How Can You Afford To Live In Hawaii?

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How Can You Afford To Live In Hawaii? was Originally Posted on March 24, 2013 by

People used to tell me that I could not afford to live in Hawaii, so why move there? Here is what I told them.

When I first started thinking about moving here, I decided to see just how expensive it was. Without going into too many boring details, I found that I would actually spend less living here that in “cheap” Georgia. I had a large house back there with a small yard, and here would have a smaller house with a lot of land. The land is actually almost 9 acres and a view of the Pacific.

Although Hawaii has THE most (or second most) expensive electric costs, we may not have to use much electric. If you divide the total bill, you find we pay 45 cents per kilowatt hour! Still, most of us don’t use heating or cooling so my monthly bill is about $200 a month compared to $250 or more back in Georgia. Changing to solar or on-demand would reduce costs even more.

My water cost is insanely small and we don’t have a sewage cost. I might pay $30 every 2 months. We don’t really process the water much as we have no industry to contaminate it.

We are a rural island and don’t have many street lights or stop lights. One other reason is that lights pointing upwards to the sky interfere with the observatories up on Mauna Kea. Thus we carefully try not to have much light pollution.

While some places (Subway) charge more for food, you can still get some discounts if you are a “local”. Many chain stores charge mainland prices for many items.

We pay a high rate for gasoline, yet many of us try to consolidate trips and drive with conservation in mind.

One of the big savings is property tax. I hear these people tell me their taxes are like $4,000 a year and here I’m paying perhaps $600 for my 9 acres and house.

So while we do pay more for some items, it is not as bad as others think it is.

I can grow about any kind of fruit or vegetables I want. The weather and temperatures are well within comfort level and because of our remote location, I think we swap and barter a bit more than other places.

So, yes, many of us CAN afford to live here.