Well, when I met my wife (this was a few years back, but also her pre-tax salary was about $45k at the time), she lived in a very small one-bed apartment in a b

Well, when I met my wife (this was a few years back, but also her pre-tax salary was about $45k at the time), she lived in a very small one-bed apartment in a bad part of Oakland. Prior to being able to afford that, she rented a room in a house (not with relatives) in Berkeley. I haven't been to the living places of my wife's coworkers, but I would expect that the ones who live alone tend to live in small apartments in undesirable areas of relatively inexpensive cities.