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We are PCSing to Hawaii. Can someone tell me if it is realistic to have all living expenses (rent for two people--a studio apt or small one or two bed) and utilities covered by about 1900 a month? Is that realistic? The cheapest rent we are able to find is about 1400/month and I dno't know how much utilities will be. It would be A/C, electric, and internet. Can we do that for the remaining 500, or not? Thanks!
We are PCSing to Hawaii. Can someone tell me if it is realistic to have all living expenses (rent for two people--a studio apt or small one or two bed) and utilities covered by about 1900 a month? Is that realistic? The cheapest rent we are able to find is about 1400/month and I dno't know how much utilities will be. It would be A/C, electric, and internet. Can we do that for the remaining 500, or not? Thanks!
I think only you can decide what rent is "enough", but I'm quite sure you can keep utilities under $500.
Way under. Our utilities (cable, elec, gas, and water) averaged $527 last year, and that is for a four bedroom house, and includes electric for swimming pool pumps and a spa, and water for a sprinkler system on 1/3 of an acre. AC only for a couple of months.
It depends on how much you use the A/C, I expect, and what kind of building you live in.
Our building covers cable TV (through condo dues, but that means that even renters get it for free). If you already have cable, adding internet is pretty cheap (I think we pay about $30 or so). If you need to get both, it's about $100 per month, I would guess.
Our utilities are a touch over $100 a month for a good-sized 2 BR, 2.5 bath. But we never run A/C. We have it, we just don't use it. We keep the windows open and have ceiling fans running all the time. If you're near one of the fans, it's never really too hot, even in the past few days when it's been REALLY hot and muggy here. (Trade winds, where have you gone?)
Electric is expensive, so if you run the A/C all the time, I suspect it would be easy to use up that $500 quickly. But if you use it sparingly, you should be fine.
Also, $1400 for a studio sounds like a lot in this market. The 2 BR, 2 bath apartment that I moved out of when I bought this condo is now renting for about $1400 (less than I was paying, but that's because of the turn in the economy). Where are you looking?
Well, we thought it was a lot too, but we just figured it was Hawaii Sticker-Shock. Maybe it really was a lot. The places we found were near the city of Honolulu, and a few places on Ewa Beach. How close to Fort Shafter are those?
Also, if they are not close, what cities should we be looking in? We don't need a lot of space, but we'd like a real one-bedroom if possible, instead of a studio. Is there a good realty website we can look at near Shafter/Scofield area to see what is out there?
We don't get cable but probably would like a wireless router/wireless. Our utils now average about $50/month for A/C (but we live in the deep south, and run it every day--it's wicked hot!) and then about $100 for phones and $30/40 for electric. I've been looking on sites like apartments.com, but are there better places we can look? I thought, too, it was pretty steep.
shafter and schofield are about 45 min apart. Kunia, Waipahu, Waikele, Waipio, PearlCity, Aiea, salt lake/moanalua, are all in between
ewa-shafter, about 1 hour during rush hour
ewa-schofield, about 20 minutes
now keep in mind ewa is hot and dry, its suburbia. I would say electricity is double, possibly triple, from what you are paying in the mainland
have you considered housing? military housing in hawaii is privatized but utilities (electric, water, sewer, trash) are still covered under your "rent" to them. we have also been looking at places in town to rent, but housing seems like our best bet. navy housing is open to all branches of the military and some of the neighborhoods with 2 bedrooms are newer with a one car garage.
are you guys at ft. shafter or schofield? ft. shafter is actually closer to pearl harbor/hickam than schofield.
Are you wanting to stay off post? Post housing is not too bad looking. Aliamanu Military Reservation (AMR) has new housing and they are building more. AMR is usually where people who PCS to Ft. Shafter stay. If you want to stay in the civilian sector it just depends. The farther west you stay the cheaper, newer and bigger space you get. But you do have to deal with traffic. I live in Ewa and my husband is stationed at Shafter. He leaves at 5:30-5:45am to get there by 6:30am for PT. And let me add that a lot of people on here will tell you that Ewa is hot and dry. I live in Ewa and I am originally from Louisiana and this is no where hot or dry to me. It's a lot of people who are from here that haven't experienced other climates so they think that Ewa is really hot and dry. On a funny note, everytime I hear someone say that I have to laugh. Try being in Houson or New Orleans in dead summer and then you'll know what hot is. But in all fairness, I was the same when it came to cold weather. I thought 40 degrees was cold until I was in upstate NY and is was 20 below. Now I know what cold is. If you have any other questions feel free to let me know.
We are considering post housing at AMR, yes. But generally, if we can afford to, we prefer to live off post because it feels more 'normal' to us and is removed from his job, so it helps the work/home divide.
Are there any complexes or rental apts webpages within 20 or so minutes (with traffic) of Shafter?
Also, another thing we are considering:
Is it safer to live on-post in Honolulu? It seems like the crime is higher, and as a younger woman who will be alone during deployments, that is a concern of mine.
It just depends upon what you prefer. We always preferred to live on Post (and have only had crappy qtrs once- I HATE Ft. LeonardWood!!!!) and never had any issues separating home and work (and my hubby was a 1SG and SGM...MP at that!).
If you are at Shafter stay away from Kalihi (I am a Hawaiian born and raised and would not suggest that you live in that area).
As mentioned before- Aiea, Pearl City, Salt Lake and Moanalua are good choices. Ewa, Mililani,Kapolei are also good choices although traffic will be a concern unless your husband has a job with 'different' hours.
He will have normal hours, but we hopefully will have a motorcycle for him by that point, so I can work also.
How far is Pearl City and Ewa Beach? We found rentals in both those places. Can I use the commisary and PX in Pearl Harbor if we live near Pearl HArbor (assuming it's near Pearl City?)
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