There's also cost of living issues -- $250K in sf is not the same as $250k in rural Wisconsin. My family all lives there, so based on my personal experiences,

There's also cost of living issues -- $250K in sf is not the same as $250k in rural Wisconsin. My family all lives there, so based on my personal experiences, I'd wager that $250k in sf is about the same as $90k in rural-ish WI. My sister and her husband have three kids. They live on a 1/2 acre lot in a 4 bedroom 3 bath 2 car garage house for which their monthly payment on a 30 year amortizing mortgage is a little over $1300, including taxes and insurance. My gf and I are looking at homes. A medium quality 1200 ft^2 to 1500 ft^2 two bedroom one bath non tic with a deeded parking spot in mission / noe is going to cost between $750k and $950k; we're staring at about $5.5K/mo minimum between mortgage, hoa, taxes, and insurance. So owning the type of apartment that you would have a family in costs my sister maybe 1.5 * 1300 * 12 = $23,400 / year in pretax income while it will cost us approximately 1.5 * 5500 * 12 = $99,000 in pretax income. So there's no doubt that people making $250k in gross income are doing well, but it's not exactly like not worrying about the mortgage or having unlimited income, at least in sf. And while I'm well aware that I could live somewhere less expensive, this is, at least for now, where the type of employers that employee us are.