[coolsunglasses]

This is highly location dependent and programmers are often located in expensive cities.

100k in the bay area is just middle class, no upper qualification. Very unlikely to afford a home within 25 minutes of work unless they're in the south bay.

You need 200k total household income before a mortgage on a $1.3mm house (starter home cost in most neighborhoods) is realistic.

There is a 10x difference in the cost of a home in SF and Austin (where I just moved to from SF) and a 20x difference between SF and where my father lives in Ohio.

There is not a 20x difference in income between developers and the 30-60k US median. The medianites live out in the sticks where their mortgage is $150-600 a month.

[refurb]

$1.3MM will get you a VERY nice home in some of the more exclusive neighborhoods in SF (Noe Valley).

Only in SF do you have people complaining that they are "middle class" because they can't afford a single family home (already a luxury in major US cities) in a ritzy neighborhood and have to suffer through a >25 min commute.

Houses in SF on the edge of the ritzy neighborhoods cost $700k. But that's not living the american dream right

[coolsunglasses]

$700k is still freakin' crazy.