Best PlacesOnomea, HI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Onomea, 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.
Onomea ranks 14,055th 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 Onomea
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.
Onomea's strengths and weaknesses
Where Onomea ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 167 pleasant days a year, better than 96% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 95% of towns
- Household income$120,718 median, better than 93% of towns
- QuietBetter than 90% of towns
Where Onomea ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 9% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Onomea
A household needs to earn about $199,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Onomea home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $120,718, 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 Onomea'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 Onomea
Onomea runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Onomea.
Who works in Onomea, and how
Work in Onomea centers on public administration and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 65%
- Work from home 30%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Onomea
The coast is about 8 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Onomea, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Onomea, month by month
Onomea sees roughly 167 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 Onomea
The nearest airport, Hilo International, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kahului, about 111 miles away.
The best schools in and around Onomea
Schools across Onomea 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 Onomea school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Onomea 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 Onomea against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Onomea
Is Onomea a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Onomea ranks 14,055th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, the weather, and low property taxes, and lowest on distance from a big city and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Onomea expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $816,244. The overall cost of living runs about 40% above the national average. Set against a $120,718 median income, cost of living beats 54% of towns.
Is Onomea safe?
Onomea is safer than 39% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $391 per resident a year.
Compare Onomea with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Onomea. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Onomea 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.
Onomea detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Onomea: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Onomea: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Onomea: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Onomea: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Onomea 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.