> A 1 bedroom place where I live costs $1400-1600 (it’s an unusually expensive tourist town) and things are closing down once in a while because of worker short

> A 1 bedroom place where I live costs $1400-1600 (it’s an unusually expensive tourist town) and things are closing down once in a while because of worker shortages (Eg, lifeguard shortage was the most recent I saw). Where are these workers supposed to live? I know other places aren’t nearly this bad. I just can’t believe anyone is able to work in retail or food here This is the crux, because what's happening is that housing is highly inflationary (especially in desirable locations) and wages are failing to match inflation, so entry level workers are being pushed further out to the boonies. Why would they commute all the way into the city centers if they don't actually pay better? An interesting side effect of all the rampant real estate speculation and bidding wars is that cities are becoming dramatically more expensive to live in than the exurbs. I feel like eventually this will result in a much higher cost of living across the board as employers need to account for this difference in their pay scales. The entry level / service industry jobs in these places with insane housing prices will need to pay much better to attract workers, thus making these already expensive-to-live places even more expensive. Perhaps it will eventually create some kind of equilibrium where new towns can provide some of the same quality of life benefits at a fraction of the cost since their real estate isn't so astronomical.