Sky-high salaries and a lack of housing inventory in Silicon Valley are pushing rent prices higher and establishing a new definition of what is considered low-income in the region. Let’s start with rent prices. The Bay Area’s relatively high salaries and low housing inventory are keeping rents persistently higher than most of the country. Across the country, the amount of money needed to make annually to afford to rent an apartment is down to about $63,000 on average, but in Silicon Valley that number is doubled, with $127,000 in salary needed to afford a typical one-bedroom home, according to housing tracker Redfin. “That big gap exists because the Bay Area hasn’t done a great job of building housing for the middle earner,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “They have tended to focus more on those higher earners.” And partially because of those high salaries, a household income of $146,000 a year or less for a family of four is now considered low income in Santa Clara County, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “It’s still quite expensive to rent in the Bay Area, but incomes have been improving at a faster clip than rents have been climbing,” Fairweather said. #Update: In Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley), a family of four with a household income of $146,100 is LOW INCOME.–@NLIHC— scott budman (@scottbudman) January 22, 2025