The Big Island’s topography and location give it number one status on several lists. Ka’u makes the list for being the site of the southernmost tip of the United States, at Ka Lae Point. The area is also home to two of the island’s most active volcanoes: Kilauea and Mauna Loa.

While looking at a map of the Big Island of Hawaii, you’ll find the Ka’u district at the southern tip of the island, swinging around to the east. Some of the more popular areas within the Ka’u district include Naalehu and Hawaiian Ocean View Estates.

Ka’u real estate offers a broad range of prices. 2011’s median sales price for a Ka’u home was $105,100, which is down slightly from the year before: $115,000.

There is only one condo complex in the Ka’u district, the Colony One at Sea Mountain. Although the units are small, they offer an ideal vacation home. Rent it out to other visitors when you aren’t in the Islands. Current list prices on these condos, located near the famous Black Sands Beach, range from $125,000 to $235,000.

Single-family homes are equally inexpensive in Ka’u. Current prices range between $37,900 for a small cottage on one acre to $1.3 million for a home in the middle of macadamia nut groves.

There’s no shortage of vacant land on the Big Island and right now there’s over 400 listings in Ka’u alone. Build your dream home among the lava fields or coffee and mac farms. Prices for Ka’u vacant land run from a residential lot in Hawaiian Ocean View Estates for $4,500 to a whopping 1,363 acres of prime Big Island land for $11 million.

Although it may take you an hour or longer to make the drive into Kailua-Kona, and Ka’u feels remote, the area offers all the conveniences residents require. There’s a strong sense of community in the area and living is typical of the relaxed, laid-back Hawaiian style.

The Ka’u district is a nature lover’s dream. Hiking enthusiasts spend time at Manuka State Natural Area Reserve. Set aside in the 1930s, Manuka offers amazing native Hawaiian plant specimens on a hike that is somewhat rocky.

If ocean activities are more your style, Ka’u offers the spectacular Punalu?u Beach, also known as Black Sands Beach. The surf is a bit dangerous and the shallows are rocky so Black Sands is better suited to sun bathing and watching the sea turtles as they bask in the sun on the shoreline.