To the editor:

I agree with Mr. Tapert’s resolve not to frequent a restaurant he feels over-charges, but

I couldn’t let Ms. Tully’s assertion South Whidbey is turning into an elitist enclave go unchallenged, despite her entreaty not to state the obvious: try living elsewhere in the Seattle Metro Area.

My husband and I own a two-person, blue collar business and we are Western Washington natives who grew up on the east side of Lake Washington.

When we were kids, there wasn’t much but trees and a few houses, small neighborhoods and businesses between downtown Bellevue — Bellevue Square was more like a little strip mall then — and the rest of the eastside. I lived a bit south of Bellevue and we used to walk across I-405, which had one lane running each way in those days, to go down to Lake Washington to swim.

In 1980 we bought our first home, a two-bedroom rambler in Eastgate, for $66,000. It was more expensive than properties farther out in the sticks, but it was conveniently located for our jobs and families. When we wanted to find a larger house in 1997, we chose to move to Whidbey Island because there was a wide variety of homes and property for sale and we weren’t priced out of the market, as was the case in Bellevue.

This little trip down memory lane is to educate people who came here from less expensive regions to the fact that the disparity in home prices between here and parts of Alabama, Montana, or the Midwest, for example, has existed for a long time. What Ms. Tully says about home prices on South Whidbey, people here have been saying about California for decades.

I am sorry you lost money on your Midwest home sale, Ms. Tully, but most of the people who are selling their homes here for what you consider outrageous prices, bought them at outrageous prices. Would it make you feel better if they, too, lost money?

I agree with you that any community is a better, stronger and more vibrant place with children, families, and a diverse population, yet sometimes the reality of economics takes its toll on these qualities. There are McMansions being built left and right around here, it seems, something that tends to raise property values. And many people do retire to South Whidbey, which doesn’t increase our school enrollment.

However, $250,000 starts to look pretty good as a middle class home when one considers that the Seattle Times reported the median selling price of a single-family home in King County dropped to $415,000 in September.

Antoinette Grove

Langley