Honolulu median income up 11 percent in 2018

The area median income for Honolulu County jumped to $96,000 for 2018, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has determined.

That’s a nearly 11 percent jump from the $86,600 that HUD had declared to be the 2017 AMI.

The new AMI numbers were released Monday by the Department of Planning and Permitting, which uses HUD’s income numbers to determine who can purchase or rent affordable units that become available as a result of the city’s affordable-housing requirement on developers. The numbers also determine how much purchasers and renters can pay.

A release by DPP called the jump the largest year-over-year increase for Honolulu since HUD began releasing AMI figures in 1990.

The area median income for a family of four making 100 percent in 2018 is $116,600, up 11.5 percent from the 2017 number of $104,600. The maximum monthly rent for a four-person household making this amount would be $2,756 for a two-bedroom unit, according to DPP estimates.

A family making 80 percent of AMI is considered to be in the “low income” category while a family making 50 percent of AMI is considered to be in the “very low income” category.

To learn more about the city’s affordable-housing policies and what maximum rents are for each category, go to the DPP web site at bit.ly/2HplUr4.

To learn more about how HUD calculates its annual area median income figures, go to the HUD website bit.ly/2Ka1Haz.