I’m curious what industry your regulars who can no longer afford it are in. Definitely not construction, I’d guess.
IMO the local economy here is a preview of what we’re about to see everywhere soon. The middle class is getting squeezed like a sumbitch.
From what I’ve read, somewhere between 200-300 people move into AZ per day.
Every.
Single.
Day.
That’s been going on for a while now. So the cost of housing is very high. So high that people who make enough they should be able to buy a home easily, are renting instead. Rental occupancy is super high. All those people aren’t building any equity to get some financial breathing room. They’re just paying for their roof one month at a time.
But most employers are still looking at national averages info to determine how much a given position should be paid. In the other pockets around the country where cost of living has long been really high, the wages are as well, at least somewhat.
There’s a LOT of tech moving in here. Two of the largest microchip manufacturing plants in the world are now here. (No, I’m not saying THE biggest, but the plants are among the largest) Lots of tech companies are building data center type facilities here as well.
Those are good paying tech jobs, a lot of them. Still middle class but they have some money to throw around which drives up the cost of everything, putting the squeeze on the rest of the middle.
A LOT of those jobs are going to H1B people. Most likely not your target demographic. You seem great to me, but from what I’ve been able to gather, you don’t represent what most of them are looking for in a provider. 🤷♂️
I will also say that I’m curious what market share agencies are getting around here these days. I really don’t know, I’m not plugged in to that side of things at all. Based solely on the number of reviews popping up for agency ladies, I’d say their piece of the pie has grown significantly over the last couple years.
