He's spent 5 years building a cabin in the woods in Hawaii to escape the Minnesota winters. Now, he's planning to move there for good.

19.08.2024 - 05:22 / insider.com

For the past five years, Aaron Monson has been spending his winters building his dream off-grid cabin in Hawaii.

Coming from Minnesota,ranked the third-coldest state in the US, this arrangement was perfect. And it all started with a two-week trip to Hawaii in 2019 for his aunt's wedding.

"While we were there, we came across some folks that had some land next to them for sale," Monson, 46, told Business Insider. "It wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be in Hawaii, so we were kind of surprised."

Once he returned from his vacation, he promptly booked another trip back to Hawaii.

"Through my conversations, I realized that it was within our budget to look for that kind of opportunity," Monson said. "And so, I came back by myself for two weeks and just scouted all the properties for sale."

Monson, who does barge work on a lake in the Minneapolis area, knew he wanted to be in a quiet area that wasn't too hot or cold. Back in Minnesota, he lives in a rental apartment with his girlfriend.

"We are fairly reserved people. We just like to have some space between us and other folks," Monson said. "So what I was looking for primarily was either really quiet neighbors or no neighbors at all."

It didn't take him long to find the right piece of land.

The three-acre plot was located in the southern part of Big Island, about six miles away from the Volcanoes National Park and 22 miles from Hilo International Airport.

All he had to do was get in contact with the listing agent, put down some earnest money to show he was serious about the purchase, and let her take care of everything else.

"It was my first time ever buying property, so I really didn't know what to do," he said. "I got really lucky, found the absolute perfect piece of property, and the rest is history."

Monson closed on the sale in May 2019 and paid $16,000 for the land.

The median land sales price on Big Island was $45,000 in April, per the latest data from Luva Real Estate.

Despite having no experience in construction, Monson planned to build his own off-grid cabin from the outset to keep his costs as low as possible.

Hawaii has been facing a shortage of affordable housing in recent years: The median price of a single-family home in the state is 2.7 times the national average. Hawaiian residents also spend about $3,070 on average for monthly expenses — the highest across all states, according to a 2023 report from online-bill-payment service Doxo.

Doing it himself also meant that he had a say over how the place looked.

"I wanted to build it a certain way, which is a lot different from how most places are built," Monson said. "There's a 300-foot path from the road to the house, and that separation is what I really like. I like the fact that you