Hawaii rental market data

Across four measured metros, median Zillow market-rent growth was 10.9% and median home-value growth was 0.7%. The supplied difference between those medians is 10.2 percentage points. That is a wide income-versus-entry-cost divergence, but it is a distribution across covered metros rather than a result for every Hawaii property.

The separation appears in each highlighted market. Kapaa recorded 17.2% rent growth against 1.2% price growth, Hilo recorded 16.6% against 0.5%, and Urban Honolulu recorded 5.2% against 1.0%. The pattern supports screening rent resets separately from appreciation assumptions; it does not establish that a specific unit can capture the published market-rent increase.

Apartment List's direct Hawaii recent-lease rent increased from $2,332 to $2,402, or 3.0%. That growth rate was 4.1 percentage points above the supplied national rate of negative 1.1%. This is a counter-signal to the much faster Zillow market-rent growth: both series are positive for Hawaii, but they measure different rental activity and should not be blended.

The accompanying Vacancy Index and time-on-market figures are national, not Hawaii figures. National vacancy was 7.2% versus 7.1% a year earlier, while national rental time on market increased from 28 to 30 days. Those separate measures cannot establish Hawaii's vacancy rate, leasing speed or the operating occupancy of a target property.

Across four measured metros, gross yield has a 5.1% median and a 4.3% to 5.9% 10th-to-90th-percentile range. Entry costs remain high relative to income: the median price-to-income ratio is 9.2, with a measured range of 7.6 to 10.4. The median rent-to-income ratio is 43.6%, and its measured range reaches from 37.0% to 57.1%.

Kapaa illustrates the trade-off most sharply among the highlighted markets, with a 6.0% gross yield and a 62.7% rent-to-income ratio. Hilo pairs a similar 5.9% gross yield with a lower 43.2% ratio. Across the four metros, market rent is a median 1.36 times the applicable two-bedroom Fair Market Rent. These ratios help test entry price and rent assumptions, but gross yield excludes expenses and the income ratios do not measure a specific tenant's payment performance.

Across four measured metros, median months of supply is 6.4 and median days on market is 96.5. The respective 10th-to-90th-percentile ranges are 5.8 to 10.6 months and 82.2 to 111.5 days. A median 18.4% of listings had price drops, while the median sale-to-list ratio was 96.7%. Together, these measures argue for explicit resale-time and pricing sensitivity rather than an assumption of quick exit.

The local indicators do not move in a single order. Kahului has 12.3 months of supply but 92 days on market, while Kapaa has 5.6 months of supply and a longer 116 days on market; Hilo records 6.2 months and 101 days. Permitting also differs: Hilo reports 1,270 units and 6.2 per 1,000 residents, Kahului 496 and 3.0, and Kapaa 132 and 1.8. Permit counts do not establish completions, and the mixed inventory and marketing-time rankings prevent a one-metric liquidity conclusion.

Employment growth is positive but modest across the four measured metros. The median is 0.6%, with a 0.2% to 1.0% 10th-to-90th-percentile range. Among the highlighted markets, Kahului records 1.2% job growth, Kapaa 0.7% and Hilo 0.6%.

Household movement points the other way. Across four covered counties, 27,856 people moved in and 30,453 moved out, producing net migration of negative 2,597, or negative 1.8 per 1,000 residents. Job growth therefore does not by itself validate broad rental-demand growth. The packet also lacks the property-level tenant, submarket and unit-type evidence needed to connect these aggregate measures to occupancy.

Inland flood is the mutually exclusive leading-hazard label for all five measured counties. County FEMA loss ratios have a 0.32% median and a 0.31% to 0.69% 10th-to-90th-percentile range. Hawaii County is above that range at 0.90%, compared with 0.38% in Maui County and 0.32% in Kauai County.

Measured effective property-tax rates are narrower, with a 0.25% median and a 0.18% to 0.28% 10th-to-90th-percentile range across four counties. The county hazard label and loss ratio are screening inputs only: they do not show that a parcel is exposed to inland flood, what insurance will cost, or whether a building has relevant mitigation.