Starting Over in Hawaii

Thousands of miles from any shore off of North America is big island with a small city. This city is called Hilo, in Hawaii. When starting over in Hawaii, you will find a wealth of history and culture in a strong agriculture community.

The city of Hilo means "new moon", and there are 40,759 people living there and growing. Being the largest town on the big island, Hilo is over 27 hundred miles away from California, so when you get here, you are not just a hop, skip or jump away from any other state in America.

Hilo is a very peaceful community with very little crime. The job status in Hilo is on a slow, but steady up hill battle to more and better jobs in the area. The most common work for men in Hilo is construction and the most common job for women is in the education field. The average drive to work is around 18 miles one way, not too bad compared to New York City.

Hilo is becoming home to more retires and people looking for a more peaceful way to live. Hilo does not attract many tourists, but it is filled with history and culture.

The taxes in Hilo are very low even though housing prices are on the rise. It is estimated that homeowners pay only 350 dollars in taxes on their property each year, even though home values are 153 thousand dollars. More than half of the residents in Hilo live in urban areas rather than rural areas.

Housing in Hilo for a mortgage cost around 1,200 a month and to rent only 528 dollars. When moving to Hilo you will find that there are not any high rises to obstruct the natural beauty. Natural beauty makes the city a pretty place to live, however, this does not mean they are not on the move to bettering themselves; they are building a 60 million dollar research lab and a 28 million dollar Astronomy Education Center.

Not all of Hilo is gold and glory; they have their share of trouble. Some things to keep in mind before moving are; The volcano Kilauea is now active and has destroyed over 200 homes again, Tsunamis also are big in Hilo and they destroy homes and water front, the last one they had destroyed half of the community and took it out to sea.

When you decide to move to Hilo you will enjoy temperatures never rising over 90 degrees and some very beautiful and peaceful living.