Housing Prices

Recent article from KITV.com: Oahu Home Median Price Drops

One factor to consider when deciding where to live - especially as a young adult just graduating from college - is the average home price in the area you hope to live. Housing on Oahu has always been significantly more expensive than housing on the mainland, and this is one of the reasons many young people from Hawai'i decide to stay on the mainland. The above article mentions that Oahu's median home price has dropped below $600,000 to $548,500 for March 2011. However, in January 2011, the median home price in the West was still significantly lower, at about $193,200, according to RealEstateABC.com (source: National Association of Realtors), and California's median home price was also significantly lower than Oahu's, at $239,000, according to the LA Times.

Of course, you would expect to pay a lot more to live in a place as nice as Hawai'i... But many young adults (and older adults, too, for that matter) just can't afford it.