Who Lives in Princeville?

Bernard Markowicz

2 days ago

7 min read

PHCA, PV2 and the shopping center: residents, owners and visitors

Friends of Princeville | October 14, 2026

Princeville has a resident community, a population of returning owners, and a changing population of visitors. Each uses the same roads, paths, shops and services, but their connections to the community differ. Understanding that composition helps explain why a Census population figure tells only part of Princeville’s story.

This account draws on the U.S. Census and American Community Survey, PHCA membership records, County property-tax information assembled for our study, condominium-project records, and published resort information. Sources and methods appear at the end. It covers three parts of the community: the Princeville at Hanalei Community Association (PHCA) area, Princeville II (PV2), and Princeville Shopping Center.

These areas do not share identical boundaries with the Census-designated place called Princeville or the broader ZIP Code Tabulation Area 96722. Census statistics describe the resident community within their stated geography. Membership and property records help explain housing, ownership and use within the study areas.

The resident community

The 2020 Census counted 2,157 residents in Princeville’s Census-designated place. The 2020–2024 American Community Survey provides a more recent estimate of 2,020 residents. The second figure is a survey estimate covering five years, rather than a headcount taken on a particular day. The ACS describes a community with relatively small households and an older age profile. Its estimated median age is 53.3 years, compared with 40.9 for Hawaiʻi. It reports approximately 899 households, with about 2.3 people per household. These figures include resident tenants as well as homeowners. A household is not the same thing as a property, an ownership interest or a vacation booking. [1–2]

Table 1. The resident community in Census figures

Measure	Figure	Reference
Resident population	2,157	2020 Census, Princeville CDP
Estimated resident population	2,020	2020–2024 ACS, Princeville CDP
Median age	53.3 years	ACS; margin of error ±4.9 years
Households	899	ACS; margin of error ±153
Persons per household	2.3	ACS; margin of error ±0.1
Housing units	2,722	ACS; margin of error ±184

The housing inventory is much larger than the number of resident households. That difference is relevant in a resort community, but it is not a direct count of vacation rentals. Housing units can be used seasonally, offered for rent, vacant for other reasons, or occupied by people whose usual home is elsewhere.

PHCA: homes and visitor accommodation

The PHCA membership file used for this analysis contains 1,156 records labeled as condominiums and 769 labeled as single-family properties. Together, these account for 1,925 residential records. [3] A condominium describes a form of property ownership, not how the property is used. It may be a full-time home, a long-term rental, a second home or a vacation rental. An association of apartment owners, or AOAO, manages the shared affairs of a condominium project. It is distinct from PHCA and from the commercial name under which a resort operates.

PHCA has 28 named AOAO entries, including Westin. Of those, 27 carry project-registration numbers. Timeshares form another substantial part of the accommodation mix. Our model contains an inventory of 842 physical units across nine resort components, including 179 Westin villas. Ownership intervals do not create additional physical dwellings, and a villa that can be divided into separately occupied sections remains one physical villa in this inventory [5.] For hotel accommodation, 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay publishes 252 rooms, including 51 suites. The suites are part of the 252-room total. Westin is included in the model’s timeshare inventory, even when accommodation is offered through hotel booking channels; counting it again as a separate hotel inventory would duplicate those units. [5–6]

PV2: a separate residential area

PV2 covers the residential area along Queen Emma’s Drive and Aloaliʻi Drive. It is outside the PHCA membership list used here and includes individual homes and two AOAOs. The study’s current inventory contains 173 dwellings. [5] PV2 rentals have a 30-day minimum.

Owners who do not live in their property full-time

Mailing addresses and tax classifications help describe ownership patterns, although neither proves how many months an owner occupies a home. Of the 1,925 PHCA residential records, 1,191, or 61.9%, have identifiable off-Kauaʻi mailing addresses. Another 731 have Kauaʻi mailing addresses. [3] Among 1,012 records classified solely as vacation rentals, 869, or 85.9%, have off-Kauaʻi mailing addresses. Another 140 have Kauaʻi addresses, including 87 in Princeville. Three remain unresolved; one additional record with a mixed tax classification is kept separate.

A local address on a vacation-rental record is not contradictory. An owner may live in one Princeville home and rent another to visitors. An address can also belong to an agent or manager. Another 282 records combine an off-Kauaʻi mailing address with a known tax classification other than vacation rental. We describe these as likely part-time or absentee owners. Some may use their homes seasonally; others may rent them long-term or leave them vacant. Forty additional off-island records lack a tax classification. These indicators do not establish an exact percentage of homes without full-time owner occupancy.

How much property value is associated with owner occupancy?

The property schedule assembled for the economic study provides a preliminary comparison across PHCA, PV2 and the shopping center. It contains approximately $4.22 billion in assessed property value, using its 2026 assessment reference.

