How much income that requires depends on where you live.
In Seattle, as of April 2023, it takes at least $82,000 a year of household income to be middle class (read story here), but Seattle is one of America’s most expensive cities. In Cleveland the threshold of middle-class is only $24,000, but that city has a depressed economy, and ferociously cold and snowy winters, so who wants to live there?
Living in a low-income city does have compensations, provided you’re not 0ne of the low-income crowd. Housing is most families’ biggest expense, and housing costs reflect local incomes. In Seattle, $1,195,000 buys the house on the left; in Cleveland, the house on the right. Same price, big difference. But there are other big differences, too, and I wouldn’t move to Cleveland just for a bigger house. I like Seattle, and what I paid for my house would only get me a garage in Cleveland today. Inflation is everywhere.
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