Rent burden in Honolulu: what the Census data shows

Counts & data · Published 2026-10-20

A tall residential tower and lower apartment blocks silhouetted against an orange sunset sky in Honolulu — Century Center and surrounding apartment buildings at sunset. Photo: Daniel Ramirez, CC BY 2.0.

Homelessness on Oʻahu does not begin on the sidewalk. For many households it begins with a rent payment that takes a growing share of every paycheck, until a car repair, a medical bill or a cut in hours tips the balance. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey is the most detailed public source on how stretched Honolulu renters are, and its figures are stark.

Honolulu County at a glance (ACS 2019–2023)

136,375 renter households, about 40% of the 337,061 occupied homes.
$2,054 median gross rent per month, the highest of any Hawaiʻi county.
47% of renter households for which a ratio can be computed pay 35% or more of their income in rent.
5.2% renter vacancy rate.
$873,000 median value of an owner-occupied home.

How rent burden is measured

The standard yardstick comes from the federal government. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines a household as cost-burdened when its monthly housing costs, including utilities, exceed 30% of its monthly income, and severely cost-burdened above 50%. HUD's researchers trace the 30% rule back to the Brooke Amendment of 1968, which capped rents in public housing as a share of tenant income.

The Census Bureau's survey records "gross rent", meaning contract rent plus utilities and fuels paid by the tenant, and divides it by household income. Published tables group households into bands such as "30 to 34.9 percent" and "35 percent or more". One technical point: HUD's definition is "more than 30%", while Census tables report "at or above" a threshold, so figures from the two sources can differ slightly.

What the latest county figures show

The State of Hawaiʻi's Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism republishes the survey's five-year housing estimates by county in the State Data Book (Table 21.17). For the 2019–2023 period, the City and County of Honolulu had 129,947 occupied units paying rent, with a median gross rent of $2,054 a month. Statewide, the median was $1,938.

Of the 127,605 Honolulu renter households for which a rent-to-income ratio could be calculated, 60,316 paid 35% or more of household income in gross rent. That is about 47%, using a higher cutoff than HUD's 30% line, so the share above 30% is larger still.

Housing costs by county, ACS 2019–2023 five-year estimates
Area	Median gross rent	Renters paying 35%+ of income	Renter vacancy
Honolulu	$2,054	60,316 of 127,605	5.2%
Hawaiʻi County	$1,411	7,037 of 17,139	10.1%
Maui County	$1,863	7,786 of 17,172	22.0%
Kauaʻi County	$1,810	2,698 of 6,796	2.8%
State total	$1,938	77,841 of 168,722	7.8%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2019–2023, as tabulated in the State of Hawaiʻi Data Book 2024, Table 21.17. Five-year estimates are averages over the period and carry sampling error.

Owners are stretched too

The same table shows the median value of an owner-occupied home in Honolulu at $873,000. Among the 131,001 mortgaged owners for whom the ratio could be computed, 40,859, or about 31%, spent 35% or more of their income on housing costs. Owners without a mortgage, often older residents who bought decades ago, had median monthly costs of $743.

Why rent burden and homelessness are linked

A household paying half its income in rent has little room for anything unexpected. That is why rent burden is one of the clearest early warning signs of homelessness. Several features of the Honolulu market make the squeeze tighter:

Few vacancies. A renter vacancy rate around 5% means that when a lease ends or a unit is sold, there are not many alternatives at a similar price.
Old housing stock. About two thirds of Honolulu homes were built between 1940 and 1989, and only about 8% in 2010 or later, according to the same Data Book table. New supply has been slow to arrive.
Crowding as a safety valve. The average renter household in Honolulu has 2.7 people, and 3.8% of occupied homes have more than 1.5 people per room. Doubling up keeps people off the street but hides housing need from the homeless count.
Move-in costs. Even a household that can afford the monthly rent may struggle to put together a deposit and first month's rent at once.

How this connects to "affordable" housing rules

Rent burden explains why so much public policy is pegged to household income. Affordable housing programs in Honolulu set maximum rents at about 30% of an income limit tied to the area median; our guide to what "affordable" means in Honolulu explains those limits and why an "affordable" unit can still be out of reach for the lowest-income renters. Housing Choice Vouchers work differently, by capping what the tenant pays as a share of income; see our guide to Section 8 vouchers on Oʻahu.

Reading these numbers carefully

Five-year averages lag. The 2019–2023 estimates blend pandemic-era years with more recent ones. Rents set in 2025 or 2026 are not fully reflected.
Sampling error. The survey is a sample. County-level figures are reliable; neighborhood-level figures carry wide margins.
Income is self-reported. Households with zero or negative income are excluded from the ratio, which is why the denominator (127,605) is smaller than the number of units paying rent.
Utilities matter. Hawaiʻi's electricity costs are high, and gross rent includes utilities paid by the tenant, so two units with the same contract rent can carry different burdens.

If you are behind on rent

Hawaiʻi law gives tenants who receive a notice for unpaid rent a window to arrange free mediation before an eviction case can be filed. Our guide to eviction mediation in Hawaiʻi explains the ten-day notice and what to do when it arrives. Aloha United Way's 211 helpline, which reported housing as the most urgent need among its callers in 2025, can point to rental assistance programs that are open at a given time.