Summary:
SD County: $850, $44K/yr
Santa Clara County: $1386, $72K/yr
OC: $916, $47K/yr
NY County: $1453, $75K/yr
Suffolk MA (Boston): $1228, $64K/yr
SF County: $1231, $64K/yr
Based on these figures, the avg SD wage earner is a service sector employee, likely lacking a 4 yr degree. Concerning affordability, one can see that the resident of NY, BOS, SF, or San Jose make significantly more $$$ and dedicate less of it to housing than in SD or OC. In the 4 years since I moved to New England from SoCal (LA native), I’ve doubled my salary, largely due to the incredibly hot job market here for skilled professionals. The weather may suck, but if you want to make serious money working for large banks or corporations, NY, BOS, SF and SJC are really the only places where you can do it. You can lump in Northern VA too but the summer weather there is so bad I’ll leave it off the list.
