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We are seriously considering taking the leap to move to Oahu. My husband is being offered a position at the Naval Ship Yard and while salary is being negotiated, I wanted to get some honest opinions.
He will start at no less than 76k, possibly 80k. I am going to attend school year round with the Post 9-11 GI Bill paying a BAH of $2,294 month/36k year and all but $150 a semester for schooling. Our friend lives in a nice apartment for $1600, 2br, 1ba. It's clean and area is decent. Hoping to rent for awhile until we decide where we want to buy at. Another friend has a room at their house near Diamond Head and has opened their home to us while we find permanent living arrangements. With our combined income, we are hoping to pay $2800-3500 for a mortgage.
We have friends who live there and visited back in January and fell in love with Hawaii. No surprise, huh....
We went going grocery shopping and bought daily items from nearby stores as if we were shopping to entertain at home since we prepared most of our meals while visiting. So the reality of $8-10 milk is very real. Luckily we will have the commissary to purchase most items from, thus making the milk $6 a gallon. Still high, but manageable.
I know it will be expensive, however my main concern is being "house poor." Now we have a job offer and looking to sell most everything to make the move, reality is setting in. My husband is the positive one, I'm the pessimist. To add to the difficult decision, we will have our 14 son starting high school too.
So with all of that being said, how realistic is Oahu on 112K? We will have roughly 20k savings and over 30k when our house here sells.
Please feel free to be honest and up front. I have read the "tough love" posts and expect a few also.
A family of 3 should be able to live off 112K easily if they eat at home and utilize the free outdoors rather than expensive entertainment. My opinion is to ship as little as possible and focus primarily on schools and proximity to work.
I have a family of 7 and we can live of 150K just fine by utilizing the outdoors for entertainment and not eating out much.
Traffic and schools systems would be my largest priorities to look into to make the transition easier.
Financially I say yes you can make it. Culturally please show respect to the culture, embrace it, try new things, show aloha and don't be in a hurry and enjoy the diversity and you won't have any problems.
Thank you for the response. We are looking forward to spending almost all of our free time outdoors. Either hiking, beach, walking, just being outside. How could you not want to be outside! As much as I have seen and felt, the culture was so very kind to us. Very friendly and open. I am dark complected as my son is as well. Hubby, yea, white as they come. We are hoping that will help some with the boy transitioning into school.
Story time: We stumbled into a very authentic restaurant, at least I consider it so, and the hostess asked up how we found them, have we ever been there? Of course we had not and they showed us our table. Upon reading the menu, I asked our waitress to explain a few items and what would she recommend to two lost mainlanders. Hubby ended up with the Loco Moco and I had the Moa Pulehu. The best food ever! The rest of the customers were locals, smiled and just gave a friendly vibe as we dined.
Back to reality: The money is what was freaking me out the most. We are fine to give up the suburban dream here in the midwest and live more modestly. Truth be told, I'm tired of all of the excess we have acquired. So selling most and arriving with not much is appealing. We will ship one car and just purchase another at a later time.
Schools concern me as far as finding a good commute for hubby but decent school for our son. As long as they offer band and ROTC, we should be good.
Hoping to rent for awhile until we decide where we want to buy at. With our combined income, we are hoping to pay $2800-3500 for a mortgage.
So with all of that being said, how realistic is Oahu on 112K? We will have roughly 20k savings and over 30k when our house here sells.
Your savings are woefully short to consider buying for quite awhile.
Unless you can save quite a bit more money, often a challenge on an expensive island, you'll probably afford at best a small condo someday in the future.
A $800,000 house with $160,000 down + closing costs will give you a mortgage payment of roughly $3,100/month to put things in perspective.
Your savings are woefully short to consider buying for quite awhile.
Unless you can save quite a bit more money, often a challenge on an expensive island, you'll probably afford at best a small condo someday in the future.
A $800,000 house with $160,000 down + closing costs will give you a mortgage payment of roughly $3,100/month to put things in perspective.
Thank you. I truly appreciate the perspective. That's what I was looking for.
Do you know if VA loans are allowed in HI? I'm actually thinking of a condo, hopefully about 1,000 sf. We have been in touch with a realtor there and he sends us various condos and homes on occasion. We have researched the fee simple vs land tenure also. Are there any decent homes for 500k??
We have the whole suburbia thing here in the Midwest and honestly, I'm ready to simplify and downsize. Smaller yard, if any, less "stuff" and all of the toys we have acquired in trade for a less rat race style of life is what I would love to find.
Do you know if VA loans are allowed in HI? I'm actually thinking of a condo, hopefully about 1,000 sf. We have researched the fee simple vs land tenure also. Are there any decent homes for 500k??
We have the whole suburbia thing here in the Midwest and honestly, I'm ready to simplify and downsize. Smaller yard, if any, less "stuff" and all of the toys we have acquired in trade for a less rat race style of life is what I would love to find.
In my experience, people who haven't already downsized/simplified already and know that lifestyle often regret it Hawaii when the honeymoon period wears off. I'd recommend renting in a tiny place for at least 2 years before buying a tiny place.
Regardless - VA loans are available in Hawaii, although not all condos qualify.
You aren't going to find a decent home (or what most people consider decent) on Oahu for $500K. Maybe a rough fixer upper - maybe.
For condos, you can find them at $500K - expect a monthly maintenance fee of at least $500/month - figure a no money down VA loan for $500K will run you roughly $3,000/month.
Yup, rent for at least a year or two. It's almost impossible to find the proper spot until you've lived on the island for awhile.
Try to keep the daily commute as absolutely short as possible. In a perfect world, walking or biking to work would be lovely, but doubtful that it could happen. A lot of Oahu's woes is that it wasn't designed with walking neighborhoods.
Your savings are woefully short to consider buying for quite awhile.
Unless you can save quite a bit more money, often a challenge on an expensive island, you'll probably afford at best a small condo someday in the future.
A $800,000 house with $160,000 down + closing costs will give you a mortgage payment of roughly $3,100/month to put things in perspective.
I would echo what whtviper is saying but up the cost if you want something more like your use to. I would say that with good schools and probably on the east side you will be paying around a million or more.
The good thing is you can get a Navy Federal Credit Union account and they only make you pay 10% or even less down with no PMI. 10% down on a 30 year is running about 4.5%
Rent for a year or two in the school district you think you might buy in and then you will understand commutes better and the schools and the places you like to go.
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