Best PlacesHonolulu, HI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Honolulu metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by spensersembrat, Unsplash License, via unsplash
Honolulu ranks 21st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 4 minutes away. Its strengths are transit and clean air. The cost shows up in the cost of living against local pay, noise, and civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in the Honolulu metro
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.
The best areas in Honolulu
The towns and districts of the Honolulu metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Pearl City
It is quieter, incomes run higher, and more residents vote.
Downtown Honolulu
More adults hold degrees, though fewer households have young kids.
Ewa Beach
Fewer homes sit empty, though commutes are longer.
Kailua & Waimanalo
Streets are more car-dependent and homes cost more.
Kaneohe
Transit reaches fewer jobs and biking is worse.
Aiea
Scores close to Kaneohe, except that crime runs higher here.
Waipahu & Kapolei
Scores close to Aiea, except that disaster risk is higher here.
Mililani, Waianae & Wahiawa
Heat risk is lower.
Honolulu shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 8% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Honolulu's strengths and weaknesses
Honolulu ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Transit is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Clean air and low property taxes follow.
The one real hole is the cost of living against local pay, near the bottom of the country. Noise and civic engagement also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Honolulu ranks high
- TransitBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 99% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Household income$115,885 median, better than 96% of metro areas
Where Honolulu ranks low
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 7% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Honolulu
A household needs to earn about $222,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Honolulu home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $115,885, 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 Honolulu'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 Honolulu
Honolulu'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 Honolulu.
Who works in Honolulu, and how
Work in Honolulu 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 78%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Honolulu
Honolulu has less parkland per resident than most metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. The coast is about 4 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Honolulu and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Honolulu growing, and who is moving in?
Honolulu has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Los Angeles, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Honolulu go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Honolulu, month by month
Honolulu sees roughly 146 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.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 82° | 75° | 67° |
| April | 84° | 77° | 70° |
| July | 89° | 81° | 75° |
| October | 88° | 80° | 73° |
Flying in and out of Honolulu
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.
The best schools in and around Honolulu
Schools across Honolulu average a B−, better than 50% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Momilani Elementary SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
- Lt Col Horrace Meek Hickam Elementary SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
- Hokulani Elementary SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
Top middle schools
- Kaimuki Middle SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Moanalua Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Major Sheldon Wheeler Middle SchoolA− · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- Henry J Kaiser High SchoolB+ · 54% proficient
- Mililani High SchoolB+ · 54% proficient
- Kalani High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Honolulu school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Honolulu 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 Honolulu against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Honolulu suits
Families
Schools land around the 50th percentile and crime safety beats 92%.
Retirees
The weather beats 85% of metro areas and health care access beats 61%.
Common questions about living in Honolulu
Is Honolulu a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Honolulu ranks 21st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on transit, clean air, and low property taxes, and lowest on the cost of living against local pay and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Honolulu expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $910,231. The overall cost of living runs about 73% above the national average. Set against a $115,885 median income, cost of living beats 1% of metro areas.
Is Honolulu safe?
Yes, Honolulu is safer than 92% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $258 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Honolulu?
July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 82 with lows near 67. That works out to about 146 pleasant days a year, more than 85% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Honolulu?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Pearl City, Downtown Honolulu, and Ewa Beach. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Honolulu good for families?
Schools beat 50% of metro areas, crime safety beats 92%, and childcare runs $1,434 a month.
Is Honolulu good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 1% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 44% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Honolulu with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Honolulu. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Honolulu 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.
Honolulu detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Honolulu: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Honolulu: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Honolulu: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Honolulu: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Honolulu 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.