Why thousands of Hawaiian families are choosing Dallas-Fort Worth and what you need to know before you join them.
North Texas Market Insider™ · Hawaii Relocation
Why Hawaii Money is Flowing to North Texas
Almost nobody leaves Hawaii casually. You are reading this because of orders, a job, or because the arithmetic finally stopped working. So I am not going to sell you on Texas. I am going to tell you what happens when you get here.
The money is the easy part, and it is not close. Hawaii's statewide median ran $973,555 in July 2025 against a DFW median near $405,000. A modest Oahu house frequently buys a large North Texas house outright, with a substantial amount left over. Add an income tax that runs to 11 percent disappearing entirely, and a general excise tax that touches nearly every transaction including your rent, and this is the widest financial swing of any state I work with.
The hard part is everything else, and I would rather name it now. The ocean has no substitute here. Galveston is seven hours away and it is a Gulf beach. Summers run 90 to 100 with humidity and winters bring ice storms that shut the region down. And the cultural loss is bigger than the weather: multigenerational family structure and the particular ease of island community do not exist here in that form.
Two practical things nobody tells you. Hawaii runs a single statewide school district, so choosing a district is a new skill and it is the biggest adjustment in your house hunt. And if you are paying Punahou or Iolani tuition, buying into a strong public district here frequently eliminates that line entirely, which changes your monthly math more than the mortgage does.
$973,555 → ~$405,000
Hawaii median against DFW, July 2025
1.4%–11% → 0%
Hawaii income tax, eliminated
The ocean
And it does not have a substitute here
Hawaii has the lowest effective property tax rate in the nation and the lowest base homeowners premium, though hurricane coverage is separate. Hawaii levies an estate tax; Texas does not. Active duty military rules differ under federal protections. General information, not advice.
North Texas Market Insider™ · Area Matcher
Find Your North Texas Landing Zone
Three questions, about twenty seconds. Tell me where on the islands you're leaving and I'll start you with the priorities most families from there name first. Change any of them, then set your budget, and I'll show you the areas worth a real look.
123✓
Where in Hawaii are you coming from?
I'll use this to suggest a starting point on the next step. You can change every one of them.
What actually matters most? Pick up to three.
0 of 3 selected. Tap to add or remove.
What's your home budget?
Purchase price, not monthly payment.
Your closest matches
Results are ranked only on the priorities and budget you selected, all of which you control. Every community listed is open to all buyers. Price ranges are general estimates and change with the market. See the full disclosure at the bottom of this page.
Hawaii → North Texas
Where Hawaii families are landing.
Almost nobody leaves Hawaii casually. You are here on orders, on a transfer, or because the arithmetic finally stopped working. What changes everything is that your equity goes further here than from any other state I work with. Tap what matters to you and the rest will drop away.
Tell me where on the islands you're coming from and whether this is orders or a job, and I'll narrow this quickly. Most Hawaii families are working with more buying power than they expect.
Bobby Franklin, REALTOR® · Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team · northtexasmarketinsider.com
North Texas Market Insider™ · Hawaii Relocation
Four Kinds of Hawaii Mover
Almost nobody leaves Hawaii casually, so this page is written as orientation rather than persuasion. What makes your situation different from every other state on this site is that the money runs dramatically in your favour. The hard part is everything else.
Orders
The Military and PCS Families
West sidewhere the DFW military footprint sits
Families arriving on orders or separating out of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Schofield Barracks, Fort Shafter, or MCB Hawaii. DFW has no single dominant base town, which surprises people used to island military life.
What determines whether it works
The closest thing to a base community is the west side: NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, plus Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth plant and Bell for anyone separating into defense work. Start in the Mid-Cities, Keller, or North Fort Worth.
Active duty registration and licensing rules differ under federal protections, so confirm your specific situation with your legal office rather than assuming the standard 30 and 90 day clocks apply to you.
Shipyard and Pacific-facing federal work does not transfer. Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard submarine maintenance has no DFW counterpart, so if that is your trade, plan for a change rather than a transfer.
