More Residents Say Aloha to Paradise

Hawaii beckons--tropical breezes, lush foliage, the crash of the surf and the allure of the native culture. Who could resist?

A lot of people.

The state’s robust growth--Hawaii’s population has doubled in size, to 1.2 million, since it was admitted to the Union in 1959--has slowed dramatically.

In 1995, only 89 more people came to Hawaii than left it, down from 10,494 the year before. Much of that can be traced to the recession of the early 1990s, and the first protracted loss of jobs since statehood in 1959.

But although economists say the worst is over, many residents are packing their bags, selling their homes and shipping out of paradise.

“I’ll miss surfing, I’ll miss the weather, and I’ll miss some of my friends, but other than that I think I’ll get over it pretty quick,” said Rick Meyer, who is moving to Orlando, Fla., after six years in the islands.

Meyer, 32, said he and his wife found it too hard to keep their small businesses going.

“We could get a home for one-fourth of the cost of what a house sells for here, and we can make more for our dollar in Orlando,” he said.

A continuing influx of residents from abroad has kept net migration from falling below zero, said Seiji Naya, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The 50th state is already losing more residents to the mainland than it gains from the rest of the nation. Between 1990 and 1995, the state experienced a net loss of 37,752 residents to domestic migration, according to the department’s estimates.

To explain the losses, state officials cite not the economy but reductions in Hawaii’s large military presence. “When military personnel and their dependents are removed from the data, there are actually more civilians migrating to Hawaii,” said Gov. Ben Cayetano, a Democrat.

But others say military cutbacks are only partly responsible.

“We’ve been losing jobs here since late 1992,” said Leroy Laney, chief economist of First Hawaiian Bank. “One certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see out-migration occurring over that time period.”

Laney estimates that 30,000 jobs have been eliminated since 1992.

Hawaii has always been a tough place to make ends meet, with a cost of living conservatively estimated at 30% higher than the rest of the nation. But according to those in the moving and real estate businesses, at no time have so many islanders seemingly been unwilling or unable to pay the so-called paradise tax.

“I would say that for any time I have been in the real estate business, which has been 38 years, there’s probably more people leaving the island,” said Vi Dolman of Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties on Oahu.

Dolman said some of her clients came to Hawaii as part of the migration boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s and are now moving to places where they can live more comfortably in retirement. But she said many are working couples who are selling their homes at a loss and leaving the islands.

Once, said Jim Yarbrough, general manager of Crown Pacific Hawaii movers, nearly two-thirds of his customers were residents being transferred to the mainland or overseas by their companies.

“Now it’s about 70% of people who are leaving are private citizens that are relocating themselves at their own expense,” he said.

No hard statistics indicate how many of those leaving are native Hawaiians or other longtime Hawaii residents, but anecdotal evidence leads many to conclude that they too are leaving in larger numbers than before.

Ed Kunipo left Hawaii in the 1980s for Carson, Calif., for a change of pace. But like many Hawaiians who have moved there, he soon found he could stretch his paycheck much farther than in Hawaii.

Many would like to move back but are discouraged by the high cost of living, he said. Kunipo came back in 1994 when his family qualified for Hawaiian homestead property and bought a three-bedroom home on Oahu for $158,000.

Bank of Hawaii chief economist Paul Brewbaker said there are signs that Hawaii’s economy is becoming much easier on its residents, with home prices down and major discount stores like Wal-Mart and K mart moving in.

“I’m not saying [Hawaii] is a cheap place to live,” he said. “It’s just gotten relatively less expensive.”

Laney, too, is optimistic that Hawaii will begin attracting more new residents as the economy continues to recover.

“I don’t think that anybody around here is saying that we can just turn off the lights and go someplace else,” Laney said.