According to Redfin, Boise, Idaho, has seen the largest increase of homebuyer income among the 100 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas. While many of the remote workers brought their higher salaries with them from their previous hometowns, employers in the cities to which they have moved have had to increase wages for their local workers in order to compete with those from out of state.
Boise is followed by other cities that have seen rapid increases in wages during the pandemic, including Austin, Texas, Cape Coral, Fla., Phoenix, Ariz., Stockton, Calif., Tacoma, Wash., and Salt Lake City.
“For white-collar workers earning high salaries, remote work is a huge financial boon. It enables them to move from a tech center like San Francisco to a more affordable part of the country like Boise or Salt Lake City, get more home for their money and save some for a rainy day,” said Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari. “It can have the opposite effect on locals in those destinations–especially renters–who are watching from the sidelines as home prices skyrocket while their income stays mostly the same.”