A lot of people are still confused about the relationship between housing supply, demand, and price in Hawaii and nationwide. Anecdotally, most people I've met believe in suppressing demand by banning wealthy overseas investors, vacation rentals, and other "outsiders."

1/7

The problem is, we're not even building enough supply to keep up with purely local demand. Between 2001-18, 244,298 babies were born on Oahu. There were 126,024 deaths. That means there were 118,274 more local people in 2018 than in 2001.

2/7

Even if we make the unrealistic assumption that all 118,274 of them will marry each other and stay married to each other, that means there are 59,235 new local households that will need a home. During the same period, only 37,826 new housing units were built.

3/7

There were 21,409 more local households than housing units built. It doesn't matter if all of them were billionaires; the housing simply does not exist to house them. If you're OK with this situation, it's your duty to tell our young people when they become adults:

4/7

"It's great that you were born and raised and educated here, but now you have to leave, and you can't come back. This will never be your home again, because we have decided that we will never allow you to have a home here."

5/7

I, for one, am not OK with this. I believe that every local person should be able to live a good life here. Half or more of all Native Hawaiians are now living outside of Hawaii. I'm sure at least some of them would prefer to live in Hawaii, if they could afford it.

6/7

If you agree, please join me in our efforts to bring SB1, ALOHA Homes, to fruition. Just email me at [email protected], and we'll keep you updated on ways to help end the housing shortage in Hawaii. Mahalo!

#buildALOHA

7/7