Unsure of where you want to buy real estate on Maui? If you like the idea of living in one of the various beach towns, you might just find yourself inspired by a recent report from WalletHub, which named both Lahaina and Kihei among the top 20 beach towns in the United States. Scouting oceanfront Maui real estate can present you with some tough choices, whether you’re doing it in person or online, so an outside perspective could be helpful.
According to the report, Lahaina and Kihei are the only two Hawaii beach towns to make the top 20 list. Considering how many beach towns there are in Hawaii, and throughout the nation, the outcome was quite an accomplishment for Maui. Although people tend to have their own preferences when it comes to their favorite beach towns, there are some key traits that make some of them stand out. So, let’s dig into the criteria used in the study.
WalletHub compared 227 cities throughout the U.S., based on a total of 49 criteria. They included indicators of livability based on data sets like quality of beach water, housing costs, and the share of waterfront homes for sale. These criteria were broken up into categories. These were Affordability, Weather, Safety, Economy, Quality of Life, and Education & Health.
The report also featured some quick comparisons between the top and bottom five winners in terms of things like median household income, housing costs, lowest median annual property taxes, etc. In fact, the latter named Wailuku at No. 1, followed by Lahaina at No. 2 and Kihei at No. 3. Low property taxes are just one of the many perks to owning Maui real estate.
Lahaina earned 11th place, while Kihei earned 13th place on the top 20. There were other Hawaii beaches that made the list, but they ranked between 101 and 197. These winners included Hilo, Waianea, Kapolei, Wailuku, Ewa Beach, Kailua and Kaneohe. As far as the other top winners, Naples, Florida earned the No. 1 spot, followed by Key West, Florida, and Eden Prairie, Minnesota. The last beach town on the list at No. 227 was Shirley, New York. If you’d like to take a look at the report, you can find it on WalletHub.