What making $300K looks like in San Francisco compared to other cities

It’s no secret that bringing home $300,000 a year doesn’t go all that far in San Francisco. That income is double San Francisco’s median for a family of four, so those families are doing unusually well in the city. Still, their lives look quite different from those making the same amount in other parts of the U.S.

In fact, San Franciscans making this amount are the least likely to own their homes compared with people making the same money in several other major cities, a Chronicle analysis found.

Compare that to Fresno, just a few hours away. There, households around this income bracket almost always own their homes — and multiple cars to boot. 

The differences don’t stop there. In Portland, households making $300,000 are almost twice as likely to have children as those in San Francisco. Just under half of San Francisco households in this bracket are married couples, while in Las Vegas, more than 80% are.

The Chronicle used detailed census data collected between 2020 and 2024 to compare what making between $290,000 and $310,000 looks like for households across different cities. The results, which are estimates based on samples of the population, show that across the country, and even within California, the lifestyles and demographics of those in this income bracket vary significantly. The Chronicle selected 18 cities, including San Francisco, to compare, including populous places both within the state and from different regions of the country.

In San Francisco, an estimated 56% of households making $300,000 are renters, despite their high income, according to the data. That share is even higher than other expensive coastal urban job centers, like New York City (46%), Miami (42%) and Boston (40%).

But that doesn’t mean all West Coast cities, though generally expensive, are low on homeowners. In fact, among the cities we analyzed, people in this income bracket were most likely to have put down roots in Fresno (94% homeowners), Portland (91%) and Sacramento (87%) — outpacing places in the South that are more affordable, like Houston, Dallas and Atlanta, where roughly three-quarters of households taking home $300,000 own their homes.

But among those San Franciscans who do own their homes, their property values are the highest: The median home value for owner-occupied units was $1.3 million in San Francisco, according to the estimates of census respondents — and that was before the current AI-fueled real estate frenzy.

San Franciscans are also the second least likely to own cars, with 18% of households in this bracket having no car at all — though they are far outpaced by New York City, where 40% of households go without a vehicle.

In most places, though, the vast majority of households have at least one car, and usually, they have two or more. Fresno households are the most likely to have multiple vehicles, with an estimated 87% owning two or more cars. That puts the Central Valley city in the company of Dallas and Houston, which also have multi-car ownership rates in the mid-80% range.

San Franciscans also stand out when it comes to their family status. Households in this income bracket were the least likely to be married of any city, as well as the least likely to have children. While just under half of households reported being married, only 20% said they had kids.

However, even though San Francisco is known for having high rates of children enrolled in private schools, families with kids at the $300,000 mark in the city don’t stand out compared to those in other places. Of families with school-age kids, Dallas families are by far the most likely to send those kids to private schools, with nearly 60% doing so. Atlanta is second at almost 50%.

San Franciscans are also less settled than people in other cities. San Francisco households were the most likely of any city to have moved within the last year, either within the city or from somewhere else, at 20%, though that number is nearly tied with Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Austin and Boston, all large job centers that had recent-mover estimates above 18%.

San Franciscans are also among the youngest to make $300,000 a year. The median age of the householder for homes with this combined income was 41, tied with Seattle and second to Washington and Boston, where the median age was 40. Las Vegas and Fresno were the oldest, at 52.

Though San Francisco also has a high rate of people with advanced degrees, the city does not stand out when looking at households just in the $300,000 income range. While 88% of householders had at least a bachelor’s degree, just 40% had a graduate degree, trailing far behind Washington, Dallas and Sacramento, where more than half of households in this income bracket did.

Across almost every city we examined, non-Hispanic white people made up the highest shares of householders of families making more than $300,000. Miami was the only exception, with Hispanic or Latino householders making up the largest share in this income band. (There may be people of multiple races within a single household, but the Census Bureau records only the race of the householder, which is either the person in whose name the unit is rented or owned, or in cases where it’s jointly rented or owned, either person.)

Still, San Francisco had the highest share of Asian householders of any city, at 36%. Sacramento was a distant second at 25%. 

Atlanta had the highest share of Black householders with combined incomes of $300,000 at 20%, while San Francisco had among the lowest, with less than 2%.

Miami also stood out when it came to the share of householders in this income range born in another country, with an estimated 44%. New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles were the next highest, all with around a third.