“Some Families Earn Six Figures and Still Need Help With the Rent” is a December 1 Wall Street Journal article on Americans’ increasing aversion to using markets to allocate resources:
Cambridge, Mass., a hub for prestigious universities and biotechnology companies, is setting aside apartments to help an unexpected group of people find lower rents: families with incomes topping $100,000.
The city recently held a lottery for 15 units with below-market rents, in a new building a few subway stops from downtown Boston. A family of four with an income well into the six-figure range—a maximum of $118,200—could qualify for some of the apartments.
In Cambridge, home to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, median rents have soared about 36% since late 2010 to $2,750 a month, according to Zillow, a real-estate information company. That’s higher than the median rents across the five boroughs of New York City, which run about $2,295, though not as steep as the $4,128 median rents in Manhattan.
“People who have been able to be here in the past without assistance are now facing challenges,” said Chris Cotter, Cambridge’s housing director, raising concerns “about a hollowing out of that middle.”
I.e., the government will decide who gets to live in Cambridge.
Related:
- “HUD Homes at Half Price” is a New York Times piece on how government workers can buy houses at a different price than can private sector workers
So the typical science PhD holder will most likely need government assistance to work in one of the “biotech hubs”?
Scientist: the typical PhD who works in Cambridge and who has not been favored by the central housing ministry can either (1) rent a room (or half a room!) in a shared apartment or house in a crummy neighborhood that is still technically part of Cambridge, or (2) rent his or her own apartment in a suburb and commute.