Housing Search

We want to buy a house here in the US, and Hawaiian real estate seemed like a good risk. (Picture is our rental condo.) But have to admit we haven't been too thrilled with much of what we've seen. It's small and expensive. Lots of self-storage units exist here, and some of them look better than the housing!

Today I saw an ad for a single family in Honolulu, not far from Waikiki for a too-good-to-be-true price. So I had to go see it. After sitting in traffic for 40 minutes (traffic here is always terrific; not exactly the tropical touristy image I had of Hawaii before I actually came here...), I passed the freeway exit I really needed, took the next one, and figured out how to get to the house.

As I drove around, I'd see a nice contemporary home sitting in the midst of shacks, and sure enough, the too-good-to-be-true house was in the same situation. I turned right at the street sign into what looked like an alley in some third world city. "This can't be it," I thought. My map-reading skills must have betrayed me. One one side were shacks; on the other was a decrepit former motel turned into tiny apartments with rusty railings and laundry hanging outside. Older rusting cars were everywhere.

But nope, my map-reading skills were still intact. The next turn I needed was up on the right, and at the end of that short alley was this small neighborhood of larger, fancy new homes surrounded by a tall white fence, but smack in the middle of poverty. I don't know that I'd feel unsafe so much as guilty living in a brand new home in this environment. I'd feel like I'd have to open my house to all my neighbors to share the air conditioning, washer / dryer, etc. I felt guilty enough just driving our brand new little Honda in there.

Speaking of A/C, it's not necessarily the norm here. Even some very nice upscale housing have split A/C units instead of central air. Electricity is expensive, and the tropical breezes generally do a good job of keeping things cool, especially in the evening, night and early morning.

But I was glad that I had gone to see it for myself. It makes some of the other things we've seen look more appealing!