Mortgage math
The Mortgage Eliminators
$973,555 → ~$405,000Hawaii median against DFW, July 2025
The largest financial swing of any origin state I work with. Hawaii's statewide median ran $973,555 in July 2025 against a DFW median near $405,000. A modest Oahu house frequently buys a large North Texas house outright with a substantial amount left over.
Where to look, and what to know
This is not a smaller mortgage, it is frequently no mortgage, which is a different financial life rather than a cheaper one. Plan what the freed capital does before you land, not after.
Know your capital gains position before you list. The federal exclusion is $250,000 single and $500,000 married filing jointly with the two-of-five-year test, and on a long-held Hawaii property the gain above that is taxable. This is a CPA conversation worth having early.
Hawaii also has an estate tax, which Texas does not, so for older households there is a second planning line worth raising with an attorney.
The GET
The Cost-of-Living Leavers
4.712%Oahu general excise tax, on nearly everything
Working families who ran the numbers and could not make Hawaii work any longer. Beyond housing, Hawaii's general excise tax runs about 4.712 percent on Oahu and applies to nearly every transaction including rent and services, so it compounds through the whole economy.
How the tax picture actually shakes out
Hawaii's income tax runs from 1.4 percent to 11 percent, among the highest top rates in the country. Texas charges nothing on wage or business income at any level.
Property tax runs the other way and you should know it. Hawaii has the lowest effective property tax rate in the nation at roughly 0.27 percent, against a Texas average of 1.36 to 1.58 percent. On a much cheaper house the annual bill is often still lower here, but the rate shock is real.
Groceries and utilities fall substantially. That is the line families notice first and it shows up every single week.
What you lose
The Ones Counting the Costs
The oceanand it does not have a substitute
Every Hawaii family, because the financial case here is easy and the rest is not. You are trading year-round seventy-five degrees, the ocean, and a culture built on it for a flat inland metro with a hundred-degree summer and an ice storm or two.
What that actually changes
North Texas summers run 90 to 100 with humidity from June into September, and winters bring two to four ice events on infrastructure built for heat. Both directions will be a shock after island weather.
The ocean has no equivalent. Lake Ray Hubbard and Lake Grapevine are genuine amenities and they are not the Pacific. Galveston is roughly seven hours away and it is a Gulf beach.
The cultural loss is bigger than the weather. Aloha, multigenerational family structure, and the particular ease of island community do not exist here in the same form. Families who plan for that adjust much better than families who are blindsided by it.
General information, not tax, legal, or investment advice. Franchise tax figures reflect Texas Comptroller guidance for 2026 and 2027 report years and are subject to change. Capital gains treatment depends on your individual circumstances. Consult a CPA and a licensed lender before acting on any of this.
North Texas Market Insider™ · Reality Check
What Hawaii Didn't Prepare You For
Twelve things that catch Hawaii families off guard. The money runs dramatically in your favour and the first card explains how much. The rest is everything else, including the two losses that decide how well the first year goes. Three carry a real figure.
Showing all twelve
Your estimated first-year carrying cost$0
Tick the boxes on the two cost cards below to build your number.
01Costs money
Your Equity Goes Further Here Than From Anywhere
$973,555 → ~$405,000 Hawaii median against DFW, July 2025
This is the first card because it is the largest financial swing of any origin state I work with. Hawaii's statewide median ran $973,555 in July 2025 against a DFW median close to $405,000. A modest Oahu house frequently buys a large North Texas house outright with a substantial amount left over.
Plan what the freed capital does
This is not a smaller mortgage, it is frequently no mortgage, which is a different financial life rather than a cheaper version of the same one. Decide what that capital is for before you land, not eighteen months after.
Know your capital gains position before you list. The federal exclusion is $250,000 single and $500,000 married filing jointly with the two-of-five-year test, and on a long-held Hawaii property the gain above that is taxable. Have that conversation with a CPA early.
Hawaii has an estate tax and Texas does not, so for older households there is a second planning line worth raising with an attorney while you are still deciding.
02Costs money
The GET Follows You Everywhere and Then Stops
4.712% Oahu general excise tax, on nearly everything
Hawaii's general excise tax runs about 4.712 percent on Oahu and applies to nearly every transaction, including rent and services, rather than just retail goods. It compounds through the entire economy, which is a large part of why everything costs what it does.
