San Diego financial reality
San Diego Looks Prosperous From the Outside — Its Working Residents Know the Reality
San Diego's reputation is built on its climate, its coastline, and its quality of life. And those things are real. What is also real is what it costs to maintain a life in San Diego on the wages that most of the city's employers actually pay. The military. The biotech and life sciences industry. Healthcare. Tourism. These are the economic engines of San Diego — and while biotech executives and senior military officers earn comfortable incomes, the majority of workers in these sectors earn salaries that are being squeezed between San Diego's rapidly rising cost of living and the wages that have not kept pace.
San Diego County is home to the largest concentration of military personnel in the world. Naval Base San Diego, MCAS Miramar, Camp Pendleton, and the dozen other installations across the county employ and house tens of thousands of active duty service members and their families. Military families in San Diego navigate housing allowances that have not kept pace with the San Diego rental market, PCS move costs that fall partially outside what the military covers, and the financial disruption that deployment creates for household budgets that were built around two incomes.
San Diego's border position with Tijuana creates an economic community that straddles two countries — with residents on both sides crossing daily for work, healthcare, and commerce. The financial needs of San Diego's border region communities — Chula Vista, National City, San Ysidro, and the South Bay area — are specific to their position and are not well-served by financial institutions that focus on a narrow borrower profile.
San Diego's housing market has become one of California's most expensive — with rents across Hillcrest, North Park, Mission Valley, and even the historically more affordable South Bay neighborhoods reaching levels that consume an outsized share of household income for most working residents.
