Definition: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
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 In a region where even people with six-figure incomes struggle to find a place to live, the threshold for who qualifies as “low income” just keeps going up. 
  
 Reflecting the Bay Area’s relentless rise in housing costs, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s latest definition of the “low” income level to qualify for certain affordable housing programs stands at $117,400 per year for a household of four people in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties. 
  
 That’s up more than 10 percent from last year and is the highest in the nation. 
  
 Households in those three counties that are considered “very low” income bring in as much as $73,300 per year and the threshold for “extremely low” for a family of four is $44,000, according to HUD’s recently released 2018 limits. The median family income for those areas is $118,400, according to HUD. 
  
 Santa Clara County is close behind. There, a household of four bringing in $94,450 is now considered low income under the HUD guidelines, and for Alameda and Contra Costa counties, $89,600 is the low-income threshold. 
  
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 The federal income limits, which set a threshold that determines who can qualify for affordable and subsidized housing programs such as Section 8 vouchers, have risen for at least the last four consecutive years. 
  
 But they’re still not keeping pace with the price of housing in some areas. The median price of resale homes has increased 25 percent in the past year in Santa Clara County, 11.8 percent in Alameda and 10 percent in Contra Costa. In May, the median price for a single family home in the Bay Area reached a record $935,000, according to real estate data firm Core Logic. 
  
 “It just demonstrates how broken and unsustainable our housing market is,” said Amie Fishman, executive director of the Non-profit Housing Association of Northern California. “More and more people are unable to afford housing.” 
  
 At his job as a third-grade bilingual education teacher at Lincoln Elementary, Richmond resident Jesus Galindo makes roughly $60,000 per year. The “low income” threshold for a single person in Contra Costa County by HUD guidelines is $62,750. 
  
 In many respects, Galindo feels well-off financially. He bought a house in Richmond about three years ago, he said, on which he estimates he spends 33 percent of his income each month. He lives within walking distance of the school where he teaches, so his transportation costs are minimal and he rarely shops for clothes or splurges on any luxuries. But that does not mean he’s not immune to the financial concerns shared by many in the Bay Area. 
  
 He knows what it’s like to live with much less. He moved around the state growing up, as his father struggled sometimes to make even $15,000 in a year in his job as a day laborer and moved the family to find places they could afford. 
  
 His parents currently live in Los Banos, which is having its own affordability issues as more people move there, Galindo said, but the idea that his parents cannot afford to live in the Bay Area is difficult. 
  
 “For someone who loves the Bay Area, and loves Richmond,” he said, “that breaks my heart.” 
  
 Galindo wonders whether he will ever be able to afford having his own family. 
  
 “Raising a family in the Bay Area is very expensive,” said Galindo, whose partner is also a teacher. “Even though I own my home, babysitting is expensive, the cost of food is expensive.” 
  
 And he sees the impact of the Bay Area’s rising rents on both his teacher colleagues and the families of students he teaches. 
  
 “The families I work with in Richmond … they can’t afford to live here anymore, they’re pushed out,” he said. 
  
 The 2018 HUD increases broaden the pool of people eligible for some federal housing programs or subsidies, but they’re unlikely to make much difference in a region already suffering from a shortage of affordable housing. 
  
 Michael Santero, director of asset management for San Jose-based nonprofit affordable housing developer and manager First Community Housing, said waitlists are often years-long and turnover is low. 
  
 According to HUD, low-income families are defined as families whose incomes do not exceed 80 percent of the median family income for the area. Very low-income families are defined as those whose incomes do not exceed 50 percent of the median. But to accommodate high-housing cost areas like the Bay Area, the limits are adjusted in a way that exceed those percentages. 
  
 Santero said that while most of the First Community Housing properties house families whose incomes are below 60 percent of the median, he’s not surprised to see that people at the 90 percent level are in need of affordable housing, considering the price of market rents in the Bay Area, which average between $2,500 and $3,500 locally, according to a recent RentCafe study. 
  
 One in three households in California — about 3.3 million families — are struggling to reach a decent standard of living, even though most of those households include full-time workers, according to United Ways of California. 
  
 In a recently released report, the nonprofit coalition said its measure for a decent standard of living included the cost of housing, childcare, transportation, healthcare and food. Families below the federal poverty level spend as much as 79 percent of their income on their homes, according to the report. 
  
 The Bay Area’s HUD income limits outstrip Los Angeles, where the HUD-determined low-income threshold for a family of four is $77,500, and New York City, notorious for its high costs of housing, where the limit for the same size household is $83,450. 
  
 “California needs 1 million more units of affordable housing for people at the very low and extremely low (income limits) — those struggling the most,” said Fishman. 
  
 While some argue that simply producing more housing at market-rate levels will alleviate the crunch, Fishman said a more active approach is required. 
  
 “The market will never produce homes for people at that level,” she said. “The market produces housing for those at the top.” 
  