What replaces it here
Texas has a conventional sales tax averaging about 8.2 percent combined, which is a higher headline rate but applies to a narrower base. It does not sit on your rent or on most services.
The bigger win is the income tax. Hawaii's runs from 1.4 percent to 11 percent, among the highest top rates in the country. Texas charges nothing on wage or business income at any level.
Groceries and utilities fall substantially, and that is the line families notice first because it shows up every single week rather than once a year.
03Costs money
The Property Tax Rate Is About to Multiply
~0.27% → 1.36–1.58% effective rate, Hawaii to Texas
Hawaii has the lowest effective property tax rate in the entire country at roughly 0.27 percent. Texas averages between 1.36 and 1.58 percent depending on methodology. On rate alone this is the sharpest jump on the page.
Why the actual bill often still falls
You are applying a much higher rate to a far cheaper house. Against a Hawaii median near $973,555 and a DFW median near $405,000, the annual bill frequently lands lower here despite the rate, but you should run your own numbers rather than assume.
File the homestead exemption at closing. The school district exemption rose to $140,000 for tax year 2025 and filing starts the 10 percent appraisal cap under Tax Code 23.23.
Watch for a MUD on new construction, which stacks on top of the base rate and can turn a favourable comparison unfavourable. Ask for the total tax rate rather than a builder's monthly estimate.
04Daily life
You Have to Choose a School District Now
1 → 1,000+ statewide system to independent districts
Hawaii runs a single statewide school district, so the address does not change the school in the way it does here. Texas has over a thousand independent districts and the address decides everything, which is a genuinely new concept and the biggest practical adjustment in your search.
How this changes your house hunt
Two houses on opposite sides of a street can feed different districts with materially different outcomes. Verify the specific campus a home feeds to rather than trusting a listing's district label.
For families paying Punahou or Iolani tuition, the math flips entirely. Buying into a top public district here frequently eliminates the tuition line, which for many households is the largest recurring expense after housing.
Ask about rezoning. The fast-growing districts redraw boundaries regularly, so confirm what is on the calendar before you commit.
05Weather
You Are Leaving the Best Weather in America
75°F → 100°F and ice year-round mild to genuinely extreme
Hawaii's climate is the most consistently pleasant in the country, and North Texas has real seasons in both directions. Summers run 90 to 100 with humidity from June into September, and winters bring two to four ice events a year.
What to expect in the first year
The first North Texas summer is a shock and the first ice storm is a bigger one. Infrastructure here is built for heat, so a two-day ice event shuts the region down in a way that would genuinely baffle you.
Central air is universal and built in rather than an add-on, which is not the case in much of Hawaii. Outdoor life shifts to mornings and evenings from June through September.
What you gain is variety. Autumn and spring here are genuinely good, and the seasonal change is something many island transplants come to appreciate more than they expected.
06Weather
Your Insurance Headline Goes Up, the Risk Profile Changes
$801 → ~$3,291 base premium, Hawaii to Texas
Hawaii carries the lowest base homeowners premium in the country at roughly $801 a year. Texas averaged $3,291 in 2024 per the Texas Department of Insurance. But the comparison is not as lopsided as it looks, because Hawaii's base policy excludes what actually threatens you there.
The honest comparison
Hurricane coverage in Hawaii is separate and expensive, and lava-zone properties on the Big Island can be difficult to insure at all. Your all-in cost is higher than the base figure suggests.
Here you trade hurricane, tsunami, and lava for hail and tornado. Texas rates rose 21.1 percent in 2023 and 18.7 percent in 2024, cooling to 4.3 percent in 2025.
The deductible structure is new. Wind and hail deductibles here are a percentage of dwelling coverage rather than a flat amount, so on a $500,000 home that is five to ten thousand before the policy pays.
07Outdoors
The Ocean Has No Substitute
7 hrs to Galveston, and it is the Gulf
This is the loss that decides how well the move goes. The Pacific, the reefs, the year-round water culture, and the sheer accessibility of it all have no equivalent in North Texas at any distance. Galveston is roughly seven hours away and it is a Gulf beach.
