Comfortable city living usually requires a six-figure salary

Homeownership in many of America’s largest cities now demands a six-figure salary to sustain a comfortable lifestyle — with some regions requiring more than $300,000 annually.

A new analysis by GOBankingRates ranked the top 50 U.S. cities by the income necessary to afford a comfortable standard of living, using factors such as average home prices, rents and other cost-of-living benchmarks.

The study, based on the 50/30/20 budgeting rule (50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings), found that the income needed to cover essential and discretionary expenses far exceeds the median household income in most metropolitan areas — especially for homeowners.

Irvine, California, ranked first in the nation for the highest income needed to live comfortably as both a homeowner ($326,645) and renter ($130,943). The Southern California city’s median household income is $129,647 — less than half of what’s required for homeowners to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.

Nine of the top 10 cities where homeowners need the highest incomes are located on the West Coast or in the Pacific region. The lone East Coast entry is Arlington, Virginia.

Besides Irvine, the top 10 includes several other California cities, including Fremont at No. 2, San Jose at No. 3, San Francisco at No. 4, San Diego at No. 6 and Los Angeles at No. 8.

California dominated the top 50, with 15 cities where both homeowners and renters must earn six-figure incomes to live comfortably.

None of the 50 cities had a median household income higher than the income needed for homeowners to live comfortably. But in 10 cities, the median income exceeded the amount needed for renters to maintain a comfortable standard of living.

GOBankingRates’ full analysis can be found here.