It Costs Almost $7,000 a Year to Be a Yuppie in San Francisco

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Another day, another "San Francisco is sooooo expensive" report. After last month's news that SF rents spiked 10.6% in 2013, this week we learn that it's not only the rent that's too damn high. According to Locality.com, "yuppie services" cost more in San Francisco than any other U.S. city, beating Denver, Phoenix, D.C., and Raleigh in premium service prices. Total price tag for the yuppie lifestyle in SF? $6,718 a year. And that doesn't include your spending at all the posh, new boutiques in Union Square.

For the sake of the study, Locality.com defined a yuppie as an "urban professional in their 20s and 30s who is in a high paying field like finance, consulting, or law." Then the site created a Yuppie Price Index (YPI) based on the types of services that those professionals buy, like laundry and dry cleaning, pampering, fitness, and pet care. Realizing that a true yuppie would rather wear polyester than patronize an average-priced service, Locality calculated the annual cost of yuppie-ness based on service providers charging fees in the 75th percentile.

According to the study, dry-cleaning, mani/pedi and yoga prices are pretty average in the Bay Area, but gyms, pet services, and men's haircuts are 50% above the national average. (It's not cheap to care for a yuppie puppy.)

Perhaps even more shocking than our place at the top of the list is the fact that our East Coast cost of living rivals in New York didn't even make the cut. (While you may be tempted to dismiss the entire study based on NYC's absence, the Locality crew notes that it all boils down to supply and demand: There are more service providers competing for yuppie business in New York.)

Now that you have (more) confirmation that San Francisco is (hella) expensive, let's talk about your alternatives for the least expensive yuppie lifestyle. According to the study, the cheapest cities for yuppies are Indianapolis, Houston, Cleveland, Tampa, and Atlanta. So…yeah. Given those options, we don't anticipate a yuppie exodus any time soon.
· The Yuppie Price Index for Services [Locality.com]
· San Francisco Is the Fourth Most Expensive City in the U.S. [Racked]