What actually replaces it, honestly
Lake culture is genuine here rather than a consolation prize. Lake Ray Hubbard, Lake Lavon, Lake Grapevine, and Lake Whitney are within an hour or two, and boat ownership is common and comparatively cheap in a way it is not in Hawaii.
It is an alternative, not a substitute, and families who understand that going in adjust far better than families who expect the ocean feeling to reappear somewhere.
Flight access is the real compensation. DFW International and Love Field mean nonstop service almost anywhere, which makes going back considerably easier than it is from most mainland cities.
08Culture
The Cultural Adjustment Is Bigger Than the Weather
Aloha and it does not translate
Hawaii's culture is genuinely distinct: multigenerational family structure, a Pacific and Asian identity that shapes everything, and a particular ease and pace in how people relate to each other. North Texas is warm and friendly and it is not that.
What helps most
Families who plan for this adjust far better than families blindsided by it. Name it before you move rather than discovering it in month four.
The food is the daily reminder. Poke, plate lunch, malasadas, and genuinely good Japanese and Filipino food are hard to replace here, though DFW's Asian food scene in Plano, Richardson, and Carrollton is far better than outsiders expect.
There is a real Pacific Islander and military community here, concentrated around the western side and the northern suburbs. Finding it early makes the first year considerably easier.
09Daily life
TheBus and Skyline Do Not Transfer
Plan on driving and probably on two cars
Honolulu has genuine transit in TheBus and the Skyline rail, and a lot of families rely on it. DART rail is useful along its corridors, including the Silver Line to DFW Airport, but it is a commuter system rather than a network you can build a car-free life around.
What actually changes
DFW is a driving metro with rail attached rather than the reverse. Where a one-car household works is Uptown, Deep Ellum, and along the rail spine. Anywhere else, plan on two.
The distances are the surprise. Oahu is about forty miles across. DFW sprawls further than that in every direction, and a twenty-minute drive on a map is regularly forty-five at rush hour.
Cars are cheaper here, both to buy and to maintain, without the shipping and island premium. That offsets part of the second-vehicle cost.
10Daily life
Toll Roads Are Entirely New
Zero → 50+ toll roads, Hawaii to Texas
Oahu has no toll roads, so you arrive with no transponder and no habits around them. DFW runs one of the largest toll networks in the country, and driving it untagged means paying meaningfully higher rates by mail.
Do this in your first week
Get a TollTag before you start commuting. Driving untagged while you settle in is the most expensive avoidable mistake new arrivals make.
Some corridors use dynamic pricing that rises with congestion, so the worst time to use them is exactly when you most want to.
Factor it into the suburb decision, because two neighbourhoods twenty minutes apart can differ by a hundred dollars a month depending on the corridor.
11Costs money
The Homestead Exemption Has a Hard Deadline
April 30 file or lose the year
Hawaii counties have their own homeowner exemptions, so the concept is loosely familiar, but the Texas version works differently and matters more because the base rate is so much higher. Applications are accepted January 1 through April 30, with late filing allowed up to two years after the delinquency date with a penalty.
The order nobody explains
Your Texas driver's licence address must match the property. Appraisal districts reject applications where it does not, so register the vehicle first, then get the licence at the property address, then file the exemption.
Active duty military should confirm with their legal office, since federal protections change how residency and registration work for service members.
This is what starts your 10 percent appraisal cap, which matters here because your rate multiplied several times over from Hawaii's.
12Daily life
Shipping the Car Is Rarely Worth It
30 / 90 days, and they are different clocks
Thirty days to register your vehicle with the county tax office. Ninety days to get a Texas driver's licence from DPS. Active duty have different rules under federal protections. And there is an island-specific question worth answering before you book anything.
Ship or sell, and then the paperwork
Run the shipping cost against local prices before you commit. Vehicles are meaningfully cheaper on the mainland, and salt-air corrosion on an older island car often makes selling there and buying here the better decision.
Register the vehicle before you go to DPS. The licence application asks for proof of Texas registration, so the county tax office is your first stop.
Texas dropped the annual safety inspection for most non-commercial vehicles in January 2025, but emissions testing is still required in the most populous counties, which includes all of DFW. Hawaii's annual safety inspection means the concept is familiar.
