This metric is income-only. Which is why it's so small - extended unemployment benefits (with the bonuses) have keep a lot of people above this line.
In reality, there are a lot more people than this who are just on the edge of scraping by. Some of their own volition (some people on the edge make $200k+ and it's because of a series of poor decisions), but even more people because the poverty line doesn't even pay for their studio apartment (I see you, California!), much less food or anything else.
California, from every source I've seen, has a major, systemic, generations long market failure. The supply of housing has been nearly inelastic while demand remains high, with the obvious results.
However there are also less obvious results given the time ___domain involved. The problems have followed those retiring out of California's market as other regions follow in the same footsteps.
As an example; the greater Seattle / Puget Sound metro area reached a combination of sprawl / urban growth boundary / natural features (mountains, lakes, the sound) at about the same time that the 2008 recession killed what little development was still occurring.
The price of a very cramped, noisy (poor insulation) apartment in the city without even a parking spot to store the vehicle for anything you're doing outside of the city (E.G. visiting family on a weekend, going hiking, etc) was easily at least 3K (offhand, the last time I looked), and similar units in the suburbs quite far out, if available, were about 1.5K per month.
There might be more rural areas, but those were excluded from my search as the last time I looked they failed even the FCC's definition of broadband (25mbit down, 3mbit up). I suspect any areas out that far with good Internet would still have bad prices.
There are about 4,000 added units within a mile radius of me (Santa Clara / Sunnyvale border) in an 18 month span (would have been a year without Covid)... nearly 3,000 adjacent to Lawrence Expressway alone.
The phrase “market failure” often implies that left to their own devices people can’t find a way to satisfice wants and needs through the normal process of selling, buying and owning. My impression of California housing (and likely Seattle too) is that there are other factors at play and that the “market” isn’t the thing causing the “failure.”
Seattle prices have dropped with the pandemic. Even pre-covid I was paying roughly 2k for a studio with parking. Now that same apartment would be 200-300 a month cheaper.
In reality, there are a lot more people than this who are just on the edge of scraping by. Some of their own volition (some people on the edge make $200k+ and it's because of a series of poor decisions), but even more people because the poverty line doesn't even pay for their studio apartment (I see you, California!), much less food or anything else.