Most small and mid-sized cities? I lived in Mobile, Alabama for a couple years. I rented an awesome 1,400 sq ft place with power, gas and water included for about $600/mo.

Looking at that same street on Zillow it looks like there are a few 3br 2ba homes for around $200,000.

> Where? Where in the US can someone live on blue collar salary and afford a mortgage?

Most places that aren't deep blue cities. That seems like hyperbole but is true.

Picking just a few cities, the median house prices/sq footages are:

- Houston, TX: $238K, 2031 sq ft

- Indianapolis, Indiana: $196K, 1853 sq ft

- Oklahoma City, OK: $152K, 1455 sq ft

- Atlanta, GA: $399K, 1586 sq ft

Each one of these places has a cost of living (excluding real estate) less than 50% that of CA as a whole. All >1M size metros.

The most expensive, Atlanta, has a combined monthly payment inc taxes of $1700 a month on a 30-yr. That's $20,400 a year. Median plumber salary in Atlanta is $63K a year, so this would be 1/3rd their income.

Once again, that's median salary and salaries rise sharply at mid-career, and median home price.

Most of the US, I'm guessing. There are 53 million people living out in rural areas. The vast majority aren't college educated.

People just live on a lower standard of living and get by with less. For example, my sister just bought a $28,000 3 bedroom house. It's a boring old company home, in a boring and uneducated area of the country. But, she has lived there all her life and enjoys the people and culture.

One of the properties I own is in Reno which is a 4hr drive from SF. It's a 2br 1ba condo which Zillow estimates $207k. It's nice, fully remodeled. That would be $900 mortgage + $180 hoa + $50 taxes (?) = ~$1200/mo ?

Make $20/hour like most folks in this working class neighborhood do and you are all set. Get a roommate or a spouse that works part time if you can't earn $20/hr.

Enviably close to Tahoe, too.

Plenty of places in the Midwest/South if you're a tradesman. Obviously a McDonald's worker or Starbucks barista is probably not going to be able to afford a mortgage.

I agree with you, speaking from experience with family. But I also see the spillover from the coasts as threatening this. The "wealthy refugees from the west coast" has become a real thing.

Maybe it's all about [over]population and age distributions.

This is obvious because? We certainly have the wealth for it.

You are free to tip until they make whatever you consider a sufficient wage. "We" should start with "you".

Tipping is the worst culture possible for work environments... Make someone's salary hostage to the whims of patrons, what a lovely way to live.

Generally speaking, the US population is quite concentrated. 66% of people live with-in 100mi (160km) of a border:

* https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone

A sizeable portion live on the coast:

> As of 2014, nearly 40% of the population lived in counties on the coast.

* https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/population.html

So presumably there's a decent amount of space 'in the middle'.