Nothing matches that filter. Try another one.
Figures are general estimates and vary by property, county, and provider. Hawaii has the lowest effective property tax rate in the nation and the lowest base homeowners premium, though hurricane coverage is separate and lava-zone insurability varies. Hawaii levies an estate tax; Texas does not. Active duty military registration, licensing, and residency rules differ under federal protections; confirm with your legal office. General information, not legal or tax advice.
North Texas Market Insider™ · Cost & Lifestyle Ledger
Hawaii vs North Texas, Honestly
Hawaii is the one origin state where the money runs overwhelmingly toward Texas and the hard part is everything else. A modest Oahu sale frequently buys a large North Texas house outright. What you weigh against that is the ocean, the climate, and a culture with no mainland equivalent. Three of these eight rows go against Texas.
North Texas winsHawaii wins
HousingHawaii$973,555 median, July 2025vsNorth Texas~$405,000 metro medianNorth Texas
STATE
The most expensive housing market in the United States, roughly two and a half times the DFW median.
North Texas
Frequently purchased outright by Hawaii sellers, with a substantial amount left over.
The largest financial swing on this site
This is not a smaller mortgage, it is often no mortgage. Plan what the freed capital does before you land.
Know your capital gains position first. On a long-held Hawaii property the gain above the federal exclusion is taxable.
Income taxHawaii1.4% to 11%vsNorth TexasNoneNorth Texas
STATE
Among the highest top marginal rates in the country.
North Texas
No state income tax on wage or business income at any level.
A clean win
Combined with the housing swing, the financial case here is the easiest on my site.
The hard parts of this move are not financial, which is unusual and worth saying plainly.
Excise and sales taxHawaiiGET ~4.712% on Oahu, on nearly everythingvsNorth Texas~8.2% combined, narrower baseNorth Texas
STATE
Applies to rent and services rather than just retail goods, so it compounds through the entire economy.
North Texas
A higher headline rate that does not sit on your rent or most services.
The rate looks worse and behaves better
Groceries and utilities fall substantially, and that is the line families notice weekly rather than annually.
Property taxHawaii~0.27% effective, lowest in the nationvsNorth Texas1.36–1.58% averageHawaii
STATE
Hawaii genuinely has the best property tax rate in America, applied to very high values.
North Texas
A much higher rate applied to a far cheaper house, so the annual bill often still falls.
The rate multiplies, the bill usually does not
Run your own numbers rather than assuming either direction.
Watch for a MUD, which stacks on the base rate and can flip a favourable comparison.
SchoolsHawaiiA single statewide districtvsNorth TexasOver a thousand independent districtsEven
STATE
One system, so the address does not change the school. Private schools like Punahou and Iolani carry the load for many families.
North Texas
The address decides everything, and the strong districts frequently replace private tuition entirely.
Different rather than better or worse
Choosing a district is a genuinely new skill and it is the biggest practical adjustment in your search.
For tuition-paying families the math flips, often eliminating the largest recurring expense after housing.
ClimateHawaiiThe best in AmericavsNorth TexasHot summers, ice in winterHawaii
STATE
Consistently mild year round, which is a real quality-of-life asset and not a small one.
North Texas
90 to 100 with humidity June into September, plus two to four ice events a year.
A clear loss with a small compensation
The first summer is a shock and the first ice storm is a bigger one.
What you gain is genuine autumn and spring, which many island transplants come to value more than expected.
Ocean and cultureHawaiiThe Pacific, and an identity built on itvsNorth TexasLakes, and a large Asian food sceneHawaii
STATE
Year-round water culture, multigenerational family structure, and a Pacific and Asian identity with no mainland equivalent.
North Texas
Real lakes within an hour or two with cheap boat ownership, and better Asian food than outsiders expect in Plano and Richardson.
The row that decides the first year
The cultural loss is bigger than the weather loss and it deserves to be named before you move rather than discovered after.
There is a real Pacific Islander and military community here. Finding it early makes an enormous difference.
The overall tradeHawaiiParadise, at the highest cost in AmericavsNorth TexasOrdinary setting, extraordinary economicsNorth Texas
STATE
The best climate and setting in the country, the lowest property tax rate, and the highest housing costs and among the highest income taxes.
