New dashboard highlights areas of Hawaiʻi housing crisis

UH News, September 26, 2023

The high cost of housing in Hawaiʻi imposes significant financial and emotional burdens on residents, making it a pressing concern across the islands. Comprehensive data and analysis serve as critical tools to inform discussions and policy decisions.

The University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization (UHERO) launched a publicly available, interactive housing data dashboard on September 26, that allows users to customize their data reports based on location, with information such as property and rental market, demographics, zoning and housing stock. UHERO designed the dashboard to inform discussions on the way forward for housing in Hawaiʻi.

The recent Maui wildfires, which destroyed approximately 3% of Maui’s housing stock, have heightened the housing crisis. To address this, UHERO has a special section in the dashboard with housing data for the area in Lahaina that was directly affected. To access that section, visit the housing dashboard homepage, click on “get started here” and select the Lahaina fire affected area link on the right side of the page.

Hawaiʻi Housing Factbook

The housing data dashboard complements the UHERO Hawaiʻi Housing Factbook. The first edition of the Factbook, released in June, offers a comprehensive repository of housing market statistics and analysis. UHERO reports housing data for the state, counties and 63 zip codes. Data topics include demographics, property and rental markets, zoning, housing stock and housing production. The Factbook will be updated annually.

UHERO is housed in UH Mānoa’s College of Social Sciences.