Honolulu Makes the Top 10 in “Best Big Cities To Live In” List

A new study ranks Honolulu No. 6 out of 62 large U.S. cities in terms of homeownership, unemployment, debt-to-income ratio and more.

By Rachel Ross Bradley

With summer the busiest time of the year for relocating, WalletHub, a personal finance website, released a study ranking the 62 largest cities in the United States, based on livability.

The study looked at 56 key metrics when evaluating cities, including median annual income, weather, life expectancy and job opportunities.

Honolulu ranked sixth behind Seattle, Virginia Beach, Austin, San Francisco and San Diego, ranked first through fifth, respectively. These cities were ranked ahead of us for reasons such as lower debt-to-income ratio (San Francisco) and higher percentage of homeownership (Virginia Beach).

“Honolulu ranked sixth in our study due to a series of factors, such as: the lowest median annual property taxes (0.28 percent) out of all the cities we analyzed, and the lowest unemployment rate (2.2 percent),” the study says. “The city also has the highest share of parkland (33.05 percent), and the most bike rental facilities and shopping centers per capita.” Thanks, Biki!

While it’s not surprising to see that we ranked 53rd for affordability, we also ranked third for economy and fifth for education and health.

To see the full report, click here.