Help my family with moving to Honolulu?? (rental, houses)

[MrsADaniel]

Hello Everyone,

I am so uneducated in the state of Hawaii, and also very scared of moving so far from home with our children. My husband has been offered a position in Honolulu and I guess that is on the island of "Oahu" from reading some things on the internet. I have moved before, here in the states, and I know that when moving you can find good locations and bad locations in every city. I am hoping and praying to find some insight and help in weither this would be a good thing for our family or not. I know that everywhere says the cost of living is much higher. (Groceries, housing, etc..) My family is not above down sizing if need be, but I need to know where to look as my oldest daughter is in school. I want her to be safe and get a good education. Myself, I grew up in the inner city of St. Louis, Missouri and the schools were not the best. We as parents have worked hard to make sure our children have better than we did. The jobs are few and this may be what is best for our family. I have looked in to the ratings of the local public schools, but that doesn't tell a person that much about the location. How would I find out the zip code area name? For example Liholiho Elementary was in the zip code of 96816, but does anyone know if there is a way to find specific housing in that school area because there were many other schools in the same zip code? Will anyone offer me a location that has a good school district, but DEFINITELY no more than $2000 per month or we will be eating very little and living with no utilities. This is the amount that I am going to tell my husband to base what his income should be. If they can't do that for him then we should keep looking. We would love cheaper, but know that it might be hard to find at least a three bedroom for much cheaper. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Family of five

[HankDfrmSD]

Originally Posted by MrsADaniel

Hello Everyone,

I am so uneducated in the state of Hawaii, and also very scared of moving so far from home with our children. My husband has been offered a position in Honolulu and I guess that is on the island of "Oahu" from reading some things on the internet. I have moved before, here in the states, and I know that when moving you can find good locations and bad locations in every city. I am hoping and praying to find some insight and help in weither this would be a good thing for our family or not.

There have been literally hundreds of posts here in the last year asking this same question. You will get some answers here, but you will get much more information if you will learn to use the "search" feature above.

Use "advanced", and select Hawaii as the forum. Then do some searches using terms like:
Oahu schools
public schools
private schools
etc.

You can learn about neighborhoods and zip codes, by learning to use Google Maps, here:

Google Maps

Put in Oahu, and when you get there, put in a zip code. Zoom in and out to look at neighborhoods, or put their names in after the Oahu search.

Hank

[HankDfrmSD]

Originally Posted by MrsADaniel

I have looked in to the ratings of the local public schools, but that doesn't tell a person that much about the location. How would I find out the zip code area name? For example Liholiho Elementary was in the zip code of 96816, but does anyone know if there is a way to find specific housing in that school area because there were many other schools in the same zip code?

Here is a google map that I got by putting the zip code 96816 in as a map search, and then putting

school

in the search box:

school - Google Maps

As you can see, the area is Kaimuki, on of the oldest residential suburbs around Honolulu.

[MrsADaniel]

Thank you for the information. I will continue my search with this. Again, thank you!

[hotzcatz]

I doubt you'd be able to move from the midwest to Honolulu and manage to find a good living location over the internet. Send someone over for a visit first or send someone over several weeks in advance to check everything out. A short term rental might be a way to get moved over and check things out without having to decide on a specific long term place to be.

Ah, generally one doesn't use the term "in the states" to refer to the mainland as opposed to Hawaii. Hawaii IS a state even though a lot of folks seem to forget it all the time. Just ask a mainland business to mail something to Hawaii and they act like we are on another planet. It can be a bit annoying at times.

If you want your children to have a good education, then take the matter into your own hands and teach them what you want them to know. Read books to them, have them read to you, have them write essays, whatever you think they need to know. Relying on a school to teach them what they need to know isn't going to give your child that good of an education. Have them help you balance the checkbook, set up a small bank account for them, teach them about interest rates and doing taxes. Have them make out a menu and learn how to cook, clean and everything else they need to know to live a full and competent life. School will not teach them those things, it's up to you.

The houses will be much smaller than you are used to, the streets will be winding and with names you will have a hard time pronouncing at the beginning. There will be all sorts of people with all sorts of new and interesting customs. You won't see any billboards. Nor will you see snow. But the folks are good folks and ask your neighbors for advice.

Most of the island of Oahu is covered by the city of Honolulu. The Bus is a pretty good public transport system and you'll probably only need one car so that will be a savings there.