Cost of Living & Housing in Hanapepe
Hanapepe's cost of living centers on Hawaii's own genuinely high statewide cost profile, a genuinely volatile thin housing market, and Kauai County's own comparatively low property-tax rate structure.
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Learn moreA genuinely volatile, thinly-traded housing market
Cited median home prices for Hanapepe ranged from approximately $617,000 to $949,950 across sources this pass reviewed -- a real, disclosed spread this record attributes to the town's genuinely small number of annual transactions, where a handful of sales can swing the reported median substantially (base record).
A ~0.17% effective property tax rate under Kauai County's low rate structure
Kauai County's FY2026-27 owner-occupied rate of $2.59 per $1,000 of assessed value, paired with a $220,000 home exemption, produces this record's own calculated effective rate of approximately 0.17% on a representative ~$638,000 home (base record).
Hawaii's 11% top income tax and uniform 4.5% General Excise Tax
Hawaii's real, current 2026 individual income tax tops out at an 11% marginal rate on income above $200,000 (single) / $400,000 (married filing jointly), and the state's General Excise Tax runs a uniform 4.5% combined rate statewide, including Kauai County (base record; see hawaii.js).
West-side cost tradeoffs: cheaper prices, greater distance from jobs
Hanapepe and neighboring Waimea run noticeably cheaper than Kauai's resort corridor (Poipu, Princeville) at the real, disclosed cost of greater distance from those areas' concentration of tourism and hospitality jobs (base record).
Key takeaways
- Hanapepe's median home price ran $617,000-$949,950 across 2026 sources -- genuinely expensive and genuinely volatile.
- Kauai County's own low $2.59/$1,000 nominal rate and $220,000 home exemption produce a ~0.17% effective property tax rate on a representative home.
- Hawaii's 11% top income tax rate and uniform 4.5% General Excise Tax apply in Hanapepe as they do statewide.
- West-side Kauai living trades lower relative costs for greater distance from the island's resort-corridor jobs.
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