Just looked at some housing data from early 2025 and wow, the cost of living in top most expensive cities in the us is absolutely wild. San Jose is leading the pack - you'd need a household income of $319K just to hit what people call the American Dream there. That's insane.

What caught my attention is how the numbers break down. It's not just about mortgages being crazy (San Jose averaging $9,228/month), it's the whole picture. Groceries, utilities, everything adds up. San Francisco is right behind at $297K household income needed, then you've got San Diego, LA, and NYC rounding out the top tier. Even Boston and DC - cities I thought were expensive but not that expensive - still need around $199K and $187K respectively.

The methodology is pretty straightforward: they doubled the cost of living using the 50/30/20 rule (50% needs, 30% discretionary, 20% savings). So if your city's in the top most expensive cities in the us list, that $110K-$160K annual cost of living means you actually need way more household income to actually live comfortably.

Honestly, this makes you think about whether staying in these places is worth it anymore, or if people are just accepting that the American Dream in top most expensive cities in the us means working twice as hard for the same lifestyle you'd get elsewhere. The gap between what things cost in San Jose versus somewhere more affordable is genuinely staggering when you see it all laid out like this.