What you get for $650k in Oahu Real Estate

The median price of Oahu real estate is currently $658k, but what can you get for that price?depending on which are you want to live in, it's very different.

In the best areas of Oahu, you can get a nice condo or town house, or even a small older house near the beach for about that price, and farther out West in the suburbs, you can get a nice brand new, larger house ith all the modern amenities. If you want to buy a house for $700k, it will cost about $4500/month including taxes in Hawaii, assuming you have 5% down and your credit is good.

Kapolei - for about $670k you can get a house like this one with 4bedroom 2100sqft, built in 1993. There are newer homes too, which might be a little smaller for the price. Kapolei is a great new master planned community with nice new schools, roads, and everything else. It's called the second city on Oahu, because all the new growth is happening there. The new courthouse, new roads, new shopping (Target), and a lot more planned growth is happening in Kapolei.

Royal Kunia - Just North of Ewa Beach is a great little neigborhood called Royal Kunia. 3bedroom 3bath home of about 2200 sqft, built in 2003. The areas has some nice new parks and schools, although not a new high school. There is plenty of shopping nearby, but a good beach will be about a 20 minute drive to Kapolei, at Ko Olina.

Homes in Royal Kunia have been well cared for and are mostly built after about 1995. There are some nearly new ones, and plans for more new homes are in the works for a few years from now.

Mililani Mauka - 3bedroom 2 bath 1650sqft built in 1991. Mililani is one of the nicer areas to live in, considering the nice cool weather year round, lush trees and mountains that get plenty of rain, mostly at night. Also Mililani has some of the best schools on Oahu, with consistently high ranking test scores and teacher reviews.

If you live in Mililani you can easily get to the North Shore beaches in about 20 minutes, and it takes about 30 minutes to get to downtown Honolulu. Homes in Mililani tend to be newer on the Mauka side, where development began only about 15years ago. You get a little less house for the money here because it's more desirable than west Oahu, but it's certainly worth it to live in the beautiful mountains.

Diamond Head - Arguably the best place to live in Oahu, Diamond Head has a lot of little areas that can range from multi million dollar mini mansions to older, smaller, cheaper areas like Palolo and Kaimuki. For $675k I found this nice little house in the St. Louis heights. It's only 1000sqft, with 3bed 2bath built in 1953. As you can see, money doesn't go as far in the Diamond Head area, but you get to live right near the beach, Honolulu town, and everything that you need. It's probably the most desirable area on Oahu, so you can expect to get anything close to the kind of houses you get on the West side or in Mililani, or anywhere else in Hawaii for that matter. But look at this little house and it's cool yellow kitchen! You learn that it's worth it to have less if you get to live in the best areas.

Ewa Beach - 1846sqft built in 2006 with 4bedrooms, 3baths, and 2 car garage. Money goes a really long way in Ewa Beach, and here is a house in Ocean Pointe that is as good as most houses on the mainland. This development is still under construction, and it's just down the street from the beach. Of course, the beaches are not as nice in Ewa as they are on the East or North shores, but hey it's still Hawaii. Ewa has several new developments going in, with a new golf course under construction. I think there are now 5 courses in Ewa.

Since Ewa is just a couple miles from Kapolei, you can enjoy all the amenities there, like the big new movie theater and the new Target coming soon. Also Ocean Pointe has a great new school that everyone wants to get into.

Hawaii Kai - It's my favorite place in Oahu, and for $675k plus a monthly fee of about $450, you can get a very nice newer townhouse in the Peninsula, Moana Kai, or Nanea Kai. These developments just popped up in the last 5 years, with great modern feel that also fits right in with the rest of the island. You could also get a small older house in Koko Head that needs a lot of work, but for this price you would be better off with a townhouse. A nice single family home in Hawaii Kai will cost you about $800k.

Kailua -It's every tourists favorite place I think, with the best beaches and a great little town you can walk around. For $680k you can get this little 1959 home with 3bed 2 bath and 1200sqft. It's a simple home with simple single wall construction, and it probably needs work to make it nice. It takes about $850k to get a nice home in Kailua, so you might want to opt for a Kailua condo within walking distance to everything, which will cost you about $500k.

Town - Honolulu is called "town" here, and it's mostly highrises but there are single family homes here and there. Also there are entire neighborhoods of homes that you probably don't notice. For $650k you can buy this 1560sqft home just built in 06, with 3bed 2.5bath in an area full of highrises. You can walk to Ala Moana mall, and of course it's a few minutes drive to everything. However you live right in town, which many people don't like. You might be surprised that it's not more money, but it really depends on the area. There are some really nice areas in "town" that will cost you a lot more.

Now I didn't even mention some areas, like Manoa, Kahala, etc. That's because you can't get anything for that price there. There are a lot of other areas where you can get a small home for about $700k like the North Shore, Aiea, Pearl City, Wahiawa, Kaneohe, and Waipahu.