Best PlacesPaia, HI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Paia, 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.
Paia ranks 27,233rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Paia
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.
Paia's strengths and weaknesses
Where Paia ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 97% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 150 pleasant days a year, better than 93% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 91% of towns
- BikingBetter than 88% of towns
Where Paia ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Paia
A household needs to earn about $238,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Paia home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $97,614, 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 Paia's effective rate of 0.25%, 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 Paia
Paia runs younger 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 Paia.
Who works in Paia, and how
Work in Paia centers on hospitality & food and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Paia
Paia has more restaurants and bars per resident than 93% of towns. The coast is about 1 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Paia and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Paia, month by month
Paia sees roughly 150 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 83, with lows near 63. The comfortable stretch runs December through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 83° | 73° | 63° |
| April | 85° | 75° | 66° |
| July | 90° | 80° | 71° |
| October | 90° | 79° | 69° |
Flying in and out of Paia
Kahului sits about 4 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.4 million passengers in 2025, with 32 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Paia
Schools across Paia average a C−, better than 26% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Haiku Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Kahului Elementary SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- Paia Elementary SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Maui Waena Intermediate SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Samuel Enoka Kalama Intermediate SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Maui High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
- King Kekaulike High SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Paia school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Paia 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 Paia against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Paia
Is Paia a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Paia ranks 27,233rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low property taxes, and the weather, and lowest on an overheated housing market and the cost of living against local pay. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Paia expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $985,358. The overall cost of living runs about 90% above the national average. Set against a $97,614 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Paia safe?
Paia is safer than 23% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $491 per resident a year.
Compare Paia with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Paia. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Paia 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.
Paia detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Paia: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Paia: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Paia: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Paia: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Paia 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.