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For years, people flocked to certain cities because they offered everything—thriving job markets, great food, walkable neighborhoods, and, most importantly, rent that didn’t require selling a kidney. Those were the golden days, when you could pack up your car, roll into town with optimism and maybe two months’ savings, and actually survive. But now? Those same cities feel like they’ve been sprinkled with luxury dust, transforming from budget-friendly havens into places where a studio apartment costs more than a suburban mortgage.
It’s the great urban plot twist nobody asked for. And yet, here we are, watching formerly accessible cities shoot into the financial stratosphere faster than you can mutter, “Wait… rent is what now?”
1. Austin, Texas
Austin used to be the cool, quirky escape where artists, entrepreneurs, and breakfast-taco enthusiasts thrived without going broke. Over the last decade, though, a tech boom and a massive population surge sent costs soaring. Rent that once looked reasonable now resembles numbers from a sci-fi currency system…