Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What's your rent price range including utilities? What's your budget for vehicle maintenance and gas? What kind of vehicle does your husband drive? Will you be working and commuting as well? How often will you and husband be driving into town? Public school only option? Is a yard/larger sqft home a must?
Rent- for now we'd be comfortable around $3000, give or take a few hundred. If we like it there we'll probably end up buying when our lease is up.
Car- We're bringing my husband's car with us, it's a 99 Cherokee with a lift and all kinds of off roading gear, I have an 09 Liberty but with everything we've heard about salt damage and road condition there, I'd rather sell mine before we move and just take his beast of a vehicle and get myself something good on gas and affordable there. As far as maintenance, my husband does most of the work on our cars himself, so we don't typically have to budget for much more than parts, and gas would depend on where we live and his commute... We could comfortably budget $500 or so.. but I'm not even sure what the gas prices there are to gauge if that's reasonable.
Commute- I will hopefully be going back to work when we get there, probably not right away as I will have a 3 month old, but when I do I'd probably try to get a job at one of the CDCs, I have early childhood experience/credits.
Going Into Town- my husband will be on shore duty, and assuming he gets the orders he's going for, he'll be home a lot more than we're used to, so we'll probably be driving around quite a bit on the weekends trying to check out all there is to do.
Schools- aren't terribly important right now Our son will be 3 and our daughter will be 3 months, so we'll have 3 years before we need to worry about schools.
Square Footage- right now we're in an 800 sqft apartment, and as far as actual living space, we're comfortable, but we have 1 closet for all 3 of us which is difficult, as long as there is adequate storage space we can make due with small square footage, that being said, for a 3 bedroom I wouldn't want to go smaller than 1000sqft. A large yard isn't necessary, but even just a small patio or patch of grass for the kids to play on would be nice
we don't have pets, so luckily that's one less issue for us to deal with, i hear finding a rental with pets is nearly impossible there.
Car- We're bringing my husband's car with us, it's a 99 Cherokee with a lift and all kinds of off roading gear, I have an 09 Liberty but with everything we've heard about salt damage and road condition there, I'd rather sell mine before we move and just take his beast of a vehicle and get myself something good on gas and affordable there.
You risk not passing the Hawaii Safety Check - they frown on modified vehicles. You should probably look into that more. No Safety Check means no license plates.
You risk not passing the Hawaii Safety Check - they frown on modified vehicles. You should probably look into that more. No Safety Check means no license plates.
Very true anyone modifying their Vehicles with the new Safety system doesn't get certified. A lot of people found out the hard way last year.
You risk not passing the Hawaii Safety Check - they frown on modified vehicles. You should probably look into that more. No Safety Check means no license plates.
oh I didn't even think of that, I knew they were strict about window tinting but I didn't know they were strict about lifts and things too, I'll have to have him look into that, thank you!
Just put the vehicle back basically stock, get your safety check, and put the stuff you took off back on. It's too bad they're so tight a**ed about the cars. We moved to the Daytona Beach area and you would not believe all the custom motorcycles and hot rods around here. Anything goes. I think it's great. Some of the vehicles show a lot of ingenuity and wonderful engineering.
Rent- for now we'd be comfortable around $3000, give or take a few hundred. If we like it there we'll probably end up buying when our lease is up.
Car- We're bringing my husband's car with us, it's a 99 Cherokee with a lift and all kinds of off roading gear, I have an 09 Liberty but with everything we've heard about salt damage and road condition there, I'd rather sell mine before we move and just take his beast of a vehicle and get myself something good on gas and affordable there. As far as maintenance, my husband does most of the work on our cars himself, so we don't typically have to budget for much more than parts, and gas would depend on where we live and his commute... We could comfortably budget $500 or so.. but I'm not even sure what the gas prices there are to gauge if that's reasonable.
Commute- I will hopefully be going back to work when we get there, probably not right away as I will have a 3 month old, but when I do I'd probably try to get a job at one of the CDCs, I have early childhood experience/credits.
Going Into Town- my husband will be on shore duty, and assuming he gets the orders he's going for, he'll be home a lot more than we're used to, so we'll probably be driving around quite a bit on the weekends trying to check out all there is to do.
