Residents in some of California’s biggest cities are taking home bigger paychecks than almost anyone else in the country.
A new analysis from SmartAsset examined nearly 100 US cities with populations of at least 250,000 and found residents of Anaheim, Irvine, Long Beach and Santa Ana have seen some of the biggest gains in take-home pay nationwide.
The report found incomes in those cities have climbed fast enough to help cushion the blow of soaring prices for everyday necessities.
“In many U.S. cities, median household income has outpaced inflation by a wide margin, offsetting the impact of rising costs,” the report noted.
The results of the report show where personal finances “gained the most ground against rising prices and where income growth failed to keep up.”
The dataset looked at median household incomes over the most recent two year period, along with the share of households earning $200,000 per year or more in 94 communities.
Enterprise Nevada ended up landing the #1 spot on the list, with median household incomes there increasing an estimated 18% after inflation, rising from $93,905 to $111,128.
In second place was Anaheim, where incomes rose nearly 16%, to $101,145 from $87,365.
Three other cities in Southern California landed in the top 20 list with Irvine in 7th place, where take-home pay increased to $145,73 from $131,749, a year-over-year best of 10.6%.
Long Beach ended up in 10th, where median household income increased nearly 9%, going from $84,004 to $91,318. Followed by Santa Ana in the 14th spot where incomes jumped to $95,118 from $88,438, an 8% increase.
Three other cities in Northern California rounded out the top 20 list, with San Francisco at #16, with locals going from earning $130,453 to $139,801, a change of around 7%
Right behind the city by the Bay, in the 17th spot was Fresno in the Central Valley, where the median household income rose to $74,491 from $69,589, an increase of 7%
And just barely making it into the top 20 places was San Jose at #20 where the increased percentage of take-home pay wasn’t as large at just under 6%, but incomes did increase from $140,231 to $148,226.
The city also leads the state with 38% of households in the income range of $200,000 or more annually.
Some other interesting findings from the report: In 63 of the 94 communities there was “positive year-over-year income growth after adjusting for inflation.”
The biggest increases seemed to happen on the West Coast, particularly in California and Nevada.
On the flipside, there were places in the Golden State ranked near the bottom of the list, where residents are falling far behind and rising costs are making it harder to handle their budgets.
Those included Chula Vista, ranked 85 out of 94, where incomes declined by more than 4% with median household income going from $109,755 down to $105,101.
Another was Riverside in 70th place, where the take-home pay went down by close to one-percent and incomes dropped from $90,765 to $90,004.
The city of Los Angeles also had a dismal appearance landing in the 62nd place in the list, with incomes increasing by a measly 0.3%. The median income went from $82,043 up a couple hundred bucks to $82,263.
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