Cost of Living

... it’s technically easier to build a house for Oprah than it is to build houses for average families ....

... six major layers of housing regulation: the state Land Use Commission, county plans, community plans, county zoning, special management area permitting and the historic districts ....

... The Honolulu City Council approved Ordinance 21-7, hiking fares ....

... The U.S. Census Bureau overestimated Hawaii’s 2020 population by 6.79%, or 98,812 people, according to an internal review released this month of the 2020 census. ...

... there are a lot of different taxes that go into the price at the pump ....

... A popular 2010 study claiming minimum-wage hikes do not cause ‘economic shocks’ has just been reanalyzed and overturned ....

... We ranked 200 cities based on 16 key indicators of renovation pricy-ness ....

... Adjusted for cost of living, first place Tacoma, WA has starting salaries three times higher than Honolulu and Pearl City ....

... Inflation in the Islands hit 7.5% in March ....

... $1 million will last in savings: 10 years, 10 months, 11 days ....

... Hawaii’s cost of living is high—93% greater than the national average and the highest in the country in 2021—and personal income on the island state is only slightly higher than the national average ....

... Here’s How Rich Hawaii Residents Are Compared to the Nation ....

... Housing bills that will be sent to the Governor for his signature include ....

... Gen-Xers and millennials are “the most viscerally affected by the cost of housing and forced to leave the state to pursue a life elsewhere” ....

... Oahu tightened the screws in 2019. Yet, housing prices still went up. Even when vacation rental usage declined during the lockdowns, it didn’t result in a significant drop in housing costs....

... In Hawaii, a family of four can expect to spend an average of $14,042 on food in 2022, the highest amount among states ....

... inflation has not been over 7.5% since 1991 ....

... On Maui, it's 90% ....

... FDIC-supervised institutions’ prices equal or surpass payday lenders’ in Hawaii ....

... Delays, zoning rules and a long pathway to approval make homebuilding difficult and expensive ....

... This amount reflects both housing and utilities costs for a modest two-bedroom rental ....

... One of the factors that may explain Hawaii’s high home prices are government regulations that limit the ability of the housing market to create the units necessary to meet demand ....

... Research showing the need to liberalize Hawaii’s land-use and zoning laws is out there for all to see, and more is forthcoming ....

... Kauaʻi’s power generation mix for 2021 included 45% solar, 14% hydro and 11% biomass ....

... Urban Honolulu is #2 in USA ....

... When the demand far outweighs the available properties in a given area, costs get artificially driven up ....

... when it comes to vacant homes, Hawaii is just average.  This demonstrates that home vacancy rates do not correspond with housing costs ....

... Including the federal tax, taxes account for 13.8% of the average price of a gallon of gas in the state ....

... in Hawaii 9.6% of mortgage holders are behind on their payments ....

... people on the lower end of the income spectrum spend comparatively more of their hard-earned dollars on general excise tax ....

... $3.92 for a Tall Latte ....

... Hawaii is home to some 70,410 renters who owe their landlords rent, and an estimated 19.1% of them reported being either somewhat likely or very likely to face eviction in the coming months - the fourth smallest share among states ....

... Top 5: Hawaii, Mississippi, Kentucky, Maine, Kansas.   High income Hawaii is more costly--as a proportion of income--than the other four which are low income states ....

... In terms of dollar figures, Hawaii spent the last two years in a class by itself. The state tallied the steepest increases in the country across every category and every time period throughout the entirety of the pandemic. ....

... first step toward identifying the regulatory barriers that restrain homebuilding in Hawaii and has led to the state’s notoriously high cost of housing ....

... the ALOHA homes program as currently envisioned in this bill would result in an expensive, nonsustainable government project that would fail to effectively assist those it is intended to help ....

... Expensive coastal markets in California and Hawaii saw home value growth wallop local median incomes by the largest amounts ....

... Hawaii took home the top spot for state with the highest median household net worth in 2019 ....

... In California and Hawaii, the reason for their relatively few single-person residences could be economics. Both have some of the most expensive housing costs in the nation ....

... Hawaii had robust housing construction up until about 1972 or 1973, but then it collapsed and it has never recovered ....

... how Tokyo’s deregulation of its housing market resulted in more housing availability and affordable housing prices ....

... Hawaii gasoline prices are increasing more slowly than other states .... 

... Changing economic conditions are making it more difficult for people to afford household expenses ....

... HB2510 HD1 proposes increasing Hawaii’s mandatory minimum wage to $18 an hour by 2030, followed by a variable annual increase in the minimum wage thereafter ....

... for years, Hawaii has been getting about one-third of its crude oil from Russia ....

... The gasoline tax in 2035 will be $33.16 a barrel ....

... the cost of living in Hawaii ranks as the highest among states ....

... minimum wage hikes kill jobs for teens, young adults, and the less educated ....

... in Hawaii the increase in the cost for assisted living facility care surpassed the national trend while the increase in costs for home care services was less than what was seen nationally ....