Schools- aren't terribly important right now Our son will be 3 and our daughter will be 3 months, so we'll have 3 years before we need to worry about schools.
Square Footage- right now we're in an 800 sqft apartment, and as far as actual living space, we're comfortable, but we have 1 closet for all 3 of us which is difficult, as long as there is adequate storage space we can make due with small square footage, that being said, for a 3 bedroom I wouldn't want to go smaller than 1000sqft. A large yard isn't necessary, but even just a small patio or patch of grass for the kids to play on would be nice
we don't have pets, so luckily that's one less issue for us to deal with, i hear finding a rental with pets is nearly impossible there.
With a $3,000/mo budget, no pets and low expectation on home size, you have a lot of options. At that price point you can afford a decent home in most communities on Oahu outside of East Honolulu and the urban core and perhaps find a home in those areas as well. Knowing your budget, I'd definitely stay out of Waianae; you can afford a home in a much more desirable neighborhood. It's ultimately going to come down to what you and your family value. As you probably know, traffic is the single biggest quality of life consideration on Oahu and people that move here consistently underestimate just how bad it is. Living as close to your place of work, entertainment (and in the future, schools) is going to be a major factor even if your husband is already used to sitting in a lot of traffic.
Selling gas guzzlers and replacing with economical vehicles is a very wise move. Gas is pricey here and registration costs are lower on smaller cars. $500/mo ($250/mo per vehicle) however, is definitely not going to be enough to cover the actual cost to drive two vehicles any fair distance. You'll need to double that if you live in Waianae and drive into town at least a few times a week. Factor $.35/mile for your husband's jeep even if he's covering labor and the old clunker isn't going to see much depreciation on mileage - it's still a gas guzzler. Factor $.30/mile for a later model compact fuel miser with average depreciation. To stay within your ~$500/mo budget, keep your round trip daily commutes to under 25 miles per vehicle per day. Travel any further and you'll need to increase that budget accordingly.
Everyone says the traffic to/from Ewa is bad. But as someone who used to commute through the HRBT I just laugh at them. Traffic is congested, but it doesn't come to a full stop for minutes at a time like it can at the HRBT. It moves- slowly, but it moves, and there's great scenery you don't get a chance to admire when you're driving the speed limit.
I live in Ewa Beach. I love Ewa Beach. And most of the annoying military wives who say crap about it never actually lived here. The majority who live here love it. One of the reasons I personally love it is that in my experience it has not taken me more than an hour to get to or from anywhere I have been on the island so far. Granted there are a few places that would take longer to get to, but not many. And this includes the traffic during rush hour. That said, unfortunately no your husband getting out of work by 3 will only help a small amount as far as traffic. It starts to build before 3 in my experience. But Ewa Beach and Kapolei are nice areas with a lot nearby. The Kapolei Costco is the BEST (because it is less frequently as crowded as the others on the island.)
If you look back in April I made a thread asking about Sea Country. Honestly, now having been on the island a few months, I drive through Waianae constantly and the one thing that keeps me from considering moving to Sea Country in the future, when we hopefully buy a house, is that traffic on Farrington. It can back up fairly easily in either direction. What I suggest is what my husband and I did, after we got here we spent a few days just driving around the island (my car actually beat us here, due to careful planning on our part) and specifically drove around neighborhoods of homes we'd seen in our price range on AHRN and Craigslist. That allowed us to get a feel for which neighborhoods we felt better about. There's some great places on the island, so much variety you are sure to fin somewhere you love. The windward side is amazing, I don't even have words to describe how beautiful it is. Some of my favorite beaches are over there. Mililani and that are are nice and central, and cooler. Ewa is definitely hotter, so I don't recommend it for people who like to run their AC all the time but coming from VA the heat here is nothing compared to summer heat there. Hot here has been the low 90s. Not close to 100.
