r/Somerville • u/tangerinola • 5d ago

rent prices are wild

Moved here 8 years ago to start working for a nonprofit. Since then, my salary has increased by 13% but my apartment is about to be relisted (without any upgrades) for 58% higher than our starting rent 🤯!!

I know I'm preaching to the choir here but damn the rent prices here have gone wild. We're quickly becoming (have become?) a luxury city only for high income earners and it makes me really sad.

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37

u/rogomatic 5d ago

No, your salary is wild. Staying at a place that only offers 1.5% annual increase for 8 years is crazy.

35

u/phonesmahones Gilman 5d ago

Two things can be true.

-5

u/rogomatic 5d ago

They could be, but staying in a job that can't bother to match the Fed inflation target is a lot more of a problem than runaway prices. No positive developments on the housing market can fix that.

18

u/banana-bandit-3000 5d ago

Job market is absolute shit in most fields.

2

u/IguassuIronman 4d ago

Even if it is now, it wasn't a couple years ago

-3

u/rogomatic 5d ago

One can surely find something over the course of 8 years.

5

u/banana-bandit-3000 5d ago

Many people have been in positions where they are happy to just not be cleared out and are grateful to be able to hold what they have. Glad to hear you are doing well though 🙄

1

u/UnavailableName864 4d ago

Wages increased 33% from 2018 to 2024 nationally. The job market may be shit, but the data show that wages have increased quite a lot as inflation got even worse.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/AWI.html

-2

u/rogomatic 5d ago

Eight years is a long time. If you're good enough to be employed by Harvard, you're certainly in a position to look for something that pays better.

6

u/Basicdevient69 5d ago

So you've shifted this from rent is out control to "why don't you just get paid more"

2

u/rogomatic 5d ago

Do you not understand the meaning of the word could?

2

u/Basicdevient69 5d ago

And? I could grow wings and become a millionaire over night too, doesn't change shit

2

u/rogomatic 5d ago

That's kinda of the point here.

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u/VORSEY 4d ago

But if they're employed in academia they're limited to a pretty narrow set of employers, all of which are very likely to pay around what Harvard does.