Work From Home Props Up Rents But Not Immigration
“Natalia Solar moved to a 49-story luxury tower in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood two years ago. She and a roommate paid $3,300 a month for a two-bedroom apartment…She renewed the following year for $3,500. Then when her lease expired earlier this year, the landlord delivered some shocking news: He was doubling the rent to $7,000 a month.” This is not an anomaly, according to Deborah Acosta at The Wall Street Journal.
- Fastest Rate: Miami-area apartment rents have soared 58% over the past two years, according to Realtor.com. The national average is around 19% during that same time period.
- Work For Home. Finance and technology professionals have been pouring into Miami, drawn by Florida’s year-round warm weather, lower taxes and what newcomers say is a more business-friendly environment. These new residents have high-paying jobs and are used to significantly higher rents in expensive West Coast and Northeast cities, making even the steepest Miami rents seem reasonable.
Things are so crazy in Miami’s rental markets that bidding wars are becoming a reality. In some cases, renters are offering anywhere from $200 and $500 above the monthly asking rent, while some agree to pay one year’s rent in advance.
However, even with all these high-tech workers, the industry needs more and if they can’t find them in the US they will gladly seek talent elsewhere Julie Bykowicz writes that The Wall Street Journal.
- Explosive growth. Remote jobs in tech jumped by more than 420% between January 2020 and last month, according to a jobs data review by Tecna. However, thanks to advances in technology more than 22% of all tech jobs were listed as remote.
- No growth. Despite the parabolic rise in tech jobs, the amount of H1-B visas issued hasn’t changed in 17 years. “The U.S. allows 65,000 skilled-worker visas annually under its H1-B program, plus another 20,000 for people who hold graduate degrees from American universities. Those numbers haven’t budged since 2005…”
Offshoring has been a buzzword for decades but has gotten less attention as wages rise and unemployment drops. However, with the rise of work from home culture, offshoring has become easier and less disruptive. Tech-industry representatives are telling legislators this week that the current remote-work trend will lead to more offshoring of software developers and other technology jobs unless the U.S. admits more high-skilled immigrants.
