute to downtown Honolulu might not matter, but it's still important to me to be in the city. I hate being isolated.
But, like the OP, I've found my budget will need to be $3000-4000 to be find a house without any compromises. I've found a few houses that are "close" in the 2000-2500 range, but I start to wonder if they're scams. Here are some examples:
Oh my, the first four are simply dreadful!!! The last two are nice but how silly to blow so much money on rent. We found a home comparable in beauty to your last two links in Hilo for half that...still twice normal Hilo rents, too.
Sweetie had lunch with the landlords again today (our lease starts Aug. 1 but they like to have lunch with him when he's docked at the harbor) and so now he's in love with Hilo again. Look what I have to deal with, lol!!! All from halfway around the planet. Things will be less stressful for us once I move out there and then, we can take our time exploring other opportunities for 2013.
Quite frankly...I believe that Hilo is where my heart lies. Had dinner tonight with two former Hilo residents who miss it there. Then again, we have other locations lined up for down the road...HI will be five years or less for us and I want to maximize our experience.
I might be willing to trade a noisy nighttime to get the million dollar view... My current neighborhood is already a pretty noisy place, and it only bothers me a little bit. I've always lived in the city, and can tolerate these aspects of urban life.
I'm not into views, not into the beach, more into solitude.
I do not want to know my neighbor's business and I don't care for them to know mine. I crave peace and quiet, and a place that is very private...we don't want to have to wear clothing at home and that means inside and outside the house alike. We are VERY private where we live now and VERY private in our first year Hilo home and I do not want to give that up. We are not exhibitionists and a subdivision with nearby neighbors would be incredibly depressing.
You do know, right, that I'm hoping you CAN'T help us find something suitable in Oahu, right?
Haha, I'm a bit of the opposite. My condition for moving to HI is that I can get around town (more or less) on my bike without having my own car. I hate driving. It's one of the reasons I'm desperate to get out of Texas.
We want a clean spacious home, with dogs, 20-30 minutes MAX from the harbor, with no neighbors close enough to see or hear us, without spending our monthly vacation money for rent.
Found it in Hilo. Probably won't find it in Honolulu.
I realized after I left for the day - that if you can afford a $2,000 place in Hilo - you can easily afford a $3,000 place in Oahu and probably be net even or maybe be better off.
Everything across the board is more expense on the outer islands except real estate. Gas, groceries, electricity, cocktails, clothes, activities, anything day to day living is far more inexpensive in Oahu. It isn't a small difference - usually 10% or more. Gas is at least 50 cents/gallon more expensive in Hilo as an example.
thanks Vipe...tough decision...I'm not even there yet but through much research and talking with people, I think my heart is in Hilo.
Yet...I'm openminded. We'll only know after I move...yet, spending $3,000-$4,000 for rent seems so silly. At one time I owned two homes, one near the beach near Ft. Lauderdale and one close to the water in Key Largo...I didn't rent them out...I lived in both half time, owned two single family homes on nice lots...the mortgage for two was a lot less than $3,000 for BOTH together...for prettier homes than I'm seeing on Oahu Craigslist...I can't wrap my head around such a high rent, whether we can afford it or not, I can't swallow it. Too bad we can't buy, but we're too nomadic for that.
thanks Vipe...tough decision...I'm not even there yet but through much research and talking with people, I think my heart is in Hilo.
Yet...I'm openminded. We'll only know after I move...yet, spending $3,000-$4,000 for rent seems so silly. At one time I owned two homes, one near the beach near Ft. Lauderdale and one close to the water in Key Largo...I didn't rent them out...I lived in both half time, owned two single family homes on nice lots...the mortgage for two was a lot less than $3,000 for BOTH together...for prettier homes than I'm seeing on Oahu Craigslist...I can't wrap my head around such a high rent, whether we can afford it or not, I can't swallow it. Too bad we can't buy, but we're too nomadic for that.
Rates are so freakishly low - since Oahu is a designated high cost area, you can get a conventional loans up to $721K for 5% down. Off the top of my head, that is about $3,500/month when you add PMI/real estate taxes - then you got the tax deductions which can get your monthly payment potentially cut by 20% or more (and use it as a home office, even more).
Viper, I've owned many properties over the years, sometimes more than one at a time, I'm very personally aware of the financial implications of ownership, and I simply do not want to own any more property; he's only owned one home and hated being a home owner (good thing we found each other!) I don't even want to own "stuff" any more, and we're bringing very little to HI. Basically three suitcases each, a few parcel post boxes, a few media mail boxes, a few flat rate priority boxes. I know this isn't the lifestyle for everyone, but it's the one for us. Still, affording $4K a month rent seems so silly to me, I'd much rather spend $2K on rent and spend the other $2K on vacations. Which is why I'm down on living on Oahu since we'd need to live commutable to the harbor.
McF, my spouse has been on our teeny island for his entire adult life, and he has a list of places he wants to visit and work (he's a ship captain). We'll reveal our next adventure when it's closer as we have no idea in what order we will accomplish this. Let's just say that it's unlikely that we'll live on the US mainland...other than that, there are many options for us, few of them on American soil.
Just got off the phone with him, midnight there, 6 a.m. here, he just got off his watch; after spending some time ashore yesterday, he's back on the "I Love Hilo" kick again, lol...but I know he's going to make me go look at rental homes on Oahu after we move.
Last edited by HiloDiver; 06-25-2012 at 05:22 AM..
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