My parents weren't too bad, but all my friend's households were insane.

One thing I have always hated about the way average income statistics are given is that they are given as a per household number.

I can able to do it all in short amount of hours every day because I am fast, organized, time management and above all my great wife takes bulk of load managing household and kids. 

Picture this, household income avg family say $ 120,000, that florida family has a 350k mortgage, 50k in student loans, they are mid 30's, car debt 25k  on the   mini van, another  5k on Visas, so  lets say around 450k in debt.   

As a woman myself, I can relate to the challenges of running a household on a budget, and I also enjoy feeling like I can buy the foods I like, but I have found a way to have 'both' by spending on the things I enjoy and eliminating waste to cover the extras.Also, there was a great podcast recently about being frugal, but still having what you want, it was 'the Money Show #10'hope this helps :)

Highly paid young tech workers are marrying their own cohorts and creating “power income” households in the Bay Area.

You may not feel that’s the case if you’re a sole income household.My personal opinion is “rich” starts at around 200k household income and up.  

The two largest expenses of the American household are housing costs and transportation.

This info will give you a decent idea of what to expect and help filter down your search to a few cities.Some of the metrics that I find valuable to understand are:- Population - Home Values- Household Incomes- Rental Vacancy Rate- Homeowner Vacancy Rate- Poverty Rate- Educational Attainment Rate (High School/GED & Bachelors)- Number of Housing Unit- Rent to Income Ratio- Rent to Price Ratio- Population on SNAPS (supplemental nutrition assistance program) percentage- Property Tax Rate- Median Age of Buildings- Number of Structures by Units (SFR, Duplex, Triplex, Quadplex, etc...)- Median Rents by Number of Bedrooms- Unemployment Rate- Employment Sectors Percentages These are just some of the indicators that will help you understand the quality of an area as well as the kinds of returns one is to except.

Median household income by zip code is a good starting point.  30% of that figure helps gauge rental rate qualifications of the residents.