The House Hunt Begins (or began)...

For the last week or so D and I have actively been on the hunt for a house or condo here in Oahu.  To tell you the truth, I’m pretty much torn with what to do.  Prior to us arriving on the island, I looked on every possible website for houses on the market and for a general idea as to what we should expect.  Needless to say, what I expected was totally different than what we’ve seen so far.  The island is tiny, and space is definitely at a premium.  I really thought that living in the D.C. area would prepare me for the prices and space constraints that an island presents, but that was not the case!  Reality, it’s not so nice to meet you.

For those of you who are not very familiar with Oahu here’s a crash course.  The island is divided into 5 areas (as depicted in the picture below). Honolulu is the capital of the state of Hawaii, also known as “Town” and if you live there you’re known as a “Townie”.  Waikiki is the resort area where most people who vacation in Oahu stay.  There is the North Shore where they have the surf competitions and some awesome shrimp trucks (more on this in a later post).  Central Oahu is supposed to be beautiful and much cooler since it’s in the mountains.  The “Windward” side (East Oahu) where Kailua and Kaneohe are located.  Some say the windward coast has the best beaches on Oahu.  Finally, the “Leeward” side (West Oahu) contains the Ewa Plain.  This area tends to be hotter with the mountains blocking a lot of the tradewinds. 

Out of all of those areas, we’ve pretty much filtered our search to the Ewa Plain, Honolulu, Waikiki, and the windward side.  I know if seems like a lot, but there are not a lot of places that fit our budget and other items on our must have list.  The houses are cute and small, some of the condos have pretty amazing views of the ocean, and they all come with a price tag that matches.  I’ll break it down as we go.  


To be continued…