BOSTON–In Boston even high-earning technology professionals have a hard time keeping up with rising rental costs. According to analysis of the most recent BLS data by RENTCafe, IT wages in Boston metro saw a 0.4% decrease, while rents went up by 6.8%.
Here are a few highlights from the study:
- Tech tenants in Boston metro spend 27% of their income on rents, $2,211 per month on average. However, two regions from top of major IT hot spots pay: San Francisco ($3,084 average rent – 30% of techie income spent on rental costs) and San Jose ($2,871 average rent – 27% of techie income spent on rental costs).
- Boston boasts the eighth-largest share of employees in tech occupations on our list of the nation’s large IT hubs. Home to MIT and HubSpot, the metro has an IT job share of 5.3%, while professionals working in this sector make $99,300 on average.
- While rental costs are on the rise here, Boston witnessed the lowest boost in IT jobs among the nation’s large tech hot spots – an increase of as little as 1.8% between 2014 and 2017. By comparison, Charlotte, NC, the star of emerging tech hubs, upped its number of IT employees by a staggering 37.5% over the same 3-year period.
Top Metros with Largest Share of Jobs in IT Wages and rents in the top 15 largest IT hubs (Source: RentCafe.com)
Data Source: BLS, Yardi MatrixJob Share – 2017 share of IT job; Jobs – IT Jobs in 2017; Average Wage – from 2017 adjusted to 2019; Wage Change – from 2014 to 2017; Rent Change – 2016 to 2019;
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