I know I'm asking a lot about about the islands, but you guys are my best link that I have to Oahu atm.

So here is my next question...

How far can you live from UH and still have a liveable daily commute? I'm trying to find an apt, but living near the University (and having a dog) just seems uber expensive. I've seen many places on the north shore and other areas that seem more reasonable, have more room, and most seem to allow pets. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Traffic is the worst thing to deal with here. The second worst thing is pets. A lot of the rental's do not allow pets on the leeward side (at least in the places for a short drive to where you want to go). Apts are even worse than homes. Here is a link that might help http://www2.hickam.af.mil/housing/information/
Go to community housing then select renting and pick from the 5 sites. CHRRS is the last one of the five and has the ability to put parameters in for your search. Beware that some of those places do not update enough.

Good Luck,
Allen

 

i would not recommend living on north shore or waianae/maili and commuting to UH, although i have known people who have done it. i believe for an 8 a.m. class you'd hafta leave by 6 for a reasonable chance of making it.

next i would cross off would be kapolei, ewa beach, wahiawa, mililani, although those probably would offer "cheaper rent" with pets allowed in townhouses. the drive would be maybe 1/2 hour less than north shore or waianae.

personally, i'd say kapahulu/kaimuki/manoa would be ideal...looking for a cottage type place. drive is probably 5-10 min max. or even bus would be convenient, no hassle with parking, as parking at UH is another huge mess. live in kapahulu/kaimuki and get a moped or catch bus. only thing is...everyone else seems to think the same, so it's probably on the higher side for rent, especially manoa.

overall, to stay away as much as possible from traffic, live east honolulu, honolulu, or kaneohe/kailua/waimanalo. forget west and central, or anything past pearl city.

as i alluded to earlier, parking is the next big hurdle at UH. unless you got connections at UH, getting a parking pass is near impossible. otherwise, pay 3+$ per entry. and the parking lots, as well as the surrounding side streets, fill up quickly.

 

Thanks for the replies! I haden't even thought about parking from a commute. The parking here at UW-Milwaukee is horrid as well...does any University have a good parking system?

I have a feeling I'm just going to have to suck it up and pay 1200+ for a 1br in Waikiki or nearby the University. Thanks again!

 

Traffic to UH in the morning is very ugly most of the year and only lets up a bit in the summer months. H2 from northshore, Wahiawa, Mililani and Waipio merges with H1 freeway from Waikele, Waipahu, Kunia, Ewa Beach, Kapolei, Makakilo, and the Waianae coast. Things get very jammed up at Pearl City.
Any rain or traffic accidents adds to the hassle.

From Mililani I can spend 60-80 minutes driving to UH. Bit of a commute for daily use. I grew up in Kaimuki/Kapahulu area and that is much closer to UH. Palolo, McCully, or near Roosevelt HS are possible but can be expensive.

Having a dog complicates matters. Being on a bus line to UH would be possible or maybe having a bike if you are relatively close. Autos are not that friendly to Bikes in Honolulu.

 

I have apts in the McCully area, but unfortunately, no pets allowed.

 

Actually the GF & I started looking for a decent place that allowed pets near Kaimuki... Our current landlord, her grandfather, will not allow pets, even though we take care of them... that is another story... anyways, so we started looking for a 1bd rental in the Kaimuki area that would allow pets.. well.. after searching for a few weeks, a decent place in the area we wanted was looking at about $1600... plenty of places out in Waikele/Ewa area, but didn't want to move out there due to the morning traffic (lived in Waipio for 6 years)...

He have pretty much given up on the apartments and decided to go to the mainland were we can have a sweet house for about $150-200K where my family is at...

There is a service on Oahu that sends numerous daily lists of pet accepted open rentals... The service is $70 for 30 days... we tried it and got about 10-20 apts/condo/houses/duplex a day... listings from $800-$4000 a month all over the island... I can pm you their email address if you want...

 

In five regents in salt lake, you can have pets and the commute isnt so bad. There is a studio here right now for about $900 i think, and it comes with a covered parking spot.

if interested i can get you specific details.

 

have you tried craigslist?

 

roehrigs01, PM me the e-mail you were talking about...I'll use it as a last resort

Currently I'm using Craigslist as my primary source of looking for apts. They seem to have more listings than any other apt. site on the web.