Santa Rosa ranks among the five least affordable cities for teachers to live in the US

Santa Rosa is one of the nation's least affordable cities for teachers, according to a USA Today analysis.

The city was ranked the fifth least affordable in the U.S., with only Honolulu, San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Cruz being worse.

The analysis compared teachers' salaries to the cost of housing to determine affordability. USA Today used teachers' gross pay, before taxes, as reported by employers to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Financial experts typically recommend 30 percent or less of a salary is spent on housing. According to USA Today, mid-career teachers earn about $74,630 annually, and 53 percent of that is used to afford median rent in Sonoma County.

The median rent of a two-bedroom apartment in Santa Rosa is $1,970, according to an Apartmentlist.com report.

The average salary of a Santa Rosa City Schools teacher is $72,738, according to the California Department of Education. That's almost $8,000 less than the state average of $80,680.

While teachers in Santa Rosa are making significantly less than their peers nationwide, the district's teachers will receive a 3-percent raise this July.