Guess Which City Considers 'Low Income' Making Around $100K A Year

By Kendra Beltran
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May 31, 2017

Those who categorize themselves as "low income" are typically people who live in the projects, have help from the government via Welfare programs, or work jobs that are less than glamorous. That's the case for most, but if you're low income in one U.S. city, it means you're making a six-figure income. Wait, WTF? Yup, making $100k in San Francisco will garner you in that low-income bracket.

Of course, this has to do with the cost of living in the Bay Area. Their residents are spending a hell of a lot more a month on rent than people around the country. In fact, when it comes to a one-bedroom apartment San Francisco beats out every other major city, including New York City. According to Mental Floss, the average one-bedroom in San Fran will cost you $1,600 more than one in the Big Apple. So we can definitely see why $100k ain't nothing there.

If everyone in San Francisco was paying the average $3,600 for a one-bedroom over $43k would go to rent alone. That's not including utilities, and travel expenses (you know they have to pay to use those bridges, right?).

The big question is, why? Why is this place so freaking expensive and sought after compared to places that arguably have them beat when it comes to locale? NYC has the culture and pristine, Los Angeles has the picture perfect weather and Portland is possibly the quaintest big city out there.

One reason is the tech world is booming and with San Francisco being less than an hour from Silicon Valley, a lot of people are getting into that line of work as technology is always growing and pushing the world forward. The more people that want to work in an area, the more housing that goes up. That all equals landlords raising rent prices. Put all of that together and you have a kid making $100k at say Google having to say he's low income.

We appreciate San Francisco, but in reality, if you can make that type of money and live elsewhere...why not move? No one should spend most of their earnings on rent alone.