A middle class lifestyle can look different depending on where you are. It may mean owning a house and a car in one city and simply being able to rent a place on your own in another.
In the San Francisco area, an annual income of $250,000 would classify your household as middle earners, based on 2022 Census Bureau American Community Survey data.
The middle class is commonly defined as households earning between two-thirds and double the median income, which is $128,151 in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, California metro area, the Census Bureau reports. That means middle class households there earn between $85,434 and $256,302 a year.
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Another three U.S. metro areas include $200,000 households in their middle classes: Washington, D.C., Seattle and Boston. Median household incomes in each of these areas are over $100,000 a year.
Like San Francisco, Seattle and Boston are two of the country’s major tech hubs. Those often high-paying jobs can drive up local average wages. And the nation’s capital is home to many high-paid lawyers, politicians and consultants.
Here are the ranges of middle class incomes in the 25 biggest U.S. metros:
Despite being the highest-earning metro, the high cost of living in and around San Francisco means a middle income may not afford you as comfortable a lifestyle you’d imagine.
Nearly 1 in 3 households in San Francisco were housing cost-burdened as of 2022, according to Census Bureau data. That means those residents spend more than the recommended 30% of their income on housing costs.
San Francisco has some of the highest rent prices in the country, averaging $3,139 as of May 2024.
Owning a home is even more expensive, with median sale prices over $1 million as of June, according to Redfin. For a median-priced home, you’d need to earn at least $228,085 a year to keep monthly mortgage costs at or below 28% of your income, assuming a 20% down payment and 7% mortgage rate.
Additionally, San Francisco and the greater Bay Area have wide income disparities. In San Francisco County, households in the 80th percentile of earners make a median of $218,000 a year, but those in the 20th percentile earn a median of $35,161, according to a 2021 Metropolitan Transportation Commission analysis of Census Bureau data.
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