Against all odds, Hawaii’s children are returning

Hawaii is the most expensive state in the country. Why are young people moving back?

by Jeremy Yurow, Court House News, June 13, 2025

HONOLULU (CN) — Casey Yasuda remembers the moment she realized she might never come home to Hawaii.

She was 22, with a brand-new degree from the Art Institute of Chicago and a high-school diploma from Hawaii’s prestigious Kamehameha Schools. But as she looked at apartment listings in her hometown of Ewa on the island of Oahu, the numbers told a discouraging story: Even with her skills and education, Hawaii remained financially out of reach.

"We are told that there will be better educational opportunities outside of Hawaii, to get off this rock in the middle of the ocean," Yasuda said on a recent Thursday as she waited to meet her family for lunch in downtown Honolulu’s Waterfront Plaza.

And yet, the distance had only sharpened Yasuda's longing for home — as well as her awareness of what was at stake. One way or another, she was determined to return to the islands where she grew up.

Hawaii consistently ranks as the most expensive state in the country, with a median home price of nearly $850,000 at last estimate. That’s the type of home price normally seen in global cities, not across entire states.

So severe is Hawaii’s housing crisis that in 2023, Governor Josh Green, a Democrat, began issuing emergency declarations aimed at fast-tracking affordable housing projects. The housing crunch comes on top of high prices for other essentials like groceries and gas, which must be transported thousands of miles across the Pacific.

But while the Aloha State’s high costs have long pushed out even native Hawaiians, that trend may be reversing. Research this year from the University of Hawaii showed that in 2023, nearly twice as many Hawaii-born residents returned home compared to the number that left.

That year, around 12,100 Hawaii-born people moved back to the state, compared to just 6,400 who moved out.

It was the first time in almost a decade that in-migration meaningfully outpaced out-migration — and the shift was largely driven by young people. The only other exception was in 2021, when pandemic disruptions saw many Hawaii-born residents return to stay with family.

Among those who have recently come home is 29-year-old Yasuda, who moved back in 2021. 

While still in California, Yasuda found a job with Silk and Sonder, a self-care app startup based in San Francisco. The remote work and mainland salary helped make her homecoming possible.

Now working as a marketing manager, Yasuda has done what many locals thought impossible: She's settled back in Hawaii. 

The decision to move back wasn’t just personal, she said — it was political.

"I'm Native Hawaiian, and I think there's a stat that says more than 50% of Native Hawaiians don't live in Hawaii anymore," Yasuda said. "When I realized I had the means to come back and be here for my community, I thought, why not?"

Yasuda’s journey home represents a surprising reversal of years of brain drain from the islands.

If the trend continues, it could have major if subtle implications in the state, helping preserve Hawaiian culture and keeping the Aloha State from becoming nothing more than a resort for vacationers and retirees.

Yasuda would like to see other Hawaii-born people follow in her path — that is, if they’re also homesick and can afford it.

"I didn't grow up with a lot of means, but now that I'm in a situation where I can give back to my community, I think that's really important," she said. "If people want to come back and they're willing to make it work, then I think they should.”

JoonYup Park, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UHERO), authored the study on Hawaii migration trends. 

In that study and in other research, he’s explored what’s drawing people back to Hawaii — and what’s pushing them out.

Top among the reasons people are leaving: high housing prices. Fewer than one in four households in the state can afford mortgage payments for a single-family home, according to UHERO’s 2025 “Hawai’i Housing Factbook.” 

Meanwhile, two years after Governor Green’s emergency housing measures, new affordable housing has yet to materialize as planned. The governor’s efforts are being challenged in court by conservationists and native Hawaiians, who argue Green is skirting environmental rules to serve real-estate developers.

“Hawai’i remains in a severe housing crisis,” researchers write in their introduction to the factbook. “Housing production remains slow, with county and state regulatory barriers posing a major obstacle to new construction."

Still, it isn’t all bad news. As Park’s research shows, many Hawaii-born people are finding ways to return to the state. The 25- to 44-year-old demographic is driving the trend.

"A common misperception is that younger generations are leaving Hawaii in search of better job opportunities and education, while older, retired individuals move in for the climate, culture and amenities," Park writes in his study, from April. 

In fact, “this younger generation is driving the state's general trend of positive net migration,” he continues. “While there is also a notable in-migration of individuals aged 65 and older, the idea that young adults are leaving en masse is not fully supported by the data."

