Kapolei, Hawaii.
Typical home $841,341 (+1.9% in a year), asking rent $3,547 (+4.8%). Urban Honolulu, HI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,124 (+93%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,828 +2%
- $825,513$841,341 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $96,596 +13%
- $744,746$841,341 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Kapolei$4,416
- Hawaii$4,372
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 28 years.
Typical home values in Kapolei, HI rose 1.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Kapolei, HI rose 4.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Kapolei runs $1,969/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $2,647 in Oct 2022.
That is $5,516 a month against $3,547 rent: a $4,416 mortgage payment, plus $199 property tax and $901 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Kapolei
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$5,516
- Renting$3,547
- Mortgage only$4,416
Property tax · $199/mo 0.28% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Honolulu County, HI
Insurance & upkeep · $901/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Kapolei, Honolulu County, Hawaii
Kapolei, in Honolulu County, had 21,411 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $128,324 a year and half less, against $106,195 across Honolulu County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 76% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 24% are rented. Unemployment in Honolulu County was 2.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then construction.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Kapolei is a community on the leeward side of Oahu, with a population that skews younger than much of the country. Households here earn more than the county's typical household, and fewer people live below the poverty line than in many places. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though buying or renting is costly, with home values and rents running high. Winters are mild and summers are hot, with the coolest weather in January and the warmest in August, and rain is light through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, the building trades, government, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Some of the largest workplaces in Kapolei are the City & County of Honolulu, Target and the University of Hawaii-West Oahu. A good share of adults hold a four-year degree, and commutes are fairly long, while some residents work from home. Unemployment in Honolulu County has been low, though a little higher than a year earlier.
Things to do. A short drive away is Pearl Harbor, along with the USS Arizona Memorial, a museum that draws visitors from around the world. The USS Missouri and the USS Bowfin are also close by, both museums set on the water. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to the Honolulu Zoo.
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- 6,906households
- 30%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 31 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Honolulu County had 455,202 jobs in 2025, 0.4% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 81° and lows near 65°; warmest in August, with highs near 89° and lows near 73°. About 14 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Ewa Kalaeloa Airport weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Kapolei
- City & County of HonoluluRepair, highway, road, street, bridge or airport runway727
- TargetDiscount department stores450
- WalmartDiscount department stores397
- University of Hawaii-West OahuUniversity or college349
- Costco WholesaleWholesale grocer316
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs238
- The Judiciary, State of Hawaii - Ronald T.Y. Moon Jud ComplexCircuit courts214
- Wet 'n' Wild HawaiiAmusement parks197
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 17 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,948 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026). Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Inland floodingVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Kapolei’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Honolulu County and the Urban Honolulu, HI metro.
Kapolei home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Kapolei$841,341
- Hawaii$832,932
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Kapolei listings, and the typical home goes pending in 35 days — the market is heating up.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Kapolei22.12%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Kapolei35
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Kapolei212
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Kapolei54
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Kapolei$772,388
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Kapolei99.48%
Zip codes with a Kapolei address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Kapolei — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.