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The average Boston renter spends 47% of their income on housing. In Seattle, it's 28%. Why? (www.wgbh.org)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

There's actually a decent sized income gap between the two cities, which no doubt contributes. Rents looks very comparable.

Median income for the city of Boston: $89,212 (source)

Median income for the city of Seattle: $116,068 (source)

Per the same source,

median gross rent is very comparable between the two cities ($1,945 vs. $1,981 in Seattle vs Boston, respectively)
Seattle has a higher percentage of its population with college degrees, which likely explains some of the higher income
Seattle also has a higher percentage of owner-occupied homes, which probably influences this, though I'm not exactly sure how.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Seattle, the actual city proper, only has a population of around 800k. But during work hours, it has a population of around 2.5 million.

Basically a huge amount of people live outside the city limits, all the lower wage workers.

Boston probably has a larger proportion of more poor people actually within its city limits.