North Texas
No income tax, housing at 40 percent of Hawaii's, and frequently no mortgage at all, traded for the ocean and the culture.
Stated plainly
Three of these rows go against Texas and every one of them is about quality of life rather than money.
The financial case is the easiest on this site. Almost nobody leaves Hawaii because the numbers are wrong here.
Whether this works depends on how honestly you weigh the ocean and the culture, and I would rather you do that now than after you have moved.
General information rather than advice. Hawaii has the lowest effective property tax rate in the nation and the lowest base homeowners premium, though hurricane coverage is separate and lava-zone insurability varies. Hawaii levies an estate tax; Texas does not. Confirm current figures before relying on them.
North Texas Market Insider™ · Schools
Four Ways Hawaii Families Choose a District
Hawaii runs a single statewide school district, so choosing a district is a genuinely new concept and it is the biggest practical adjustment in your search here. Texas has over a thousand independent districts and the address decides the school. For families currently paying Punahou or Iolani tuition, the strong public districts here change your monthly math substantially. These are the four patterns I see.
Each bar is drawn on the same $0 to $2.6M scale, so the widths are directly comparable across all four tiers.
Deeply resourced districts with high parent involvement and serious programme depth, and for Hawaii sellers frequently reachable without a mortgage at all.
What you're actually getting
This is where the private school math flips. A family paying Punahou or Iolani tuition can frequently buy into a top public district here outright and eliminate the tuition line entirely.
Kailua, Hawaii Kai, and Honolulu heights equity reaches this tier comfortably against a DFW median near $405,000.
Best for families who want the strongest public option and have the equity to take it without financing.
Tier 2Familiar structure
$400K–$700K
"Master-Planned and Modern"
Frisco ISD · Prosper ISD · Allen ISD · Plano ISD · Wylie ISD
Large districts with multiple high schools and deep course catalogues, inside master-planned communities with pools and amenity centres.
What you're actually getting
Mililani, Kapolei, and Ewa families find this immediately familiar. Those are the closest things Hawaii has to a Texas master-planned suburb, and the structure here is the same at a fraction of the cost.
Scale is the real difference. Multiple high schools per district means broader AP, dual-credit, and career pathway options than a single statewide system can deliver locally.
Best for families who want community amenities and to keep a large share of the equity.
The western districts, and the right answer for anyone arriving on orders or separating into DFW defense work.
What you're actually getting
DFW has no single dominant base town, which genuinely surprises families used to island military life. The closest equivalent is this western corridor around NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base.
Keller and Grapevine-Colleyville are genuinely strong, and Northwest ISD covers a fast-growing area with newer construction at reasonable pricing.
Best for PCS arrivals, separating service members, and defense contractors.
The lake corridors and rural areas where acreage is a normal thing to own and water is thirty minutes away.
What you're actually getting
Land in Hawaii is effectively unobtainable for most families. Here an acre is ordinary, which for a family used to Oahu density is a genuinely different way to live.
The lakes are the honest compromise on water. Lake Ray Hubbard, Lavon, and Whitney are real amenities with cheap boat ownership. They are not the Pacific and I will not pretend otherwise.
Check whether rural land qualifies for agricultural valuation, which changes the property tax math substantially on acreage.
School district information is provided as general information only and reflects the districts Hawaii families most frequently ask about. Attendance boundaries, program offerings, campus assignments, and performance data change and vary by campus. Verify all school information directly with the district before making any purchase decision. Home price ranges are general estimates and vary by neighborhood, campus, and market conditions. As a REALTOR® I comply fully with the Fair Housing Act and cannot and will not direct buyers toward or away from any community based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability.
By Bobby Franklin, REALTOR® — North Texas Market Insider | Serving Ellis County, the I-35E Corridor, and the DFW Metroplex Last updated: July. Continue reading
Dallas just claimed the #2 spot nationally for apartment construction with 28,958 units under...
Market Snapshot · Live NTREIS Data
What the DFW Market Is Actually Doing
In Hawaii, what a home sold for is recorded and public. In Texas it is not. Sales price information provided to appraisal districts is confidential under Tax Code 22.27, which means every national site you have been browsing is estimating closed prices here rather than reporting them. These four charts come from NTREIS, the MLS, where the confirmed numbers actually live.
