Buying in Hawaii County, Hawaii

Hawaii County at a glance

Hawaii County is one of 5 counties and county-equivalents in Hawaii. Its county seat is Hilo. County government publishes its offices and parcel tools online. Official county website. Its 2024 Census Bureau population estimate is 209,790 across 4,028 square miles of land — about 52 people per square mile. In the FBI's 2024 reported-crime file, agencies here reported 4,814 offenses — 22.95 per 1,000 residents; the breakdown is below.

Records to check before you buy in Hawaii County

• Property record card — the Hawaii County assessor / appraisal office. Pull the parcel's assessed-value history, exemption status, and last sale. This is the file your future tax bill is calculated from, and it shows whether the current owner is enjoying exemptions you will not inherit. County government sits in Hilo; the official county website is the reliable route to the parcel search and the office directory.
• Deeds & liens — the Hawaii County recorder / land-records office. Read the deed chain, open liens, easements, and plat maps — the file a listing never mentions.
• Official flood determination. Check the exact parcel on FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer — not the listing site's licensed model. Zone boundaries cut through streets; the house next door can be in a different zone. Hawaii County is the primary county for 28 ZIP codes in the Census Bureau's ZIP-to-county crosswalk — and zone lines ignore every one of them.
• The county's reported-crime record. In the FBI's 2024 file, agencies in Hawaii County reported 4,814 offenses — 22.95 per 1,000 residents; the largest single category was larceny-theft (3,136). The crime section below sets that beside the Hawaii county median.
• Registry check. Run the address through Hawaii Sex Offender and Other Covered Offender Search (Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center (HCJDC), Hawaii Department of the Attorney General) and note the counts within a mile — then check again the week you close.
• Permits & code history — the Hawaii building department. Open permits, expired permits, and code cases tell you whether the renovation in the photos was ever inspected. County permitting is run out of Hilo.
• School assignment — the district office, not the listing. Only the district's own boundary lookup confirms which school an address is actually zoned for.

County list, land area and population: U.S. Census Bureau (population: 2024 PEP estimate). County seat and official website: Wikidata (CC0), checked 2026-11-04. Flood determinations: FEMA. Registry: Hawaii.

Reported crime in Hawaii County — FBI 2024

Reported crime in Hawaii County in 2024 was overwhelmingly property crime: agencies logged 4,814 offenses, of which 4,293 were property offenses and 521 violent. The total rate is 22.95 per 1,000 residents (violent 248.3, property 2046.3 per 100,000).

The largest reported categories were larceny-theft (3,136), motor vehicle theft (588) and burglary (569).

Coverage: 2 of 2 law-enforcement agencies assigned to this county reported at least one month of 2024 offense data to the FBI; 1 reported all 12 months. Counts are reported offenses only (FBI Return A / Arson master files), assigned whole to each agency's primary county; they are not adjusted for non-reporting agencies.

These are offenses reported to law enforcement — not convictions, and not a verdict on any street or address. A CurbFacts report pairs this county record with the ZIP-level picture for the specific address you are buying.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, UCR Return A + Arson master files, data year 2024 (pulled 2026-11-04).

The Hawaii rules that apply in Hawaii County

Traps researched for Hawaii buyers: Sea level rise and tsunami zones are part of the disclosure; Property tax is county-run and exemptions do not carry over.

Read the full Hawaii guide — disclosure standard, tax math, registry and flood

More Hawaii counties

All Hawaii counties · Hawaii buyer guide