The typical out-of-state Hawai'i property owner has an annual income of about $180,000, is from California, owns a condominium on Maui or O'ahu, visits it two to three times a year for less than a month each time, spends about $4,300 per trip plus another $10,000 a year on maintenance, and rents out the home when not using it.

Those are the findings of an SMS Research study released yesterday.

The new study, presented to the Travel and Tourism Research Association's Hawai'i chapter, calculated that there are 14,256 out-of-state property owners on O'ahu, followed by 12,400 on Maui and 5,803 on the Big Island. The study does not include Kaua'i properties or time-shares, said SMS senior project director Aaron Peterson.

Condominiums and single-family homes owned by those living primarily outside Hawai'i make up 20 percent of all properties on Maui, 9 percent on the Big Island and 4 percent on O'ahu, Peterson said.

These out-of-state property owners contribute a total of about $301 million in visitor spending on O'ahu, the Big Island and Maui, making up about 3 percent of the total visitor spending on those islands, according to the study. They also spend about $321 million to maintain their properties each year.

The number of out-of-state property owners is relatively small compared to the roughly 7.4 million visitors who are projected to come to Hawai'i this year. But state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert, who listened to the presentation, said they are "confirmation that we have satisfied visitors."

"When they bought, they were visitors, and they enjoyed it so much here that they invested in our Islands through real estate," she said.

Many of the Maui and Big Island properties owned by non-Hawai'i residents are concentrated in what many would consider tourist areas, such as Wailea, Lahaina and Kailua, Kona. But many of the O'ahu homes owned by those out of state are not just in Waikiki but in other areas such as elsewhere in Honolulu and in Leeward and Central O'ahu.

About 70 percent of out-of-state owners on O'ahu and Maui rent their properties when they're not there, while more than half on the Big Island leave their properties vacant. Peterson said that's probably because O'ahu and Maui have a higher percentage of condominiums than the Big Island. Nearly half of the Big Island properties owned by those out of state are single-family homes.

Popular reasons to buy a home in Hawai'i include investment purposes, retirement and to have a vacation/second home in Hawai'i.

Most out-of-state property owners are from the Mainland, with more than half from California, Peterson said. Hawai'i out-of-state property owners' average incomes of about $180,000 a year is also notably higher than the average U.S. second-home buyer income of $71,000, he said.

The methodology for the study included an analysis of property-tax records and a survey of about 1,000 out-of-state property owners, Peterson said. He said SMS will post the presentation on www.smshawaii.com this week.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.