By Lauren Sloss
The Atlantic recently ran an interesting breakdown of the biggest spends made by the wealthy vs. poor in the U.S. Considering the amount of talk about the way we spend our money here in the Bay Area, particularly in regards to housing, we dug into some of the major expenditures for those living here versus the United States at large (for 2011-2012).
While some of our findings were unsurprising — we spent more on housing, education, and alcohol than the rest of the U.S. — others were a decided break from the “San Francisco is the most expensive city in the world” refrain. Examples? We spend more on housing in SF than the national average, but less than New York, San Diego, Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Washington. We spend less on food and entertainment than the national average.
Of course, these numbers are all based on income, and the total amount of the expenditures across the board. And that’s where some of these discrepancies become clear. According to this data, the average annual income in San Francisco is $98,242, versus $64,646 in the U.S. overall. Which means we spend more overall: $73,601 is spent per household in SF, versus $50,581 in the U.S.
Check out more of the San Francisco versus national data here.
How much we spend on housing
