Best PlacesEleele, HI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Eleele, 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.
Eleele ranks 4,980th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Eleele
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.
Eleele's strengths and weaknesses
Where Eleele ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 97% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 95% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 93% of towns
- Household income$118,348 median, better than 93% of towns
Where Eleele ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 10% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 16% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Eleele
A household needs to earn about $189,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Eleele home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $118,348, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Eleele's effective rate of 0.25%, 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.
Who lives in Eleele
Eleele's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Eleele.
Who works in Eleele, and how
Work in Eleele centers on hospitality & food and public administration. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 97%
- Work from home 1%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Eleele
The coast is about 1 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Eleele, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Eleele, month by month
Eleele sees roughly 138 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 81, with lows near 65. The comfortable stretch runs December through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 81° | 73° | 65° |
| April | 83° | 75° | 67° |
| July | 88° | 80° | 72° |
| October | 87° | 79° | 71° |
Flying in and out of Eleele
The nearest airport, Lihue, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Daniel K Inouye International, about 114 miles away.
The best schools in and around Eleele
Schools across Eleele average a D+, better than 16% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Eleele Elementary SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Top middle schools
- Waimea Canyon Middle SchoolD− · 19% proficient
Top high schools
- Waimea High SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Eleele school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Eleele 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 Eleele against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Eleele
Is Eleele a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Eleele ranks 4,980th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low property taxes, and population health, and lowest on state finances and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Eleele expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $783,945. The overall cost of living runs about 32% above the national average. Set against a $118,348 median income, cost of living beats 57% of towns.
Is Eleele safe?
Yes, Eleele is safer than 73% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $268 per resident a year.
Compare Eleele with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Eleele. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Eleele 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.
Eleele detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Eleele: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Eleele: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Eleele: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Eleele: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Eleele detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.