Hi {{first_name|nurse,}}

Happy New Year! We hope the year is already treating you kindly.

But let’s be real—have you ever cashed your paycheck and thought, “I did everything right, so why do I still feel behind,” you are not alone.

Brentwood is a perfect example of how a strong RN salary can get squeezed by where you live.

Let’s get into it.

What if the problem isn’t how much you earn, but where you try to spend it?

Brentwood, California is a textbook example of geographic math going wrong for nurses.

On paper, registered nurses here earn nearly $125,000 per year. In most cities, that would feel like financial security. But salary numbers without context are misleading. They look impressive. They feel fragile.

• Median RN salary: $124,790
• Estimated taxes: $39,059 (31.3%)
• Average home price: $827,227
• Monthly mortgage: $4,432 (20% down, current rates)
• Monthly leftover income: $2,712

Here’s what’s actually happening in Brentwood, and it has very little to do with nursing.

After taxes, a Brentwood RN takes home about $85,731 per year, or $7,144 per month.

Once the mortgage is paid, that leaves $2,712 to cover:

• Utilities
• Insurance
• Transportation
• Food
• Student loans
• Savings
• Anything resembling a life

Housing alone consumes 62% of take-home pay. Financial planners recommend staying under 30%.

That isn’t “tight.” That’s unstable.

Three forces collide in Brentwood.

Spillover demand
As buyers were priced out of San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley, they pushed east. Contra Costa County absorbed that pressure. Home prices rose fast. Nursing wages did not, because hospitals don’t compete with tech salaries. They compete with other healthcare systems.

Supply constraints
Housing didn’t grow fast enough to meet demand. California’s development rules, environmental reviews, and infrastructure limits make supply slow to respond. When demand spikes, prices explode.

Wage and housing decoupling
Nursing pay is tied to statewide contracts and reimbursement rates, not hyper-local housing costs. A nurse in Brentwood earns roughly the same as one in Modesto or Stockton. But Brentwood’s proximity to wealth centers inflates everything else.

You’re paid for the job.
You pay for the ZIP code.

Brentwood nurses aren’t underpaid.

They’re geographically mismatched.

The salary reflects strong unions and safe staffing ratios. The housing cost reflects proximity to one of the wealthiest regions in the world. Those two numbers don’t communicate, and nurses absorb the difference.

This isn’t about skipping lattes or budgeting harder. It’s structural.

A nurse earning $125K here has less breathing room than a nurse earning $75K in Tulsa or $68K in Pittsburgh, where homes cost under $200K.

Geography isn’t a side factor.
It’s the factor.

High pay without geographic context is financial theater.

Brentwood’s RN salary sounds like security but delivers stress. Until housing supply catches up or wages align with local costs, six figures here can still mean living paycheck to paycheck—just with a better title.

Want to see how your city actually compares?
Run your numbers at https://mapmypay.com and find out whether your salary is working for you—or just working.

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✅ Compare leftover income after rent or mortgage
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Talk soon,
Jason from Map My Pay

P.S. We’re posting daily in Map My Pay’s community section. Make sure to join us there and ask your most important questions.