A new study by Apartment List shows teachers in San Diego are facing financial hardship because their salaries have not kept up with the rising cost of housing.
The study reveals that 29% of teachers in the San Diego metro area are burdened with the cost of housing. They have a median income of almost 20 percent less than someone with a comparable degree working full-time.
“The difficulty of getting by on a teachers salary really makes it a less desirable profession," said Christopher Salviati, housing economist with Apartment List. "And so we are really forcing folks who want to get into the teaching profession to make that sacrifice that might face difficulties financially.”
He said the disproportionate ratio of salary to housing cost has forced many teachers into hard times. Nearly 1 in 3 teachers are spending more on their monthly rent or mortgages than is financially healthy.
“We also find a lot of teachers have been spending more time working during the summers and at second jobs. Longer hours and longer weeks worked are both data points that we found in our analysis,” Salviati said.
The study's data, which compared the housing cost burden of teachers between 1990 and 2017, was based on census information. The study shows Miami has the highest cost burden rate for teachers, followed by San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
