Hawaii mortgage calculator

Property tax in Hawaii

The median Hawaii homeowner pays $2,239 a year in property tax on a home valued at $839,100, an effective rate of 0.2668% in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 5-year 2020-2024). That ranks the lowest of all 50 states and DC, at or below the middle state's 0.8003%. At that rate each $100,000 of home value carries about $267 a year of tax, or $22.23 a month in the payment, and that rate is what the calculator above starts from.

Hawaii's counties sit fairly close together, so the state figure is a reasonable starting point. Among counties whose survey figures pass both quality checks, the effective rate runs from 0.162% in Maui County to 0.2845% in Honolulu County. On an $839,100 home that gap is worth about $1,028 a year. Pick a county in the calculator to use its rate, or type the rate from a listing or a current tax bill.

The survey rate is what owners actually pay divided by what they say their homes are worth, with exemptions, caps and local levies folded in; it will not match any rate printed in Hawaii law. Ask for the seller's latest bill and the assessed value too, since a new owner's assessment can differ from the long-held homes behind the median.

Hawaii property tax rates by county

The 4 counties with published survey figures, out of 5 in Hawaii (the survey has too few owner-occupied homes to publish a median for the other one), sorted from the highest effective rate to the lowest. The rate is the median tax paid divided by the median home value, from the ACS 5-year 2020-2024 survey (figures to December 31, 2024). None of them carries a quality flag, so the calculator uses the figure of whichever county you pick.

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Worked example: the median Hawaii home

The median owner-occupied home in Hawaii is valued at $839,100 (ACS 5-year 2020-2024). Put $167,820 down, enough to keep the loan at 80% of the price so no PMI is charged, and borrow the rest over 30 years at 7.4%, the Freddie Mac average for the week of October 15, 2026. Insurance is the calculator's default of $1,500 a year, the same figure on every state page and 2.5% of this payment; real premiums vary widely from state to state and with a home's exposure to wind, flood and wildfire, so replace it with a premium for the Hawaii home you are pricing.

Principal and interest dominate the bill; tax and insurance, usually collected through escrow, add $311.56 a month, 6.3% of the total. Over the full term the $671,280 loan costs $1,001,928 in interest.

With $83,910 down instead, the loan grows to $755,190 and PMI of $314.66 a month is added, for a first payment of $5,855.00. On the regular schedule the PMI stops after 10 years, with the payment in October 2036. A 15-year loan at the 6.71% average, with the larger down payment, raises the monthly figure to $6,236.90 but cuts the interest to $395,282.

What the median Hawaii wage can buy

The median annual wage in Hawaii is $56,320 (BLS wage survey, May 2025). Paid every two weeks as a single filer, that leaves about $3,693 a month after federal and Hawaii paycheck deductions. With $60,000 saved for a down payment and $400 a month of other debts, the home affordability calculator's default 28/36 rule gives this range at 7.4% and the Hawaii property tax rate:

Here the limit is total debt: the housing payment plus the other $400 a month reaches 36% of gross pay first. The target falls $617,997 short of the $839,100 median home value: the median home costs 14.9 times the median wage, so a typical Hawaii purchase usually needs a second income, a larger down payment or a cheaper area.

Living costs add to the squeeze: everyday prices in Hawaii, rent included, run 10% above the national average, by the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parities for 2024 (figures to December 31, 2024). That shrinks the median wage to about $51,223 in national dollars.