Priced-Out Buyers in the Virgin Islands

From the NY Times:

COLLEEN WILSON, a lawyer who relocated her family to St. Thomas for a job at a multinational insurance company this spring, has not rented a home since she was 21. Not in Britain, nor in Jamaica, nor in Florida. Here in the Virgin Islands, however, she has been renting a three-bedroom house for more than eight months. And she doesn’t like it.

“Renting seems like such a waste,” she said, of the modest house on a small lot in the eastern Red Hook section of the island that could be hers to own for slightly more than $1 million.

“But I’m just not comfortable with the range of prices here,” she said. “Based on the property values in Miami, where we lived before, I expected to purchase something nice for $500,000 or under within six to eight months of exploring the island. Everything I’m interested in is $1.2 million, and I can’t see myself mortgaging my entire lifestyle to incur that kind of debt.”