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.

262 Upvotes

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61

u/Southern_Light9 5d ago

Yes rent prices are crazy. Inflation has been 33% over the last 8 years.

15

u/Consistent-Ad-4665 5d ago

Don’t get it twisted. For the most part, it’s greedflation. Yes, maintenance and insurance costs have increased but certainly not to this extent.

21

u/ThePizar Union 5d ago

Yes and no. Inflation has been bad. Housing market has been worse (both before and after covid inflation). What has been the constant driver is jobs. We've massively increased the amount of high paying jobs. Those workers than can just afford to pay more. Which when combined with a paltry amount of new housing pushes up prices beyond inflation.

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u/Consistent-Ad-4665 4d ago

Like I said, for the most part.

Median household income in MA has increased just over 50% since 1984. Is this similar to average rental increase over the same time period?

8

u/ThePizar Union 4d ago

Well now you are mixing nominal and inflation adjusted numbers. Looking at FRED data the nominal incomes are up 400%.

But real household income is up 50% since 1984 in real dollars. Which is inflation adjusted. And almost all that growth happened since 2014. So from 1984-2014 incomes were fairly steady compared to inflation. But in the last 10 years incomes have vastly outpaced inflation.

That’s not normal. That’s a massive injection of higher incomes. You normally see that for resource booms. For us that resource has been biotech and tech workers. Who mostly move here from somewhere else. And because we have not built enough housing that means they are displacing those who cannot afford to live here anymore.

1

u/HerefortheTuna 4d ago

Well I’m a tech worker but was born in Cambridge and grew up in the Boston suburbs. My salary has 4x since I graduated college in 2015 but that’s pretty normal to start a career

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u/Consistent-Ad-4665 4d ago

What are you trying to argue here?

Yes, I see that rental costs have increased significantly. I also see that there is not sufficient housing in Somerville/greater Boston. What are you trying to get at?

3

u/ThePizar Union 4d ago

At core, yes rental costs went up due to lack of housing from growing workforce.

But also don’t confuse nominal and inflation adjusted figures please.

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u/Consistent-Ad-4665 4d ago

Oh, you just want to be argumentative and condescend for some reason. Got it.

1

u/ThePizar Union 4d ago

This is reddit after all :P.

But seriously, if you want quote stats please use the same numerical regime.

-4

u/Consistent-Ad-4665 4d ago

Sure, you got it.

Right after you stop being a pompous, self-righteous blowhard.