Yasuda agrees that housing prices are pushing many state-born residents out. But she thinks the idea that people can’t make a living here — a notion reinforced by local leaders — has created a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

"That could also be a failure on the part of our local community,” she said in an interview. "It's kind of dangerous to tell people, ‘You could get better opportunities if you just move,’ instead of us trying to create opportunities here."

"I'd like to see Hawaiians in Hawaii,” she said. “It's really sad to see my community getting priced out.”

But Yasuda is not the only young person finding a way to return to the Aloha State. 

Take Malia Thompson, a 31-year-old registered nurse from Kailua.

For those born in Hawaii, Thompson’s early career trajectory might sound familiar. After graduating high school, she went to the mainland for education — specifically, to the University of California Merced. 

After earning her bachelor's degree, she came home for a gap year. Then she returned to the mainland once again, to study at the Denver College of Nursing in Colorado. 

"Being so limited for schools here, most people go away,” Thompson explained in an interview. “I think if people have the opportunity to have a decent job here, they'll come back. Or if they can work from home, for sure."

In Thompson’s case, it was a combination of pandemic-era disruptions and her mother's convincing that ultimately brought her back to the Aloha State. 

Coming home meant reconnecting with Kailua in unexpected ways. “You typically reconnect with your old friends from high school,” she explained. “It's interesting reconnecting with people that you weren't necessarily friends with but now have common interests with.”

Facilitating her return to Hawaii, Thompson acknowledges she had two critical advantages: inherited property and generational wealth.

Of those who can return, "a lot of people, I've noticed, have been pretty fortunate when it comes to generational wealth,” she said. “Like, they have grandparents who just passed away recently or moved into assisted living, so now they can move back home and live in that house.”

Still, now that she’s back, Thompson has no intentions of leaving. Though not yet a parent, she says she and partner can see the appeal of having children here. The state, she says, “is a great place to raise kids.” 

“I feel like kids get to still kind of be kids here,” Thompson said. “I know for us, a big thing is that eventually our kids can still ride their bike to school. I don't know if that's true on the mainland anymore."

Yasuda’s and Thompson’s stories capture how and why many Hawaii-born residents are choosing to return to the state.

Alec MacLeod’s situation shows an opposite but equally important trend. 

Hawaii is made up of islands — and it’s not uncommon for young people here to get island fever. After growing up in Hawaii, the now 28-year-old civil engineer currently lives in Cleveland, where he’s stationed with the U.S. Coast Guard. He says his reasons for leaving were more personal than practical.

"I kind of felt that I was in my comfort zone,” MacLeod said in a phone interview from his apartment in Cleveland. “I wanted to get out and try something new.”

MacLeod signed up for a six-year stint in the Coast Guard.

The time commitment comes with a clear endpoint: a planned return to Hawaii.

"One thing I miss is the sense of community,” he said of his time growing up in Kailua. “I love the fact that when you go to the grocery store, you might see someone you know, someone that you grew up with who you haven't seen in years.”

MacLeod's girlfriend lives in Cleveland but is also from Hawaii.

As he sees it, that’s more than just coincidence.

"People from Hawaii, they're just different. You can almost spot it out," he said. "I think it's easier to build connections. They're just raised differently and have different values."

If and when MacLeod is able to return to Hawaii, he acknowledges there will be challenges.

“Hawaii's really expensive,” he explained. “[I am] trying to save up now as much as I can, which is something that I know a lot of my friends that want to move back ... are doing. You know, a condo in Hawaii is probably equivalent to some really nice houses on the mainland."

Though their life experiences are unique, Yasuda, Thompson and MacLeod all agree on one thing: Most people want to come home to Hawaii — it's only a matter of whether they can.

There has to be something alluring about the state, Yasuda reasoned. Otherwise, people wouldn’t face the financial burdens to come back. And yet instead of leaving Hawaii-born residents feeling defeated, the difficulties put many into a mindset of “I'm willing to fight and do what I can to stay here,” she said. 

“I think that speaks to the culture that we have here," she added.

Yasuda acknowledges that returning to Hawaii can be challenging for many who have moved to the mainland. 

The solution, she thinks, lies in the spirit of aloha and community that has long defined this unique state.

"In a time that feels like so many people aren't united, I think the best thing that we can do is show up for each other,” she said. “Build each other up, tap into the networks that we have and create opportunities for other people."