 Related Articles Here’s how bad inflation is in the Bay Area 
  
 Bay Area report: Great for some professionals, but hard for workers 
  
 Top three most expensive places for renters: all are in Bay Area While she hopes a state bond that will be on the ballot this November to allocate more funds for affordable housing will help, she said the next California governor is going to have to take this issue “head on.” 
  
 The increase of HUD’s income limits, Fishman said, is “exactly the indicator of how broken the market is, how unsustainable it is, and how the affordability crisis has gone up the income scale.” ||||| Some residents of Silicon Valley self-identify as being in the middle class, even though their salaries dwarf those of many Americans. 
  
 The Pew Research Center defines the US middle class as those earning two-thirds to twice the median household income, which was $60,336 in 2017, meaning middle-class Americans were earning about $40,425 to $120,672. 
  
 But that number shifts as its broken down by state and even by city. 
  
 The Palo Alto Weekly, a local paper in Palo Alto, California, asked residents to report their household income and perceived social class. Out of more than 250 respondents, 81 with incomes between $10,000 to $399,999 said they were "middle class." 
  
 "Middle class" is a term used broadly — and often incorrectly — even though it can be quantified with US government data. And while the US middle class has been shrinking for decades, most Americans still consider themselves part of it. Many of the high-earning Palo Alto residents noted the high cost of living was one of the reasons they identified as being in the middle class. 
  
 But whether you're in the "middle class" varies depending on where you live. 
  
 To get a sense of what it looks like in 25 US cities, Business Insider pulled census data from the 2017 American Community Survey for the largest metropolitan statistical areas. For clarity, we listed the largest city in the MSA (some include more than one). 
  
 Below, find out how much income you have to earn to be considered in the middle class in 25 metro areas. 
  
 This is an updated article originally reported by Abby Jackson. ||||| A six-figure salary is considered 'low income' in San Francisco, and the threshold is rising 
  
 Habitat for Humanity of Greater San Francisco unveiled new low income homes in the Oceanview neighborhood of San Francisco, CA on Saturday, January 28, 2017. Habitat for Humanity of Greater San Francisco unveiled new low income homes in the Oceanview neighborhood of San Francisco, CA on Saturday, January 28, 2017. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close A six-figure salary is considered 'low income' in San Francisco, and the threshold is rising 1 / 14 Back to Gallery 
  
 The Bay Area is so expensive, earning $117,400 a year qualifies you as "low income" in some counties. 
  
 Every year the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development releases "income limits," the minimum income level required to qualify for some affordable housing programs. 
  
 To be considered "low income" in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties, a family of four must earn $117,400 a year. "Very low income" is considered $73,300. 
  
 The Bay Area figures are the highest in the country and continue to increase year over year. Income limits in some Bay Area cities increased by 10 percent just in the last year. 
  
 Most residents will roll their eyes at such figures — they're used to seeing the cost of rent and home ownership increase with the years. In May, the median home price in the Bay Area hit a record high at $935,000. 
  
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 The high cost of living likely accounts for what some perceive to be a "Bay Area exodus." It's hard to quantify such a trend with limited census data, but multiple reports imply Bay Area residents are at least thinking about leaving. Real estate site Redfin determined the Bay Area as the top region for "outward migration" in the nation by analyzing where people were searching for homes. 
  
 "Jobs and housing are really the primary criteria driving people's decisions," Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, told The Chronicle in March. "It's kind of a balancing act between the two. If jobs predominate, people are moving in. If housing predominates, you have less people moving in." 
  
 Here's the list of counties and the annual salaries that qualify as low income for a four-person family: 
  
 Alameda County: $89,600 
  
 Contra Costa County: $89,600 
  
 Marin County: $117,400 
  
 Napa County: $73,450 
  
 San Francisco County: $117,400 
  
 San Mateo County: $117,400 
  
 Santa Clara County: $94,450 
  
 Solano County: $66,950 
  
 Sonoma County: $78,550 
  
 Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf. |||||
Output:
From Miami to Detroit to San Antonio, an annual household income of $117,400 puts you firmly in the "high income" group. You'd even land in the upper middle class in New York City, per Business Insider. Not so in San Francisco. Further cementing the city's reputation as the most expensive in the country, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has revamped income limits so that a family of four earning $117,400 a year now qualifies as "low income" in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties, while a household income of $73,300 is considered "very low income," reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Not only is the low-income gauge the highest such limit in the country, but it represents a 10% increase over last year, per the San Jose Mercury News. As the income limits determine who can qualify for affordable housing programs, the increases mean more people are eligible. "But they're unlikely to make much difference in a region already suffering from a shortage of affordable housing," the Mercury News reports, noting the median house price in some parts of the Bay Area has jumped 25% in the past year. "It just demonstrates how broken and unsustainable our housing market is," says Amie Fishman, executive director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. "California needs 1 million more units of affordable housing for people at the very low and extremely low [income limits]—those struggling the most" and "the market will never produce homes for people at that level," she says.