Median Sales Price
What Your Equity Actually Buys
The middle point of all closed sales, so one luxury outlier cannot skew it. Hold this against Hawaii and the gap is unlike anything else on this site. Hawaii's statewide median ran $973,555 in July 2025, roughly two and a half times the DFW median near $405,000. A modest Oahu sale frequently buys a large North Texas house outright.
Chart: Median sales price across the DFW market, tracked monthly. Source: NTREIS MLS.
Closed Sales
How Much Is Actually Trading
Completed transactions where financing cleared and the home changed hands. Read it against price, never alone. Rising prices with rising volume is genuine demand. Rising prices with falling volume means sellers are holding a number that fewer buyers will accept, and that is precisely when concessions start showing up in contracts.
Chart: Closed sales volume across the DFW market, tracked monthly. Source: NTREIS MLS.
Percent Of Original List Price
How Far Sellers Actually Move
What homes closed for measured against their original ask, before any price reductions. Near 100 percent means sellers are holding firm. Below it, that gap is your negotiating room. This is the single most useful number to carry into an offer, and out-of-state buyers almost never ask for it.
Chart: Percent of original list price received across the DFW market, tracked monthly. Source: NTREIS MLS.
Showings To Pending
How Hard Sellers Are Working
How many showings it takes to produce one home going under contract. This is the earliest honest signal on the page. A low number means homes are selling on the first weekend and you will be competing. A climbing number means sellers are opening the door again and again before anyone writes, and that is buyer leverage arriving weeks before it ever reaches an asking price.
Chart: Showings required per pending sale across the DFW market, tracked monthly. Source: NTREIS MLS.
All four charts update automatically from NTREIS as new sales close. Want these numbers filtered to the specific submarkets you are considering, with your Hawaii sale price run against them? Call 214-228-0003.
Bobby Franklin, REALTOR® · Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team · northtexasmarketinsider.com
North Texas Market Insider™ · Hawaii Relocation
What Hawaii Families Ask Me
Ten answers on the questions that come up on every Hawaii relocation call. The money is the easy part of this move, so most of these are about everything else.
How far does my equity actually go?
Further than from any other state I work with. Hawaii's statewide median ran $973,555 in July 2025 against a DFW median close to $405,000. A modest Oahu house frequently buys a large North Texas house outright with a substantial amount left over.
This is not a smaller mortgage, it is frequently no mortgage. Decide what that freed capital is for before you land. And know your capital gains position first: the federal exclusion is $250,000 single and $500,000 married filing jointly with the two-of-five-year test, and on a long-held Hawaii property the gain above that is taxable.
Do my taxes actually improve?
On income, substantially. Hawaii's income tax runs from 1.4 percent to 11 percent, among the highest top rates in the country, and Texas charges nothing on wage or business income at any level.
The general excise tax also goes away. Hawaii's GET runs about 4.712 percent on Oahu and applies to nearly every transaction including rent and services. Texas has a conventional sales tax averaging about 8.2 percent, a higher headline rate on a much narrower base.
What happens to my property taxes?
The rate multiplies. Hawaii has the lowest effective property tax rate in the entire country at roughly 0.27 percent, against a Texas average of 1.36 to 1.58 percent depending on methodology.
But you are applying that higher rate to a far cheaper house, so the actual annual bill frequently lands lower here despite the rate. Run your own numbers rather than assuming either way, and watch for a MUD on new construction, which stacks on top and can flip a favourable comparison.
I'm PCSing or separating. Where should I look?
The western side. DFW has no single dominant base town, which genuinely surprises families used to island military life, and the closest equivalent is the corridor around NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base.
If you are separating into defense work, Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth plant and Bell are both out there too. Start in the Mid-Cities, Keller, or North Fort Worth. Active duty registration and licensing rules differ under federal protections, so confirm your situation with your legal office.
Does my career transfer?
It depends heavily on the field. Military and defense roles transfer into the western corridor. Healthcare, corporate, logistics, and finance all have deep DFW markets.
