[ad_1]
The Bay Area is so expensive, earning $ 117,400 a year calls you "low income" in some counties.
Each year, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes "income limits," the minimum income level required to qualify for certain affordable housing programs.
To be considered a "low income" in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties, a family of four must earn $ 117,400 a year. "Very low income" is considered $ 73,300.
For California, the state's "low income" limit for a family of four is $ 62,000. "Very low income" is $ 38,750.
The Bay Area figures are the highest in the country and continue to increase year by year. Income limits in some cities in the Bay Area have increased by 10% in the past year alone.
Most residents will turn a blind eye to these figures – they have a habit of seeing the cost of rent and property increase over the years. In May, the median price of homes in the Bay Area peaked at $ 935,000.
The high cost of living probably explains what some people perceive as an "exodus from the Bay Area". It is difficult to quantify such a trend with limited census data, but multiple reports imply that residents of the Bay Area are at least planning to leave. The Redfin real estate site determined that the Bay Area was the first region for the nation's "outward migration" by analyzing where people were looking for homes.
"Jobs and housing are really the main criteria that influence people's decisions," said Hans Johnson, a senior researcher with the California Public Policy Institute, at The Chronicle in March. "It's a kind of balance between the two: if jobs predominate, people move in. If housing is predominant, there are fewer people moving in.
Below you will find an interactive map of California counties and eligible low-income annual wages for a family of four:
(Can not see the map, click here)
—
Michelle Robertson is a copywriter of SFGATE. Email it to [email protected] or find it on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.
Alert me
Source link
