Photo by peter.hill

In more evidence that the Washington region is doing better than many of its city counterparts, a report on car affordability released last week found that middle-income residents of the DMV are the only ones in the country fully able to afford a new car or truck.

According to the 2013 Car Affordability Study by Interest.com, in no other area of the country could median-income families manage the down payment, financing, and interest and insurance costs for an average car or truck. The study found that local residents could pay $31,940, almost five percent above the $30,550 price tag for a new car or truck. In San Francisco, by comparison, residents were 12 percent below that, while those in bottom-of-the-pile Tampa were 52 percent below that.

Of course, many of the news stories on the report have done what many news outlets usually do: confuse D.C. and the Washington region. The report bases its conclusions on the region’s median income—just over $86,000—while generically referring to “Washington.” Median income in D.C., though, is some $20,000 lower than the regional average, so it’s not that much easier for an average D.C. family to buy a car than it is for those in other cities. (In fact, D.C. has the lowest median income in the region.)

This isn’t to say that the counties around D.C. aren’t doing well, but that comparing the entire metropolitan area to other cities doesn’t make for a particularly accurate reading of things. On a city-by-city comparison, for example, San Francisco resident—median income $72,000—could more easily afford a car than their D.C. counterparts. The same would go for the next few cities on the list: Boston and Baltimore have median income’s above D.C.’s, and Minneapolis is on par with us.