U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Archives

In the high-priced Bay Area, even some households that bring in six figures a year can now be considered “low income.”

That’s according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which recently released its 2017 income limits — a threshold that determines who can qualify for affordable and subsidized housing programs such as Section 8 vouchers.

San Francisco and San Mateo counties have the highest limits in the Bay Area — and among the highest such numbers in the country. A family of four with an income of $105,350 per year is considered “low income.” A $65,800 annual income is considered “very low” for a family the same size, and $39,500 is “extremely low.” The median income for those areas is $115,300.

Other Bay Area counties are not far behind. In Alameda and Contra Costa counties, $80,400 for a family of four is considered low income, while in Santa Clara County, $84,750 is the low-income threshold for a family of four.

Read more!

And in “No Kidding, Sherlock” news, a recent report indicates that the cost of childcare exceeds college in most states.

An Economic Policy Institute analysis, “High Quality Child Care Is Out of Reach for Working Families,” found that child care is not affordable for 2-children median-income households in 10 major metropolitan areas — and is too expensive for minimum wage workers regardless of where they live in the United States.

Childcare costs exceeded rent in 500 out of 618 family budget areas, the study analyzed.

In San Francisco, for example, monthly rent on average is $1,956 for two adults and two children, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The average monthly cost of child care for two children in the city is $901. In Binghamton, N.Y., average monthly rent for the same size family is $692 while the average child care cost is $2,011 a month.

This expenditure impacts households of the nearly 11 million children under five in America in child care. These children spend an average of 35 hours a week in day care.

The Institute intends for the report to influence policy makers.

“As policymakers look for ways to improve living standards for the vast majority of Americans who have endured decades of stagnant wages, increasing child care affordability is an excellent place to start,” the report states.

Indeed, President Obama addressed child care in his State of the Union address this year.

“In today’s economy, when having both parents in the workforce is an economic necessity for many families, we need affordable, high-quality childcare more than eve,” he said. “It’s not a nice-to-have — it’s a must-have. So it’s time we stop treating childcare as a side issue, or as a women’s issue, and treat it like the national economic priority that it is for all of us.”

Read the entire report HERE!

h/t ABC News

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Families Earning Six Figures Are Considered ‘Low Income’ in San Francisco

STUDY: Childcare exceeds College Tuition in Most States