In raw numbers, CA may have the largest, most affluent middle class. But that ignores several things: First, as a percentage of the state population and in comparison to the upper and lower classes, where does CA stand when measured against other states?
And as for “affluent”, how affluent are they once you start taking cost-of-living into account? Are those homeowners really that affluent? If you leave out home valuation since buyers are scarce and most don’t have the ability to pay what the market portrays as home values, are any CA residents really flush with cash? Or do they just look “affluent” on paper because they own a house with an unrealistically high “value”?
In my neighborhood there are still bidding wars that drive up the price of homes, often 5-10% above asking price.
Home are RARELY on the market more than two weeks.
The affluence I refer to is median household income which is $10k above the nation. And that with 1/3 of the nation’s welfare population.