Of that amount, approximately $591 million, or 14.0%, is classified as owner-occupied. Including owner-occupied mixed-use property adds about $86 million, bringing the combined figure to $676 million, or 16.0%. The broader definition is shown below. [5]

Table 2. Assessed property value across the three study areas

Study area	Assessed value in the study schedule	Owner-occupied plus owner-occupied mixed-use	Share of area’s assessed value
PHCA	$3.826 billion	$557 million	14.6%
PV2	$325 million	$119 million	36.7%
Shopping center	$69 million	$0 in these classes	0.0%
Combined study coverage	$4.221 billion	$676 million	16.0%

Rounded figures. The denominator includes residential, resort and commercial property within the assembled schedule. These are provisional assessment totals.

This comparison shows that the property base extends well beyond homes in owner-occupied tax classes. Kauaʻi residents can own rental or commercial property, and tax classifications describe property treatment rather than the owner’s complete circumstances. Assessed value is also different from market sale value, mortgage-free wealth or economic output. A future Friends of Princeville post will examine Princeville’s contribution to the Kauaʻi economy through visitor and resident spending, employment, property activity and taxes. The property-value comparison here provides context for that discussion.

The people present on a typical day

Usual residents are only part of the population present in Princeville. Hotel guests, timeshare occupants and vacation-rental visitors add to the overnight population. Employees commuting into the area and people visiting for the day affect daytime activity. The economic model estimates visitor presence from accommodation units, occupancy rates and guests per occupied unit.

Princeville Shopping Center: serving a wider community

The shopping center is the third part of this account. Its role is commercial and social rather than residential: it provides groceries, dining, retail and services for PHCA and PV2 residents, visitors, and customers from elsewhere on the North Shore. Employees, deliveries and customers contribute to activity throughout the day. The center therefore matters when considering service demand, circulation and the daily experience of Princeville, even though it is not assigned a resident population in this study. Its customer base extends beyond the people counted as Princeville residents. At the same time, customers already counted as residents or accommodation guests should not be added again. Employment estimates and sales estimates belong in the economic analysis; neither substitutes for a measured count of people.

What this means for Princeville

PHCA and PV2 include homes, rental properties and accommodation used for varying portions of the year. The shopping center serves these groups and a wider North Shore population. Census residents, part-time owners, tenants, visitors and workers have different connections to Princeville, but share its landscape, roads, paths and services.

Community planning needs to recognize both the people who live here and the people whose presence changes throughout the year. Property values also show the scale of the assets connected to this community. A useful factual picture keeps these dimensions together while being clear about what each number measures.

For PHCA, this diversity has a practical implication: community management must span the interests and needs of all segments of its population—full-time and part-time owners, resident tenants, and people staying in vacation rentals, timeshares and the hotel. Communication, maintenance, safety and long-term planning should reflect that range, while protecting members’ investments and the quality of life of those who live here. A future post will examine what this means for PHCA’s priorities and management practices.

Data sources and methods

1. Census population. The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 CDP table identifies Princeville as state 15, place 65075 and reports 2,157 residents. PHCA, PV2, the CDP and ZCTA 96722 are not interchangeable geographic units.

2. ACS profile. The Census Reporter profile for Princeville presents 2020–2024 Census Bureau ACS estimates. Table 1 transcribes that profile. ACS estimates cover five years and include sampling error. Other relevant tables include B01002, B11001, B25001, B25002, B25004 and B25010. See official ACS documentation. No population trend is inferred from the difference between the Census count and the ACS estimate.

3. Membership and ownership indicators. Mailing locations are classified from address fields; inconsistent addresses are flagged. Tax classes are retained separately, including missing and mixed classifications.

4. AOAO inventory. AOAO Information contains 28 named project entries.

5. Model and assessment calculations. The assessment comparison sums the “Assessed value $” field by area and tax class. The schedule contains 2,547 PHCA parcels, 187 PV2 parcels and three shopping-center parcels, with no repeated parcel IDs detected across those included rows. Parcel counts are not dwelling counts. Pure owner-occupied class totals $590,846,200; owner-occupied mixed-use adds $85,575,500. Combined assessed value is $4,220,775,800. The shares are 14.0% and 16.0%, respectively. Full mixed-use parcel value is included in the broader numerator, not an apportioned residential portion. These figures use the 2026 assessed-value field directly, not the model’s inflation-adjusted prior-year tax proxy. They inherit the schedule’s coverage and classification limitations; this draft did not undertake a new County valuation extraction. Property assessments do not measure infrastructure replacement value or all community assets.

6. Hotel and resort information. 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay’s official website and fact sheet report 252 rooms including 51 suites. The official Westin page identifies the resort; the 179-villa count and 842-unit timeshare total are provisional model inventory figures. Physical villas, hotel rooms, housing units, membership records and ownership intervals are not added as equivalent measures.

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