These are mostly cities in large metro areas where the lower-middle and middle-middle class is priced out of living in the central areas, causing them to be excluded from income percentiles and such when examining cities-proper
Does median income in a city == middle-class? I think that would be pretty skewed in cities with a lot of people commuting in to work because they can't afford to live near their job.
There is a good reason young people go into so much debt for degrees in spite of the insistence by pundits of college being a bubble: the pay bump is worth it, and not just tech jobs. VHCOL areas also have the highest paying jobs, and rapid home appreciation is another tailwind too. Many people who bought homes in Bay Area even as recently as before Covid are sitting on large gains.
That state median average of $95K makes sense for Washington state, but the Seattle median (which they say is actually $189K) just seems way too high by comparison. It'd imply people on the other side of the state are making much less than $95k per household. That may be true, I grew up over there and there is plenty of poverty. But, it's especially weird considering how much of the state's high-earning population lives within commuting distance of the city, but not in it, which would further drive down the median income in, say, Yakima or Spokane. My guess is those numbers are wacky.