Kailua

Ah, Kailua. What a place. I could easily see myself living here. It feels more like a beach town than Kaneohe does, for some reason. Kind of like living on the Outer Banks, but with more big city amenities, plus an actual big city 20 minutes away. The two properties I looked at here were both very nice, but one is $100,000 more than the other, so I ruled it out fairly quickly. The other one feels like home. The interior living space is about 1500 sf, which is close to what I'm living in now, plus a huge open lanai that is big enough to put a table on to have meals out there. The complex is beautiful -- landscaped gardens, a pool, a bbq area, just lovely. We would be a 15 minute walk or a 5 minute bike ride from the beach, and close to great shopping. I love love love this place. The only downside is the price. The mortgage wouldn't be bad, but it's a leasehold, which is an estate in land peculiar to Hawaii, in which the owner owns the improvements (i.e., the building) on the real estate, but the actual land is owned by someone else, so you pay monthly rent on the land. In alot of places in town, the monthly leasehold payment is low -- around $30 -- so it's not a big deal. But my Kailua place is leased at over $400 a month, plus a $700 monthly condo fee and $120 a month in taxes. So we're looking at over $1200 a month before we even get to the mortgage. I do love it, though. Right now, this is the front-runner.