Even if your $3000 budget includes utilities, you shouldn't have any problem finding a 3 bedroom over 1000 sq feet especially without having pets. We have 4 cats (and I was told we were crazy and would never find a place that allows 4 cats LOL) and we are in a 3 bedroom in Ewa Beach, about 1250 sq feet with a 2 car garage. As it is I don't run AC and after utilities and rent we come out around $300-$400 under $3000 each month. If I ran the AC often it would probably get us up close to $3k.
Don't worry so much about the vehicle registration costs. Worry about passing safety inspection. Your husbands command will get you non resident forms and you can get your registration for as little at $5.50 (that is how much it cost my husband and I for each of our vehicles, we transferred our registrations from VA and got Hawaii plates.)
We PCSed here from the Norfolk area in April. Feel free to message me if you want
Everyone says the traffic to/from Ewa is bad. But as someone who used to commute through the HRBT I just laugh at them. Traffic is congested, but it doesn't come to a full stop for minutes at a time like it can at the HRBT. It moves- slowly, but it moves, and there's great scenery you don't get a chance to admire when you're driving the speed limit.
I live in Ewa Beach. I love Ewa Beach. And most of the annoying military wives who say crap about it never actually lived here. The majority who live here love it. One of the reasons I personally love it is that in my experience it has not taken me more than an hour to get to or from anywhere I have been on the island so far. Granted there are a few places that would take longer to get to, but not many.
~Katy
I admire you. I would rather pour salt into my eyes every day than sit in traffic for an hour to work in each direction. But seriously, you are very much an exception to the rule. 99 out of 100 people would never justify a long commute by stating "at least the traffic is moving and the scenery is nice."
Here is a site that goes into details about the financial costs of commuting. The True Cost of Commuting
Long commutes in congested roadways are extremely costly to both your health and your finances. It causes significant stress for most people and it takes away precious "quality" time that can be spent with family, friends etc. And everyone I've ever known to move out to Ewa Beach complain incessantly about the traffic. Before moving out there, most will say it's worth sitting in traffic to have a significantly newer, nicer and prettier home with a yard. But then they realize how taxing the commute is and they end up moving to a more central location to work/play/etc. In fact of all my local friends that gave Ewa Beach a try (i.e. purchase a home), all of them have moved away. Some kept the homes as rentals, others sold and bought elsewhere.
Ewa Beach is a great place for those that don't see losing 2+ hours/day to sitting in traffic and the high commuting costs as a negative thing. While I find that extremely odd... everyone is different and entitled to their opinion.
The commute on H1 in the morning to Pearl would be hell, and the commute going home in the afternoon would be just as bad. The area isn't as bad as people say, but with it being so far west on the island you are definitely FAR from everything except the beach
I have been on the island permanently for 9 months now... But I have been coming to Oahu for over 15 years as my wife is a local girl with family all over the island. So my experience is a little different than the avg mainlander. I am more comfortable in the normally mainlander forbidden local places like... Waianae, Nanakuli, Waipahu, Kalihi, etc.
Having said... there's no way I would ever live in Waianae!!!
And not just because your experience may not be nice being the outcast. But the logistics of living there are terrible. You would essentially JUST live there. There isn't anything to do or any places to go. Absolutely no safe entertainment or activities. You would have to go to other communities for that... It may not seem like a "big deal" but not having anything in your own community would eventually weigh on your quality of life and wallet!
So not to sound like a broken record, but as many have already suggested with your budget... just choose a nicer area. Aiea, Kaneohe, Kailua, Kaimuki, Manoa, Mililani, Waikele, Kapolei, Makakilo, or Ewa Beach would be much better decisions. Don't be the mainlander who is hell bent on being able to live any where you want. The majority of people who live in Waianae live there because they are from there or just have too... Not by choice.
My final comment is if you are really an involved parent as it sounds like you are... then choosing to live some place where you know you need a GE is a bad idea no matter where you live. And in Waianae it will also make your commute just as bad as your husbands if you are taking the kids to school. And if you want to assimilate into Waianae... not being around the other kids and parents in the communities will not help.
So between activites, work, and school... You all would be strangers in your own community the way I see it. So why live there? Live somewhere else and just visit...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Our son will be 3 and our daughter will be 3 months, so we'll have 3 years before we need to worry about schools. 
