HONOLULU (Island News) — Hawaii remains in a severe housing crisis. A new report on Wednesday by University of Hawaii researchers says high prices and mortgage rates have made homeownership unaffordable for most residents.
Housing production remains slow, with regulatory barriers posing a major obstacle to new construction. The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization’s (UHERO) “2025 Hawaii Housing Factbook” said shifts in the U.S. home insurance market have driven up costs, increasing homeowners’ association fees and further reducing affordability.
“For rents, sort of remarkably stable in the past decade the affordability of the rental market is quite bad by national comparisons. We have amongst the highest rents in the country. California edges us out with slightly higher rents but in terms of overall affordability we’re in a bad place but it hasn’t deteriorated so much recently,” said Justin Tyndall, assistant professor at UHERO.
The report noted that the success of housing policies depends most on their ability to increase housing supply…