Best PlacesWaimea Kauai, HI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Waimea Kauai, 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.
Waimea Kauai ranks 13,458th 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 Waimea Kauai
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.
Waimea Kauai's strengths and weaknesses
Where Waimea Kauai ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 93% of towns
- BikingBetter than 89% of towns
Where Waimea Kauai ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 10% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 10% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Waimea Kauai
A household needs to earn about $181,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Waimea Kauai home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $94,458, 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 Waimea Kauai's effective rate of 0.14%, 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 Waimea Kauai
Waimea Kauai runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Waimea Kauai.
Who works in Waimea Kauai, and how
Work in Waimea Kauai centers on hospitality & food and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Waimea Kauai
Waimea Kauai has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of towns. The coast is about 0 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Waimea Kauai and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Waimea Kauai, month by month
Waimea Kauai sees roughly 133 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 81, with lows near 65. The comfortable stretch runs December through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 81° | 73° | 65° |
| April | 83° | 75° | 67° |
| July | 88° | 80° | 72° |
| October | 87° | 79° | 71° |
Flying in and out of Waimea Kauai
The nearest airport, Lihue, is about 21 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Daniel K Inouye International, about 121 miles away.
The best schools in and around Waimea Kauai
Schools across Waimea Kauai average a D+, better than 10% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Kekaha Elementary SchoolD · 17% proficient
Top middle schools
- Waimea Canyon Middle SchoolD− · 19% proficient
Top high schools
- Waimea High SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Waimea Kauai school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Waimea Kauai 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 Waimea Kauai against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Waimea Kauai
Is Waimea Kauai a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Waimea Kauai ranks 13,458th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low property taxes, and walkability, and lowest on an overheated housing market and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Waimea Kauai expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $762,144. The overall cost of living runs about 24% above the national average. Set against a $94,458 median income, cost of living beats 35% of towns.
Is Waimea Kauai safe?
Waimea Kauai is safer than 33% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $452 per resident a year.
Compare Waimea Kauai with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Waimea Kauai. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Waimea Kauai 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.
Waimea Kauai detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Waimea Kauai: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Waimea Kauai: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Waimea Kauai: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Waimea Kauai: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Waimea Kauai 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.