As home prices in Hawaii reach new highs, this newspaper once again reports Paul Brewbaker’s narrow-minded statements about the relative affordability of housing in Honolulu (“$800,000 Honolulu home median considered modest,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 2).

By quoting a few numbers and referring to general trends, he reaches conclusions with no sense of reality for most Honolulu families. Brewbaker ignores the fact that paying for an $800,000 house takes up more than 30 percent of a median household’s income, the threshold for affordability. That median-priced house is also not a three-bedroom, two-bath home that the household probably needs. That will cost you more like $1.24 million. A similar house in Akron, Ohio, costs $320,000.

I’m sure he is aware that skilled laborers and professionals in Honolulu are not paid four times as much as in Akron. It is long overdue for this newspaper to find someone else to discuss the numbers and trends of housing in Hawaii.

Travis Idol

Downtown Honolulu

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