Current Real Estate Stats 

Wailuku, sitting astride the foothills of the West Maui Mountains, is the island's historical seat of government. In the past two decades it has been increasingly overshadowed by the residential, commercial, industrial and business developments in Kahului, but it is showing renewed signs of vigor as more businesses and residential developers rediscover the old town.


The main traffic artery, Kaahumanu Avenue (Route 32), becomes Wailuku's Main Street after it passes under the overpass bridge. Main Street heads up towards Iao Valley past a couple of service stations, old two-story wood-framed buildings with false fronts, art deco style storefronts, an old church, and more modern multi-storied buildings, including the County Courthouse and State government building.

On High Street, Kaulana O Maui, the multi-storied County administrative office building looms over low-lying historical buildings designed by island architect C. W. Dickey and simpler wood-framed buildings from a slower time. The Wailuku Public Library is across the street and so is Kaahumanu Church, Maui's first permanent church, a stone and plaster structure constructed in 1876, and named after the powerful cheifess.

In the same area, above Kaahumanu Church along Main Street, the Bailey House Museum, which is run by the Maui Historical Society, points to Wailuku's days as the early center of western culture on Maui. The Museum is a former missionary home; a stone and plaster structure completed in 1850. It has walls that are 20 inches thick and beams of hand-hewn sandalwood.

Wailuku is a good walking town. Trendy boutiques, small shops and a multitude of business and lawyers' offices rub shoulders with a number of very good eateries, funky pawn shops and antique and junk stores.

The historic Iao Theater is the home of the Maui Community Theater group which puts on a number of performances every year. The active merchant's association is working hard at trying to revitalize the town, which had become somewhat dormant as the more modern commercial and business areas in Kahului grew and grew.

Most of the day, parking is at a premium even though there's an un-metered public parking lot behind the stores lining Market Street that takes up most of the block bounded by Market, Vineyard and Church Streets.

At the end of Market Street, across the bridge over Iao Stream, one faintly notorious section of town is Happy Valley, a former red-light district that still retains some of its former charm (if not action). Surrounding the small strip of shops, businesses and funky apartments are little camps left over from the old plantation days.

Houses in Wailuku range from tiny, sometimes almost falling-down wooden structures to larger homes with gracious touches like high ceilings and big kitchens from another era to brand new, big houses with all the modern conveniences in newly built subdivisions. Despite the busy streets and all the activity around the town center, and the various industrial and commercial areas scattered through Wailuku, the residential areas seem to retain a quiet dignity -- mindful, perhaps of times past.