Best PlacesPauwela, HI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pauwela, 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.
Pauwela ranks 25,853rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Pauwela
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.
Pauwela's strengths and weaknesses
Where Pauwela ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 99% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 98% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 159 pleasant days a year, better than 95% of towns
- Household income$101,864 median, better than 86% of towns
Where Pauwela ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 5% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Pauwela
A household needs to earn about $232,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pauwela home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $101,864, 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 Pauwela's effective rate of 0.19%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Pauwela
Pauwela runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Pauwela.
Who works in Pauwela, and how
Work in Pauwela centers on hospitality & food and real estate. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 2%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Pauwela
The coast is about 3 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Pauwela, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Pauwela, month by month
Pauwela sees roughly 159 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 Pauwela
Kahului sits about 9 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 Pauwela
Schools across Pauwela average a C, better than 37% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Haiku Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Samuel Enoka Kalama Intermediate SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- King Kekaulike High SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pauwela school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pauwela 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 Pauwela against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pauwela
Is Pauwela a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pauwela ranks 25,853rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, a strong job market, and low property taxes, and lowest on education levels 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 Pauwela expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $967,700. The overall cost of living runs about 66% above the national average. Set against a $101,864 median income, cost of living beats 12% of towns.
Is Pauwela safe?
Pauwela is safer than 51% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $336 per resident a year.
Compare Pauwela with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pauwela. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pauwela 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.
Pauwela detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pauwela: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pauwela: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pauwela: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pauwela: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pauwela 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.