Word is getting around about why Hawaii is super expensive

An online financial publication says Hawaii is the only state where single people need a six-figure income to live comfortably

from Grassroot Institute 

An article about how expensive it is to live in Hawaii — and why — was published this week by GoBankingRates.com and quickly picked up by other news organizations nationally and even internationally, including Yahoo!Finance, MSN.com, AOL.com, Nasdaq.com and New.EsEuro.com.

Titled "Here’s the Living Wage a Single Person Needs To Live Comfortably in Hawaii," the article cited the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii as a source for the statement that "the Aloha State’s cost of living is the highest in the U.S."

It said reasons for Hawaii's high costs include its isolated location, which adds to transportation costs; its limited land area, which affects the economies of scale for agriculture; its housing shortage, due to strict land-use and zoning regulations; and the federal Jones Act, which "creates higher shipping costs due to limited competition."

Because of all these factors, a single person in Hawaii needs to earn $112,411 a year to make what’s considered a living wage, wrote GoBankingRates reporter Vance Cariaga.

"It’s the only state where a six-figure salary is required to live comfortably," Cariaga noted, "and no other state even comes close."

Cariaga said Massachusetts ranked second with an annual income of $87,909, followed by California, $80,013; New York, $73,226; and Alaska, $71,570. In contrast, the state with the lowest required living wage is Mississippi, "where you only need to earn $45,906 a year to live comfortably."

Coincidentally, Grassroot posted a new video on social media this week titled "Why is Hawaii so expensive? Ten seconds is all it takes. See it here.