No, I understand exactly and I think we are in violent agreement.
One cannot afford to live in the Bay Area on anything near minimum wage. So fuck "The Real Bay Area" and live just about anywhere else in the continental US.
TFA shows that in well over 50% of the land mass of the continental US, houses can be bought for 1 year of median wages.
Living on minimum wage is hard anywhere. The question is -- is it OK if there is 5-10% of the continental US where it's impossible to live on minimum wage? I think that yes that's probably OK...
Is it OK that for some [relatively small number of] cities, that median wage feels like minimum wage? Why is that a problem when people have the choice to live there or not?
So housing affordability on minimum wage in most of the US is closer to California at median wage than it is to most of the US at median wage.