Cost of Living

Kaiser rates are going up 25.9% ....

“local barriers to housing development have intensified....”

Value-to-income ratios above 3 suggest real or artificial limits on the ability of homebuilders to meet the demand for new housing....

...the city of Honolulu dumping nearly $10 million of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money into buying apartments over property value to remain eligible for the funds....

24 Percent of U.S. County Housing Markets Less Affordable Than Their Historic Norms in Q3 2016....

...the City failed to spend $26 million in the affordable housing fund and such failure may require the City to give back these funds to the Federal government....

"Last week we learned that the City failed to spend tens of millions of dollars in the affordable housing fund and we may now lose this money."

TOU rates are higher during the evening when the overall electricity demand is greatest....

If approved, a typical residential bill for 500 kilowatt hours on Hawaiʽi Island would increase by $9.31 a month to $171.16....

...229,000 people are living below the poverty line in Hawaii.  This is 16.8% of the population....

When New York City implemented tough rent control policies during the 1970s and early 1980s, over 300,000 apartments were abandoned over an 11-year period....

The 2016 Coldwell Banker Home Listing Report ....

In Honolulu, Air BnB lists 295 commercial BnB units ....

Percentage of population with a long commute, Hours worked, Percentage of income spent on rent....

But in rural Hawaii $100 is worth $101.70....

There is currently no one on the waiting list, which will reopen on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016....

...your purchasing power is among the worst in the country....

The most expensive nationwide is Honolulu, where coffee costs an average of $7.56....

Prices in urban Honolulu are 23.5% higher than average....

Between low wages and high net prices, no state can claim that the average four-year college is affordable for low-income students....

...An average household in Hawaii County spent an average of $51,700 in 2014....

...making the shipping more expensive and thereby directly adding to the cost of living....

A typical Maui household spent an average of $65,197 in 2014. About 72 percent of the total household spending went towards the three basic needs categories....

In Hawaii the two-bedroom housing wage is $34.22/hr ....

...ratios of pre-retirement income that seniors are replacing range from a high of 72.59% in Hawaii to a low of 48.22% in Massachusetts....

...For the sixth year in a row Hawaii was named the worst state to make a living for its 68.6 percent higher cost of living than the national average....

...compared to the national average cost of goods and services....

...Study Examining Senior Care Cost and Quality Reveals Best and Worst States to Age in....

House Democrats are here to cut off your ....

...Compared with 2004‐2005, Honolulu consumers spent more on housing in 2013‐2014, with the share of housing increasing from 31.7% to 43.2%....

...Child care for a 4-year-old costs an average of $776 each month....

“The main reason is a very cumbersome permitting process, in a way that prevents people from building housing quickly and at a low cost…."

...the average monthly rent for single-family homes in Honolulu was $2,691....

The poll results also show that Hawaiʻi residents are highly concerned about the state’s high cost of housing....

... the three-year cost of car ownership in Hawaii is $12,065 ....

...The nation’s least expensive markets for gas are Oklahoma ($1.42), Missouri ($1.46) and Kansas ($1.47)....

Friday, February 26th, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm....

That breakdown results in a paltry $186 of leftover income, or less than 7 percent of each paycheck — the only state in single digits....

Cong Perluisi stated there “. . . . are eight constructive steps the federal government could take,” including the need to “update the Existing Jones Act LNG and LPG Exemption in Puerto Rico” ....

Statewide, about 18.5% of two-adult couples with no children and 45.5% of two-adult couples with two children had incomes below the self-sufficiency standard....

Be sure to thank the frackers ....

...Murkowski (R-AK) introduced a bill that would exclude intra-state air transportation within the U.S. Territory of American Samoa from federal aviation cabotage....

Our rent vs. buy metric is especially tight for young prospective buyers....

In Hawaii, single parents with two children pay about 64% of their income for infant child care, nearly the same as married couple families at the poverty line with two children....

...our monthly premium is going up over $200 – an increase of 34%. To be able to afford health insurance, we are downgrading our health care plan....

Big Island customers could save as much as $113 million on the existing HELCO rate base and up to $234 million including investments to modernize the grid over a four-year period....

At a time of dwindling inventory and rising prices, housing affordability has once again become a hot topic in Hawaii....

The “Residential Home Sales in Hawaii” report summarizes home sale activities in Hawaii recorded for the period from January 2008 to September 2015....