It is no longer possible for most Hawaiians to achieve their goals of living comfortably, due to rising costs of owning and renting homes. However, unlike city dwellers priced out to the suburbs, “Native Hawaiians aren’t just leaving their homes. They’re leaving their homeland as rampant development, an influx of mainlanders moving to the State, and growing tourism price’s them out of the islands. Some families are even torn apart by the decision to move.” Yamaguchi, Breen.
Accordingly, Honolulu is ranked in the top three most expensive cities in the U.S. according to the study done by Missouri Economic Research and Information Center in 2019. Hawaii has the highest cost of living in the nation with an index of 191.8. The average national index is 100, and Hawaii is far above this. The closest second is the District of Columbia at an index of 159. According to the U.S. Census, Honolulu’s median household income was around $80,000 in 2019. Subjective or not, that’s a pretty wide delta and it shows that many Honolulu residents aren’t living very comfortably. To survive in Hawaii, a single person may need a salary of $50,000 to $60,000 while a family may require $80,000 to $100,000. “The average sale price of a home in Hawaii went up by two percent to $970,000 in March 2023, and the price of a condo went up by six percent to $585,000. In March 2023, home sales in Hawaii State were down thirty seven percent and condo sales were down thirty four percent from the same time last year. In March 2023, the number of days on the market for homes has gone up by two hundred and four percent, to fifty one, and the number of days on the market for condos has gone up by one hundred fifty seven percent, to thirty six.” ?
Therefore, each year fifteen thousand Native Hawaiians leave the state for the mainland, which now boasts a larger Hawaiian population than Hawaii itself. Fifty five percent of Native Hawaiians live outside of Hawaii which is more than half of all Hawaiians. ‘By going to the mainland, we can put our kids in a home that we can call ours,’ said Richard Pelen, in? In order for the majority of Native Hawaiians to live comfortably they needed to move away from the islands to make a living. Outside of Native Hawaiians moving out of Hawaii, they need to move for better opportunities for themselves and to raise families. “I think the biggest thing that I don’t want my son to lose … (is) Hawaiian values, how to speak Olelo Hawaii (the state’s indigenous language), how to understand Olelo Hawaii, learn how to treat each other with that aloha,” said Richard Pelen, referencing a belief in compassion, harmony, and love. “They instill a lot of good qualities in my son that represent who the Hawaiian people are, what we’re about.”
In addition, the housing situation in 1970 had gone from bad to worse. Half a century later, with interest rates back up above seven percent, the average single-family home on Oahu selling for over one million and nearly forty percent of residents in the state saddled with “high burden” housing costs, it’s easy to see that any solutions found in the early 1970s didn’t solve the problem for long. Hawaii has the lowest property taxes in the nation, which makes the state enticing to property investors who can often outbid Native local Hawaiians. But the rates of sheltered and unsheltered individuals across the counties varied greatly. “Native Hawaiian Impact: A disproportionate twenty eight percent of the homeless population in Hawaii were identified as Native Hawaiians.”
By taking the time to read and learn more about this issue you can become an individual who is aware of the changes in Housing prices, pricing out Native Hawaiians out of their homeland. When becoming aware of this issue you can take steps to improve prices and lower costs. More than half of Native Hawaiians live outside of the Hawaiian island, which seems odd. Hawaiians have been in Hawaii first and belong in their homelands. For Native Hawaiians the way for them to live comfortably is to leave Hawaii, so they can raise families and to “actually work to live instead of living to work is amazing.” Making sacrifices to leave their home, just to give their families better lives.
