Best Places96701, HI Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 96701, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

96701 ranks 3,304th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.

#3,304
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in 96701

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 96701 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

96701's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Clean air
Top 3%Transit
Top 5%Low property taxes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 96701 with other zip codes.

Where 96701 ranks high

  • Air qualityBetter than 98% of zip codes
  • TransitBetter than 98% of zip codes
  • Low property taxBetter than 96% of zip codes
  • Nice weatherabout 160 pleasant days a year, better than 92% of zip codes
  • Household income$122,253 median, better than 90% of zip codes

Where 96701 ranks low

  • QuietBetter than only 6% of zip codes
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of zip codes
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of zip codes
  • Cheap childcare$1,434 a month, better than only 9% of zip codes
  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 12% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 96701

A household needs to earn about $226,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 96701 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $122,253, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$226,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$5,277
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $930,227 home
Median rent
$2,267
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$4,743
Property tax$224
Homeowners insurance$310

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses 96701's effective rate of 0.29%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in 96701

96701 runs older than the country.

Median age
48
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
27%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1815%
18 to 3420%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6418%
65 and older27%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 96701.


Who works in 96701, and how

Work in 96701 centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
10%
below the national average
Unemployment
2.6%
below the national average
Job growth
−0.7%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social12%
Public administration12%
Education11%
Retail trade10%
Transportation & warehousing7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 83%
  • Work from home 10%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 7%

Life in 96701

96701 has more restaurants and bars per resident than 74% of zip codes. The coast is about 7 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of 96701 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
242
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 56.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 74% of zip codes
Coffee shops
37
about 8.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 81% of zip codes
Parkland
112 acres
about 2.6 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 64% of zip codes
To the coast
7 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 96701, month by month

96701 sees roughly 160 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 82, with lows near 67. The comfortable stretch runs December through March.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January82°75°67°
April84°77°70°
July89°81°75°
October88°80°73°

Flying in and out of 96701

Daniel K Inouye International sits about 5 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 10.5 million passengers in 2025, with 65 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
HNL
Daniel K Inouye International, about 5 miles
Airport size
Large hub
30th-busiest in the US, 65 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 96701

Schools across 96701 average a B−, better than 54% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 96701 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


96701 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 96701 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Who 96701 suits

Families

Schools land around the 54th percentile and crime safety beats 82%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 10% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 92% of zip codes and health care access beats 61%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in 96701

Is 96701 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 96701 ranks 3,304th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on clean air, transit, and low property taxes, and lowest on noise and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 96701 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $930,227. The overall cost of living runs about 61% above the national average. Set against a $122,253 median income, cost of living beats 33% of zip codes.

Is 96701 safe?

Yes, 96701 is safer than 82% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $264 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in 96701?

July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 82 with lows near 67. That works out to about 160 pleasant days a year, more than 92% of zip codes.

Is 96701 good for families?

Schools beat 54% of zip codes, crime safety beats 82%, and childcare runs $1,434 a month.


Compare 96701 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 96701. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 96701 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

96701 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 96701: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 96701: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 96701: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 96701: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

96701 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.