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Native Hawaiians who have been priced out of Hawaii are finding more affordable places to live in cities like Las Vegas KAPOLEI, Hawaii -- Kona Purdy never wanted to live anywhere but Hawaii. As a Native Hawaiian, he wanted his children to grow up like he did: rooted in their culture, and nourished by the mountains and ocean. But raising a family in Hawaii meant squeezing nine people into a four-bedroom house — rented with extended family — in Waipahu, a Honolulu suburb. It felt cramped, but the Purdys accepted that this was the price to survive in their homeland. “We stuffed ourselves into one room,” Purdy said of his four-member family's living arrangements. Their share of the monthly rent was $2,300. When rent increased, the Purdys realized that they could no longer afford to live in Hawaii. “I was so busy working, trying to make ends meet,” he said. “We never took our kids out to the beach. We didn’t go hiking.” It's increasingly common for Hawaii residents to be priced o...

Near-historic inflation has drawn attention to the cost of affording the basics. Near-historic price increases for basics like food and gas have drawn scrutiny to a question at the heart of the economy: How much money must a worker make to stay afloat? The price of eggs has risen nearly 50% over the last year; while the cost of milk and bread have each jumped about 15%. Even after falling from a summer peak, gas prices remain 10% higher than a year ago. While price increases have slowed in recent months, they continue to hover near a 40-year high. For some, a pay hike has softened the blow. Nearly half of U.S. states raised their minimum wages at the outset of 2023. Meanwhile, some major companies have recently upped their entry-level pay. Target, for instance, hiked its base wage to $24 an hour last year. As cost increases persist and workers try to keep up, buzzwords like “poverty wage,” “minimum wage” and “living wage” are coming back into the lexicon, shaping conversations about wh...