The Cost of Living in Hawaii Why is it so high. …show more content…
The first area I will examine is available land, land ownership, land
suitability, and how the demands of tourism effect living expenses in Hawaii. I will
also examine how Hawaii's existence as a island chain a significant distance
from any continent affect the price of goods. Finally I will examine how living
expenses are also influenced by Hawaii's connection to the greater United States
politics and economy. These are I believe the major forces that influence the
basic living expenses in this state. Before I examine these areas however I will
show how much more expensive cost of living in Hawaii is.
Hawaii has the highest cost of living in the United States according to the
US Commerce Department Bureau of economic analysis report in June 2014.
This report further states the cost of living is 16% higher than the national
average. A good example of this is that you may earn up to $54,800 and still …show more content…
it seems that this continues in almost every variable from the average price
per gallon of gasoline to the price of food being more than 70% higher than the
national average.
Land in the state of Hawaii is scarce, as it is composed of an island chain
originally formed by volcanoes it is also quite mountainous. Most of it is
controlled by only a few landholders in fact the largest landholder with 365,000
acres is the Kamehameha school system they six other trusts control 24% of all
land in Hawaii. Due to the existence of only a few large landowners much of
Hawaii real estate uses a leasehold system. In this system the buyer only has the
right to use the land for a set number of years, it is not constant payments such
as rent but a one-time purchase. The result of land being difficult to purchase and
being quite rare on the market causes it to be extremely expensive. Unfortunately
due to the manner the Hawaiian Islands were formed much of the land is
extremely difficult to use being extremely rugged. With the increase in tourism
more land has been given over to nonresidential needs causing an even larger
increase in home prices for example due to the competition of deep-pocketed