15 US cities where it can feel like saving money is nearly impossible

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GOBankingRates recently released data on the cities that are the worst for people who want to save money, looking at incomes and costs of housing, food, and transportation.
Of the cities in the top 15, only six are outside of California, including New York City, Boston, Washington DC, and Seattle.
The least savings-friendly city is San Francisco, where residents face high rents and incomes don’t quite keep up.
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For those wanting to bolster their savings, California isn’t the ideal place to be.

GOBankingRates compiled a ranking of the cities where residents will have the hardest time saving, based on housing, food, and transportation costs.

And California turns up on the list quite a few times — nine of the 15 cities on the list are in California, and San Francisco takes the top spot. In many of the cities on the list, a family making the median household salary will spend over half of their income on rent for a median-priced home.

Income data was sourced through the Census Bureau’s community survey, while home listing prices and single-family home rent prices were sourced through Zillow. The list also considers AAA gas prices from 2019 and the costs of public transportation, as well as costs of groceries and dining out from Numbeo. Each city was assigned a score based on their costs, and the scores were added to rank this list.

Here are the 15 US cities where it feels like saving money is nearly impossible.

15. Anaheim, California

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Anaheim, California’s median household income isn’t all that high, and with median rents being more than half of median household incomes, it’s not a city that will leave the typical family with much left over.

Median household income: $65,313

Median rent for a single-family home: $2,993