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A new report lays bare just how much it takes to live the good life in California.
Americans say they’d need to earn $420,000 per year to feel financially secure, according to a survey conducted last year by Bankrate — but in parts of California, you’d need double that to be considered “rich.”
An analysis conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle found that in San Jose, Calif., which sits at the heart of Silicon Valley, you’d need to earn $878,000 annually to meet the threshold for “rich” — defined as the top 2.5% of earners in a particular area.
California metro areas dwarfed the rest of the country by this metric.
In San Francisco and Oakland, the heart of the pricey Bay Area, you need an annual wage of $782,000 to sit pretty in the top earnings bracket, according to the paper. In the Napa Valley wine country enclave, that figure is $798,000.
In Santa Cruz, which recently made headlines as the most expensive rental market in the United States, you need $701,000 annually to be considered rich.
More affordable markets include the East Bay city of Vallejo, where the “rich” threshold sits at $424,000, along with Stockton, Modesto and Merced, at $375,000, $331,000, and $266,000, respectively.
The income needed to be rich in Los Angeles is $535,000, according to the analysis.
Outside of California, “rich” incomes in New York and Seattle are uncommonly high at $678,000 and $637,000.
The national “rich” threshold is $473,000, by the Chronicle’s analysis.
Although Californians living in costal hubs like San Francisco often command higher salaries, high costs of living can eat up even high personal incomes.
California is the most expensive state in terms of rental costs, with residents needing to earn $52.79 per hour to afford a typical two-bedroom home at $2,745 per month, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
In expensive areas like Santa Cruz, the hourly wage needed to simply rent a 2-bedroom apartment runs as high. as $81 per hour.
The costs of homeownership are even further out of reach for many, with California median home prices exceeding $930,000 in May, according to the California Association of Realtors.
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