{"id":233801,"date":"2026-05-07T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=233801"},"modified":"2026-05-07T14:45:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T00:45:29","slug":"hawaii-housing-factbook-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/05\/07\/hawaii-housing-factbook-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Â鶹´«Ã½ Housing Factbook 2026: Affordability improves modestly, but risks mount"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/manoa-uhero-hawaii-housing-factbook-2026.jpg\" alt=\"aerial shot of a city\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-233802\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/manoa-uhero-hawaii-housing-factbook-2026.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/manoa-uhero-hawaii-housing-factbook-2026-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/manoa-uhero-hawaii-housing-factbook-2026-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/uhero.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Economic Research Organization<\/a> (<abbr>UHERO<\/abbr>) has released the <em><span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Housing Factbook 2026<\/em>, the fourth edition of its annual report offering detailed analysis of the state\u2019s housing market. The report finds that <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s housing crisis remains severe, despite modest improvements in affordability driven by flat home prices, rising incomes and lower mortgage rates in 2025. The <em>Factbook<\/em> also highlights growing risks from insurance costs, homeowners association fees, slow permitting, natural disasters and policy uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The data reflects our state\u2019s deep housing crisis. Restoring affordability will require the production of more housing, and confronting the barriers that prevent homes from being built,&rdquo; said lead author and <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr> Associate Professor Justin Tyndall.<\/p>\n<p>Key findings from this year\u2019s <em>Factbook<\/em> include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Home prices have leveled off, but remain extremely high:<\/strong> The statewide median price of a single-family home was $950,000 in 2025. Median single-family prices rose 1&#37; statewide, while condominium prices declined 2&#37;. Existing-home values, measured by <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr>\u2019s Repeat Sales Index, were flat.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Affordability improved for a second year, but homeownership remains out of reach for most households:<\/strong> Affording the median single-family home still requires more than 180&#37; of the state median income, putting it within reach for only about one-in-five <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> households. Condominium affordability improved more sharply, although rising <abbr title=\"Home Owners Association\">HOA<\/abbr> fees and insurance costs may offset some of those gains.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Housing costs now include rising insurance and association-fee burdens:<\/strong> New Census data show that 42&#37; of <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> homeowners pay monthly <abbr>HOA<\/abbr> or <abbr title=\"Association of Apartment Owners\">AOAO<\/abbr> fees, compared with 25&#37; nationally. <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> also had the second-highest median monthly <abbr>HOA<\/abbr> fee in the country at $470. In Honolulu, real estate listings from February 2026 showed a median advertised <abbr>HOA<\/abbr>\/<abbr>AOAO<\/abbr> fee of $882. Insurance costs are also rising rapidly, with <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s aggregate property insurance premiums paid in the state increasing 13&#37; in 2024&#8212;well above the national average and the largest annual increase in over a decade.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Permitting delays continue to constrain new housing supply:<\/strong> County permitting reforms have produced mixed results. <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> County and Maui County recorded faster single-family permit processing times in 2025, while <span lang=\"haw\">Kaua&#699;i<\/span>\u2019s delays worsened. In Honolulu, <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr> was unable to obtain records after the launch of the city\u2019s new permitting system, but permits issued in the first half of 2025 continued to show long processing times.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lahaina rebuilding is moving unevenly:<\/strong> Two and a half years after the 2023 Maui wildfires, Maui County reported 991 permits to rebuild permanent structures, with 634 issued. <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr>\u2019s analysis finds that single-family homeowners, including vacation-home owners, are receiving permits faster than owners of long-term rentals, apartments and businesses. About 57&#37; of fire-damaged lots showed no permit activity to date.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Policy changes are reshaping Maui\u2019s condo market:<\/strong> Maui County\u2019s Bill 9, which phases out roughly 7,000 short-term vacation rentals in apartment-zoned buildings, has already cooled the condo market. Maui condo prices in 2025 were down 11&#37; from 2023, while prices for condos on the Minatoya list were down 16&#37;.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Extreme weather and flood-insurance changes add new housing-market risks:<\/strong> Severe Kona Low storms in March and April 2026 caused catastrophic flooding, landslides, evacuations and more than $1 billion in estimated damage. In June 2026, updated <abbr title=\"Federal Emergency Management Agency\">FEMA<\/abbr> flood maps will add 3,700 net new parcels on <span lang=\"haw\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> to Special Flood Hazard Areas, raising costs and financing hurdles for 25&#37; more property owners.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vacation rentals remain a major share of neighbor-island housing:<\/strong> <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> had about 34,500 active advertised vacation rental properties in 2025, up from 33,600 in 2024. Vacation rentals account for 20&#37; of all housing units on <span lang=\"haw\">Kaua&#699;i<\/span> and 15&#37; in Maui County, compared with 2.5&#37; in Honolulu.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <em>Factbook<\/em> is based on a wide range of data sources and offers housing indicators at the state, county and zip code levels.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/uhero.hawaii.edu\/the-hawaii-housing-factbook-2026\/\">full <em><span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Housing Factbook 2026<\/em> is available at <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr>\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><abbr>UHERO<\/abbr> is housed in <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> <span lang=\"haw\">M&#257;noa<\/span>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/socialsciences.manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">College of Social Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_34534\"  width=\"676\" height=\"380\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/x_5H4d-O0q8?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"UHERO Focus: The Hawai\u2018i Housing Factbook 2026\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The report finds that <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s housing crisis remains severe, despite modest improvements in affordability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":233802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[301,197,1467,1363,1600,158,1026,1721,9,343],"class_list":["post-233801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-economics","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-public-impact-research","tag-publication","tag-social-science","tag-social-sciences","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uhero","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/manoa-uhero-hawaii-housing-factbook-2026.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233801"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233855,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233801\/revisions\/233855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}