The DC Area is One of the Only Places Where Tech Wages Grow Faster than Rent

• March 29th 2019

by Nena Perry-Brown

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A recent analysis by Rent Café reveals that the DC area not only has the second-largest concentration of tech jobs in the country, it is also one of the few regions where IT employees' wage growth outpaces rent growth.

7.3 percent of jobs in the DC area are in the technology sector, second only to San Jose, California where tech jobs represent 12.1 percent of the market. However, from 2016 to 2019, average rents ($2,871) grew in San Jose by 6.9 percent while the average tech wage ($126,200) dropped by 0.8 percent. For the DC metro, average rents ($1,780) rose by 5.8 percent while the average tech wage ($109,400) grew by 6.8 percent. Tech workers in the DC region typically spend about 20 percent of their income on rent, far below the recommended affordability threshold of 30 percent. 

It will be interesting to see how tech wages and rental rates behave once Amazon employees begin moving to the DC area over the next few years. The average Amazon employee salary is expected to be $150,000 a year.

For context, the Rent Café analysis used Yardi Matrix average rents from 2016 adjusted into 2019 dollars. The IT jobs numbers/proportions and average wages are culled from 2017 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, with the wages adjusted into 2019 dollars.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc-is-one-of-few-metro-areas-where-it-wages-grow-faster-than-rent/15186.