Best PlacesHonokaa, HI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Honokaa, 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.
Honokaa ranks 32,551st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Honokaa
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.
Honokaa's strengths and weaknesses
Where Honokaa ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 93% of towns
- BikingBetter than 91% of towns
Where Honokaa ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 9% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Honokaa
A household needs to earn about $151,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Honokaa home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $84,234, 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 Honokaa's effective rate of 0.33%, 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 Honokaa
Honokaa runs older than the country, 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 Honokaa.
Who works in Honokaa, and how
Work in Honokaa centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Honokaa
The coast is about 12 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Honokaa, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Honokaa, month by month
Honokaa sees roughly 98 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 77 degrees. January highs sit near 71, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs March through January.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 71° | 55° | 40° |
| April | 71° | 57° | 44° |
| July | 77° | 62° | 47° |
| October | 74° | 59° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Honokaa
The nearest airport, Waimea-Kohala, is about 14 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kahului, about 85 miles away.
The best schools in and around Honokaa
Schools across Honokaa average a C−, better than 18% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Honokaa Elementary SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Waimea Elementary SchoolD · 19% proficient
Top high schools
- Honokaa High & Intermediate SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Honokaa school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Honokaa 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 Honokaa against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Honokaa
Is Honokaa a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Honokaa ranks 32,551st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, clean air, and transit, and lowest on state finances and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Honokaa expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $618,428. The overall cost of living runs about 37% above the national average. Set against a $84,234 median income, cost of living beats 11% of towns.
Is Honokaa safe?
Honokaa is safer than 30% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $442 per resident a year.
Compare Honokaa with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Honokaa. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Honokaa 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.
Honokaa detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Honokaa: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Honokaa: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Honokaa: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Honokaa: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Honokaa 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.