It may not have been the case even five years ago and you definitely won't make the same six figures, but that simple threshold is probably in reach in any mid-size american city for a software dev more than a year or two into their career.

I'm a bit confused by housing in San Francisco. The median household income in San Francisco is around $120k, which suggests that making six figures is quite sufficient for living in San Francisco.

But the impression I often get on HN is that you've got people making well above that finding themselves barely able to afford a place to live in SF.

I'm clearly missing something, but what?

I think everybody is just stuck renting and can't get on the property ladder.

Half goes to taxes and half of what's left over goes to rent. After that you have to save up for a pretty large downpayment.

Somebody could have bought a house in 90s for 200K, retired and live in the same house, which has appreciated to 2M now, drawing on 60K retirement. Somebody making 180K cannot afford the 2M house even though these two individuals have a median 120K income and the latter makes much more than the former.