Cost of Living & Housing in Kaunakakai
Kaunakakai's cost of living centers on a real, genuine housing-affordability advantage that is unusual for a Hawaii market, set against Hawaii's own high statewide costs for everything else.
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Learn moreGenuinely affordable housing by Hawaii's own extreme standards
Cited figures for Kaunakakai's median home cost ranged from approximately $249,000 (a thin, trailing-12-month sales median) to approximately $368,100 (a 2024 median property-value figure) -- both running at or below this project's national comparison figure of roughly $408,776, a real rarity among Hawaii markets in this dataset (base record).
A near-zero calculated effective property tax rate
Maui County's flat $300,000 owner-occupied home exemption, applied against a representative ~$368,100 home at the county's $1.80-per-$1,000 Tier 1 rate, produces this record's own calculated effective rate of approximately 0.03% -- because Molokai's own low home values sit only modestly above the exemption threshold (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 Maui County (base record; see hawaii.js).
Remoteness compounds costs elsewhere
Even with genuinely affordable housing, Molokai's real remoteness -- most goods shipped or flown in -- means groceries, fuel, and everyday costs still run high, consistent with Hawaii's own extreme statewide cost-of-living profile (base record; see hawaii.js).
Key takeaways
- Kaunakakai's median home cost runs approximately $249,000-$368,100 -- genuinely affordable by Hawaii standards.
- Maui County's flat $300,000 exemption produces a near-zero (~0.03%) calculated effective property tax rate on a representative home.
- Hawaii's 11% top income tax rate and uniform 4.5% General Excise Tax apply in Kaunakakai as they do statewide.
- Housing affordability does not offset Molokai's real, remoteness-driven higher costs for groceries, fuel, and shipped goods.
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