Former Honolulu resident Bert Thomas keeps tabs on Hawai'i home prices on the Internet and wonders how young people will ever afford to own a house here.

With Honolulu's median home price at $635,000, Thomas says you can do much better buying Mainland real estate.

"Hawai'i is becoming a very, very expensive place to live," said the airline executive who now lives near Las Vegas. "You get better values here."

A check of Money Magazine's 10 best big cities to live in confirms what Thomas said. In nine of the metropolitan areas, buyers spending $635,000 get bigger homes than in Hawai'i.

In Wichita, Kan., you can buy a 5,000-square-foot home on more than half an acre for $635,000. In Waikele, the same money gets you a 1,400-square-foot home on a 3,400-square-foot lot. Honolulu's median price is at least twice the median price in most of Money Magazine's top 10 cities.

MUCH TO LIKE HERE

Still, the allure of cheaper, bigger or more luxurious dwellings, is not enough to persuade most Hawai'i residents to leave the Islands.

They stay to be near family members or to avoid cold winters. They stay to enjoy the Aloha State's unique culture and society. Clean air and water and some of the most scenic landscape in the U.S. also are big draws. Hawai'i's life expectancy is the highest of any state and Honolulu's crime rate is among the lowest for a city its size.

And then there is the proximity to the water.

"You've got something called the ocean that we don't have here," quipped Amelia Sumerell, a real estate agent in Wichita, Kan., when asked about the gap in home prices.

"There's no place like it," added Louis Williams, a former Hawai'i resident who owns a real estate company in Austin, Texas. Williams and his wife left Hawai'i in 1976, but they come back every other year to visit and recently started looking for a vacation home here. "We love the food, the people."

A U.S. Census Bureau study in 2000 found people typically make long-distance moves for one of three reasons: family-related, work-related or housing-related.

MORE HOUSE FOR MONEY

Jean Sakai Howard, a Prudential Locations LLC real estate agent and relocation specialist in Honolulu, said she's seen many people moving away because they've been transferred for work or are looking for better wages and a lower cost of living.

One client relocated to Walnut Creek, Calif., a tony suburb of San Francisco, and was able to buy a house with 1,000 more square feet under roof. Another client bought a home that was similarly sized to the one they had in Hawai'i, but substantially lowered their monthly mortgage payments after plunking down their Hawai'i equity proceeds as a down payment.

MORE STILL LEAVING

The number of people migrating from Hawai'i to other states still outnumbers those who move here to take up residence. The overall state population continues to grow because of births and immigrants coming from other countries.

During Hawai'i's economic stagnation in the mid- to late 1990s, there was a greater number heading to the Mainland, with about 201,000 state residents heading out between 1995 and 2000. Hawai'i during that period had the second-highest net outflow, trailing only Washington, D.C.

California by far was the most popular landing spot for former Hawai'i residents, with Washington state, Texas, Virginia and Nevada also getting some.

Net migration (outgoing residents minus incoming residents) is still tilted in favor of people moving out, although the number has been much lower in recent years. Between 2000 and 2004, net migration was about 2,053 annually.

Howard, the Honolulu relocation specialist, said she knows of three friends who have moved to Texas and Colorado in the past six months to start families, buy cheaper housing, and take advantage of better school systems and lower living costs.

Some of those she's helped move report they're enjoying their new homes. But they also have a soft spot for Hawai'i.

"All these people who moved want to retire and come home," she said.

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.