this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2025
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Americans with six figure incomes are not the enemy. We need them on our side in the fight against the Americans with eight, nine, and higher figure incomes
Lower 6 figures today is middle class. Or at least what middle class buying power was 40 years ago.
You can’t afford to buy a single family home on $100k/yr in my area. So I’m not sure it really meets the classic definition of middle class anymore.
Lots of homes are easily affordable with that income. Buy elsewhere.
Show me the place where you can both earn the $100k AND afford the homes. Places with higher wages also have higher costs. It doesn’t help someone in Seattle to tell them go buy a home in Oklahoma.
There's quite a few major cities in the US where houses are averaging around 300k which a 100k salary would easily cover the purchase of. Pittsburg, Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, St Louis for examples just off the top of my head. And if you look in rural areas between these major cities you can easily snag a 100k home so if you ever find yourself burnt out from your high paying career there's that option too
Sure but that doesn’t say anything about the wages there. How many $100k jobs am I going to find in Milwuakee and Detroit? I work in tech so I can tell you now the answer is close to zero.
This source says that median household income in Pittsburgh is in the low $60ks. And while housing costs are 2% below national average, utility costs are 20% above national average 🤷♂️
These are literally major cities with populations measured in the millions. There's plenty of high paying jobs to be had. And the best part is, since home prices aren't measured in the millions you can survive on a lower income.
Also I work in tech too. I've interviewed for jobs making $80-120k in some of the listed cities. I know people making over 100k in some of the listed cities. Median income is just that, the median. Some people are going to make more and some people are going to make less. Highly skilled workers in any major city will make high pay. Sure you might shave off 10-20% from your expected wage in your sector in a lower cost of living city but your housing costs will likely be literally be half or a third of that when compared to LA, New York City or the San Francisco Bay Area, plus with that lower cost of living comes more options if you become burnt out from your highly paid and likely high stress job, you can afford to jump ship and change careers
I’m sorry, I just don’t buy your argument that “it’s a major city.” I gave you an actual statistic and you brushed it aside in favor of notions like “there are millions of people there,” and you’ve met some outliers.
Okay lets dig into some BLS data then!
Since you brought up Pittsburgh, one of the largest cities in Pennsylvania let's look at the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for Pennsylvania in 2024
Is that too tech heavy?
And because I listed the two largest cities in Wisconsin lets look at Wisconsin quickly as well:
Too tech heavy?
And lets just for the heck of it look at Montana!
So my point still stands, looking at states with much lower cost of living and highly skilled professions are still highly compensated, many folks well above 100k/year
Oh and before you bring up the median salary for all occupations in these states being 60k (an amount firmly in the middle class that you can live comfortably off of in these states) the median salary in New York and California, states with famously unaffordable housing in their cities, the median salaries are only $80k and good luck getting a house in these cities at that salary!
You’re attempting to make a long and carefully formatted post look like a convincing argument, but all you’ve done is cherry pick high wage occupations. You are simply showing again and again that you cannot contend with a topic in terms of aggregate metrics and will do anything to skew the picture to match some picture you have an emotional attachment to.
If we’re going to cherry pick, shit, I earn over $500k in one of these HCOL areas you say are such pressure cookers. My house is nearly paid off. I guess this is a great area for families to move to, right???
I’ll say one thing… I never have to work so hard to justify where I live as you have here.
That was your original comment. I listed off major cities with decent supplies of housing stock available below 500k
You responded
As well as pointing out that
I pointed out that major cities tend to have high paying jobs available for highly skilled workers. You specified working in tech and demanded real world data, so I provided real wage data showing tech jobs and highly skilled jobs paying over 100k and in the interest of fairness I included some where the median isn't a full 100k but many workers in that field do make over 100k.
So in conclusion, I listed off major cities where one can both make 100k and afford homes. Let's not move the goal posts anymore please.
Exactly one comment earlier, we have you stating your case as a broad generalization:
Now you want to claim that as long as the 99.99th percentile can satisfy your claim, it’s valid. Who’s moving the goalposts, here?
What are you even arguing anymore? Is it that important to "win" at this random internet argument?
Here you are, doing the same thing. Ask yourself.
Yes... but you have to choose more slum-y areas. And if you have kids, they're gonna get buillied so much.
Source, I am that kid. Moved from Brooklyn to Philly, sure, housing was more affordable, but school ratings went from 8/10 to like a 3/10. Such hell.
Here is a random home I found after only a few seconds of looking. 3 bedroom home in Colorado Springs for $265k. Easily affordable at the stated $100k/yr income.
Lots of homes are easily affordable with that income. Buy elsewhere.
Cmon, you can’t cherry pick a house and say “just uproot your entire life, there are cheaper houses out there!”
Schools, job market, support system and more all play a huge part. It isn’t as simple as “just move.”
Keep in mind you’re replying to a literal Nazi, they don’t do much arguing in good faith.
The thing is though that unless you have a fully remote job you are probably not going to stay earning 100k in colarado springs
Median household income in Colorado Springs is $83k/yr. Said 3 bedroom home for $265k is quite affordable on $83k/yr.
And if this is the case, you are doing even better and have a shitload more options.
There's the additional cost that my whole family and all my friends live in the "Greater Seattle area" where housing is outrageous and climbing. If I were to move somewhere more affordable it would mean losing my entire social support system.