Best PlacesHonaunau, HI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Honaunau, 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.
Honaunau ranks 26,608th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Honaunau
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.
Honaunau's strengths and weaknesses
Where Honaunau ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 95% of towns
- QuietBetter than 92% of towns
- TransitBetter than 92% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 90% of towns
Where Honaunau ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Short commute37.0 minutes each way, better than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Honaunau
A household needs to earn about $114,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Honaunau home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $110,417; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Honaunau's effective rate of 0.30%, 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 Honaunau
Honaunau runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Honaunau.
Who works in Honaunau, and how
Work in Honaunau centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Honaunau
The coast is about 2 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Honaunau, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Honaunau, month by month
Honaunau sees roughly 125 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 Honaunau
The nearest airport, Hilo International, is about 13 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kahului, about 109 miles away.
The best schools in and around Honaunau
Schools across Honaunau average a D+, better than 13% 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 Honaunau school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Honaunau 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 Honaunau against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Honaunau
Is Honaunau a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Honaunau ranks 26,608th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low property taxes, and quiet, and lowest on distance from a big city 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 Honaunau expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $467,100. The overall cost of living runs about 58% above the national average. Set against a $110,417 median income, cost of living beats 25% of towns.
Is Honaunau safe?
Honaunau is safer than 33% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $419 per resident a year.
Compare Honaunau with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Honaunau. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Honaunau 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.
Honaunau detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Honaunau: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Honaunau: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Honaunau: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Honaunau: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Honaunau 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.