An analysis of working-class livability places the Bay Area at the top of 50 largest U.S. metros — and Fresno at the bottom.

The Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP) relied on a series of in-house metrics combined with other metro-specific data to offer a more accurate understanding of working-class Americans, according to a news release.

A net loss in real wages and the skyrocketing price of housing pushed Fresno to the bottom of the LISEP list.

The analysis for Fresno found that 57% of households earn incomes that aren’t enough to meet basic needs. Since 2005, the typical worker in Fresno has lost 3% of their purchasing power.

The cost of necessities in the Fresno metro area has jumped 65.7% to $95,164 in that period, fueled by a spike in housing costs — the nation’s 17th fastest housing inflation during that time period. As a result, the average household fell short of covering basic necessities by 21.5%.

Nearly half of Fresno metro workers are employed in low-wage occupations, where two full-time earners cannot support the basic needs for a four-person family. The median is 34% for the top 50 U.S. metros.

The LISEP metrics included the true living cost, which tracks price changes for essential items including housing, food and childcare; true weekly earnings, a calculation of adjusted median weekly earnings of all members of the workforce, including the part time and jobless seeking work; and true rate of unemployment out of the population, a measure of the population unable to find a full-time, living-wage job, or the “functionally unemployed.”

“The United States is not a single economy — it’s an amalgamation of hundreds, even thousands, of regional economies,” said LISEP Chairman Gene Ludwig. “Understanding the dynamics of those economies and how they impact low- and moderate-income populations is critical to responsible policymaking. That is why this analysis is so important.”

While San Jose and San Francisco are some of the most expensive places to live in the U.S., they also have the highest wage rates. 

Rounding out the top 10 on the best performing MSAs is Austin-Round Rock, Texas, at No. 2, followed by Baltimore-Towson-Columbia, MD; Washington, DC/MD/VA; Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN/WI; Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR/WA; Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI; Denver-Aurora, CO; and Salt Lake City, UT.

The remaining MSAs in the bottom 10 are: Riverside-San Bernardino, CA, and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL (tied for 40th); Oklahoma City, OK; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA; New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA; New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA; Memphis, TN/AR/MS; Tulsa, OK; Urban Honolulu, HI; and Las Vegas-Paradise, NV, at 49th.

“Across the nation we are seeing both ends of the spectrum — communities where middle- and working-class families are faring well and others where financial survival remains a struggle,” Ludwig said. “Our challenge here is in identifying what’s working well and replicating it; what’s not, and scrapping it. This is where real-world data can be invaluable to policymakers.”