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Crunching costs, sorting signals, rendering insights.
Crunching costs, sorting signals, rendering insights.
Single-income living requires cities where one paycheck covers everything. We scored 1 cities across Hawaii on rent, cost of living, and population. Honolulu ($2,548/mo, 341,778 residents) ranks #1.
#1 Ranked: Honolulu — cost index 135, rent $2,548/mo, income $85,428
Singles scoring: rent $2,548/mo (solo housing), cost index 135, population 341,778 — livability on one income
Data sourced from Census Bureau, Zillow, BLS, and Tax Foundation — current as of 2026
Single-income living requires cities where one paycheck covers everything. We scored 1 cities across Hawaii on rent, cost of living, and population. Honolulu ($2,548/mo, 341,778 residents) ranks #1.
Dive into Honolulu's numbers: cost index 135 (23 points above national average), rent $2,548/month, income $85,428, and a home price of $758,507. The city's cost profile isn't flat — Utilities is the cheapest category at 125, while Housing runs 189. With 341,778 residents, it balances mid-size city convenience with manageable costs.
Keep reading — the next section adds critical context. Across Hawaii, the average cost of living index is 135 — 23 points above the national median. Known for the most isolated and expensive housing market in the US, the state offers 1 tracked cities with median rents averaging $2,548/month. That's $653 more than the national average of $1,895. That's not a marginal difference — it reshapes your monthly budget.
What to do with this data: use the ranking as a shortlist, then dig into the city profiles for trend lines and category breakdowns. The difference between #1 and #5 is often smaller than the difference between "good on paper" and "actually fits my life." Compare your top picks with our calculator to see real take-home numbers.
341,778 residents · Hawaii
Here's Honolulu by the numbers — and there's a lot to like. And on balance, cost index: 135. Rent: $2,548/month. That alone makes it worth considering. Income: $85,428/year. Home price: $758,507. Population: 341,778. The strongest category is Utilities at 125; the most expensive is Housing at 189. Translate that rent to annual numbers, and residents are costing renters $7,836 more per year vs. the national median. That's a number worth sharing with anyone who says affordable cities can't have good jobs.
Our persona scoring model weights cost of living, income, rent, healthcare costs, tax burden, and population size differently based on what matters most to singles. Each factor contributes 10-25 points to a 0-100 composite score. Cities with the highest composite rank first. All data is sourced from federal agencies and verified research institutions. Cost of living indices are normalized to 100 (national median) using Zillow rent as the primary signal, with sub-category adjustments derived from regional BLS price data. Rankings are updated monthly as new data is released.
Honolulu ranks #1 in Hawaii for this analysis with a cost index of 135 and median income of $85,428.
Honolulu scores highest for singles due to its strong income potential, median rent of $2,548/mo, and above-average median income of $85,428.
Our cost of living index uses real Zillow rent data as the foundation, indexed to 100 (national median). Sub-categories (housing, food, transport, utilities, healthcare) are derived from the overall index with regional adjustments. Data is updated monthly.
City data is refreshed monthly from Census Bureau population estimates, Zillow rent and home price indices, BLS salary data, and Tax Foundation tax rates. Last updated: 2026.
The median 1-bedroom rent in Honolulu is $2,548/month as of 2026, based on Zillow's Observed Rent Index. This is $653 above the national median of $1,895/month.
The median home price in Honolulu is $758,507, which is 8.9× the local median income. Most median-income households would stretch to buy at this ratio. The national median home price is $467,370.
Hawaii has a 11% state income tax rate. Combined state and local sales tax averages 4.44%, and the effective property tax rate is 0.27%.
This ranking was generated using data current as of early 2026. Population and income data comes from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (5-year estimates). Rent and home price data is from Zillow's monthly releases. Tax rates are from the Tax Foundation's 2025 edition. Rankings are refreshed monthly.