>This isn't exact of course This is very far from exact. You're comparing a city with particularly high real estate costs to one with relatively low real estat

>This isn't exact of course This is very far from exact. You're comparing a city with particularly high real estate costs to one with relatively low real estate costs (for the size of the city). Spending 20% of gross on rent is not particularly extreme, and factors like utilities, food, travel, and so on are not going to have remotely the multiplier that real estate does when comparing costs to Berlin. Yes, 165k in SF is not like 165k in Berlin, but for a person without dependents it still leaves a lot of room for large savings or expensive luxuries. The median household income in SF is just $78k.