Best PlacesHakalau, HI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hakalau, 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.
Hakalau ranks 37,346th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Hakalau
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.
Hakalau's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hakalau ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 96% of towns
- QuietBetter than 93% of towns
- TransitBetter than 92% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 87% of towns
Where Hakalau ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hakalau
A household needs to earn about $136,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hakalau home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $91,602, 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 Hakalau's effective rate of 0.27%, 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 Hakalau
Hakalau runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Hakalau.
Who works in Hakalau, and how
Work in Hakalau centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Hakalau
The coast is about 2 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Hakalau, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Hakalau, month by month
Hakalau sees roughly 117 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 82, with lows near 64. The comfortable stretch runs November through May.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 82° | 72° | 64° |
| April | 82° | 74° | 67° |
| July | 85° | 77° | 70° |
| October | 85° | 76° | 69° |
Flying in and out of Hakalau
The nearest airport, Hilo International, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kahului, about 108 miles away.
The best schools in and around Hakalau
Schools across Hakalau average a D, better than 7% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Prince Jonah Kalanianaole Elementary & Intermediate SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Top high schools
- Hilo High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hakalau school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hakalau 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 Hakalau against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Hakalau
Is Hakalau a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hakalau ranks 37,346th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low property taxes, and quiet, and lowest on disaster risk 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 Hakalau expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $560,952. The overall cost of living runs about 53% above the national average. Set against a $91,602 median income, cost of living beats 12% of towns.
Is Hakalau safe?
Hakalau is safer than 26% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $460 per resident a year.
Compare Hakalau with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hakalau. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hakalau 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.
Hakalau detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hakalau: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hakalau: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hakalau: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hakalau: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hakalau 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.