Salt Lake City feels like very much an outlier, though, based on the slides -- look at slide 46, Upward mobility (Y_25) Adjusted for Differences in Cost of Livi

Salt Lake City feels like very much an outlier, though, based on the slides -- look at slide 46, Upward mobility (Y_25) Adjusted for Differences in Cost of Living. Because the cost of living in places like San Jose and SF are much higher than Salt Lake City, even the upper-middle class are relatively poor. My guess is that kids who grow up in these supercities and get college educations tend to move to other supercities, where even though they might make low 6-figure incomes, they spend a large fraction of that on housing. edit: Also, parents at the (cost-of-living-adjusted) 25th percentile in more expensive regions make more than parents at the 25th percentile in cheaper regions (and are hence more likely to be college-educated, I'd guess).