4 ms·

It's really uninformative to look at average incomes or average prices anywhere, let alone someplace with as big of a spread as the Bay Area.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
11thEarlOfMar 10y ago
Very true. In 2014, the average tech worker salary in San Mateo County was $291,497. But if you took out one specific tech worker, it dropped by $80,000 to $211,000. Mark Zuckerberg's income alone impacted the average by $80,000 across an entire county [0]. It impacted the median by, probably $0. Edit: For completeness; US Median Household Income: $51,939 [1] San Mateo County: $79,548 [2] Not quite as newsworthy... [0] http://valleywag.gawker.com/average-tech-wages-up-to-291-497-in-san-mateo-county-1625755095 http://valleywag.gawker.com/average-tech-wages-up-to-291-497... [1] https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=meadian+US+household+income https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... [2] http://citylab.news21.com/data/types/19/ http://citylab.news21.com/data/types/19/
- dublinben 10y ago
  This is why statistics on the "average" in a population are worthless. The meaningful statistic here is the median, which isn't subject to such skewing.
- stdbrouw 10y ago
  A nitpick, but "average" can refer to any sort of central tendency, whether it's the arithmetic mean, the harmonic mean, the median, the trimean or anything else.
  - jdale27 10y ago
    You may be technically correct regarding the common usage of the word "average". However, "average" is most commonly used to refer to the arithmetic mean. Using the word "average" to refer to the median is bad writing, and furthermore, using the arithmetic mean instead of the median to represent the "central tendency" of a distribution that is highly skewed and/or has extreme outliers is bad statistics. Journalists who are going to write about these things should know better.
    - stdbrouw 10y ago
      > Using the word "average" to refer to the median is bad writing It can be, but not necessarily. Otherwise, you'd have to say that the average Joe has 1.9 legs. Median or mode are much more natural in that context. Other than that, not trying to make any particular point, of course you're right that using the arithmetic mean is a lousy practice for many kinds of data.
chiefalchemist 10y ago
Yes and no. The fact remains, even with higher incomes, housing increases to mitigate the gains. I mean, in spite of all the income is anyone saying SF CA is an affordable place to live?

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

11thEarlOfMar 10y ago

Very true. In 2014, the average tech worker salary in San Mateo County was $291,497. But if you took out one specific tech worker, it dropped by $80,000 to $211,000. Mark Zuckerberg's income alone impacted the average by $80,000 across an entire county [0]. It impacted the median by, probably $0. Edit: For completeness; US Median Household Income: $51,939 [1] San Mateo County: $79,548 [2] Not quite as newsworthy... [0] http://valleywag.gawker.com/average-tech-wages-up-to-291-497-in-san-mateo-county-1625755095 http://valleywag.gawker.com/average-tech-wages-up-to-291-497... [1] https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=meadian+US+household+income https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... [2] http://citylab.news21.com/data/types/19/ http://citylab.news21.com/data/types/19/

dublinben 10y ago
This is why statistics on the "average" in a population are worthless. The meaningful statistic here is the median, which isn't subject to such skewing.
stdbrouw 10y ago
A nitpick, but "average" can refer to any sort of central tendency, whether it's the arithmetic mean, the harmonic mean, the median, the trimean or anything else.
- jdale27 10y ago
  You may be technically correct regarding the common usage of the word "average". However, "average" is most commonly used to refer to the arithmetic mean. Using the word "average" to refer to the median is bad writing, and furthermore, using the arithmetic mean instead of the median to represent the "central tendency" of a distribution that is highly skewed and/or has extreme outliers is bad statistics. Journalists who are going to write about these things should know better.
  - stdbrouw 10y ago
    > Using the word "average" to refer to the median is bad writing It can be, but not necessarily. Otherwise, you'd have to say that the average Joe has 1.9 legs. Median or mode are much more natural in that context. Other than that, not trying to make any particular point, of course you're right that using the arithmetic mean is a lousy practice for many kinds of data.

chiefalchemist 10y ago

Yes and no. The fact remains, even with higher incomes, housing increases to mitigate the gains. I mean, in spite of all the income is anyone saying SF CA is an affordable place to live?