you're getting a little more down-modded than you should, in my opinion (though it would help to make this more than a one-liner).

250K out here in SF still buys you a nice life, especially if it is a one-income family. If it's a dual-income, full time family with two kids?

The median price of a 3br house in SF is around 1mil, maybe a little higher. Full time daycare is about 25k a year per kid, really, this isn't an exaggeration. So a 5k per month mortgage and about 4k a month in childcare - and because the two-income family is "high income", they lose out on most tax breaks for the childcare expenses. Reality is, you're a lot better off financially with one huge wage earner and one stay at home parent.

250k a year is still a nice salary, and many people who have it 1) don't have kids, and 2) got into the housing market a while ago, and carry a much smaller mortgage (their property taxes are much, much lower, too).

But for a two income family new to the housing market, with two small kids? 250k keeps you safely in the middle class, but you'll be limited in where you can live (outer-ish sunset or south of 280 are probably your best housing options).

Average household income for Redmond is < $100,000. Median is probably a lot lower. So yeah, it's enough to feel like you've "made it".

Mean is over $100k now: according to the 2012 American Community Survey estimate [1], mean household income in Redmond is $112k, and median is $96k. Redmond is an unusually wealthy suburb, though. The median household income for Seattle is $63k.

[1] There doesn't seem to be a way to link the table directly, but you can search at http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtm... and then click "Income" on the left.

It is a lot when the median salary is $52K for the rest of your countrymen.

Yes, it's quite a lot.

The world is not only USA, where I live it's a LOT,

and then, there's Africa

Even in the US, for almost everyone, it's a lot. Bubbles within bubbles.