What does not transfer is Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard submarine maintenance, Pacific-facing federal work, and tourism at Hawaii scale. Those have no DFW counterpart, so if that is your trade, plan for a career change rather than a transfer and verify before you commit.
How do schools work here?
Very differently, and it is the biggest practical adjustment in your search. Hawaii runs a single statewide district, so the address does not change the school the way it does here. Texas has over a thousand independent districts and the address decides everything.
Two houses on opposite sides of a street can feed different districts with materially different outcomes. For families currently paying Punahou or Iolani tuition, buying into a top public district here frequently eliminates the tuition line entirely, which changes the monthly math substantially.
What happens to my insurance?
The headline goes up but the comparison is less lopsided than it looks. Hawaii carries the lowest base homeowners premium in the country at roughly $801, and Texas averaged $3,291 in 2024 per the Texas Department of Insurance.
Hawaii's base policy excludes what actually threatens you there: hurricane coverage is separate and expensive, and lava-zone properties can be hard to insure at all. Here you trade hurricane, tsunami, and lava for hail and tornado, with percentage-based deductibles rather than flat amounts.
How bad is the weather adjustment?
Real, in both directions. You are leaving the most consistently pleasant climate in the country. North Texas summers run 90 to 100 with humidity from June into September, and winters bring two to four ice events a year.
The first summer is a shock and the first ice storm is a bigger one, because infrastructure here is built for heat and a two-day event shuts the region down. What you gain is genuine autumn and spring, which many island transplants come to appreciate more than they expected.
What will I miss most?
The ocean, and it has no substitute. The Pacific, the reefs, and the year-round water culture have no equivalent here at any distance. Galveston is roughly seven hours away and it is a Gulf beach.
The cultural loss is bigger than the weather though. Multigenerational family structure, the Pacific and Asian identity, and the particular ease of island community do not exist here in that form. Families who name that before they move adjust far better than families who discover it in month four.
Should I ship my car?
Usually not, and it is worth running before you book anything. Vehicles are meaningfully cheaper on the mainland, and salt-air corrosion on an older island car often makes selling there and buying here the better decision.
If you do ship, register within thirty days of arriving and get your Texas licence within ninety. Texas dropped the annual safety inspection for most non-commercial vehicles in January 2025, but emissions testing is still required across all of DFW.
Question that isn't on this list? That's usually the one worth a phone call. Tell me where on the islands you're coming from and what you're trying to solve, and I'll give you a straight answer about how it works here.
Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team214-228-0003
North Texas Market Insider™ · Working Together
Your Hawaii-to-Texas Relocation Specialist
Hawaii families usually arrive with more buying power than they realise and less certainty about everything else. So I spend the first conversation on two things: what the equity actually reaches, and what the first year is going to feel like.
Most Hawaii sellers can buy a strong district outright, which is a different conversation from a mortgage pre-approval. And most Hawaii families underestimate the cultural adjustment and overestimate the weather one. Naming both early is the single most useful thing I do for an island move.
What I provide
What the equity actually reaches Hawaii's median ran $973,555 against a DFW median near $405,000. For most sellers that means no mortgage, and deciding what the freed capital does belongs before the move rather than after.
The capital gains conversation, early on a long-held Hawaii property the gain above the federal exclusion is taxable. That belongs with a CPA before you list, not after you close.
How to choose a district coming from one statewide system this is genuinely new. Two houses on the same street can feed different campuses, and I verify the specific school rather than trusting a listing label.
The private tuition math if you are paying Punahou or Iolani, a top public district here may eliminate that line entirely. That is often the largest number in the whole move.
West side for orders DFW has no single base town. NAS Fort Worth JRB, Lockheed, and Bell are all west, so PCS and separating families should start in the Mid-Cities or Keller.
Virtual property tours walked live on video with commentary, because most island families get one trip or none at all before they commit.
The honest first-year briefing the summer, the ice storm, and the cultural adjustment. Families who plan for these do far better than families blindsided by them.
Post-move support homestead exemption filing by April 30, the 30 and 90 day paperwork clocks, emissions testing, a TollTag in week one, and whether shipping the car is worth it at all.
Ready to plan your move to Texas?
Market insights · Strategic planning · No pressure
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