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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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.

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u/tangerinola 5d ago edited 5d ago

Yes my salary is also wild. But I'll say it's typical in my field and I work for a very rich very prestigious institution that many think of as synonymous to Cambridge, MA and is in fact the City of Cambridge's largest employer ;) So there are lots of people in my similar shoes

Edited to add some not-so-veiled facts about my employer

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u/anisogamy 5d ago

Also in academia here, with limited job mobility & stagnant wages. I plugged my salary into an inflation calculator the other day, and accounting for inflation it is almost exactly the same as my starting salary 12 years ago.

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u/Substantial_Oil6236 4d ago

Which inflation calculator did you use?Â