Median incomes in these metro areas are the country's highest.
Though fewer Americans these days have salaries to brag about, and unemployment at is at 9.7% nationwide, there are enclaves of the country where the rich keep getting richer, figures released Tuesday show.
Families earn the highest median income in the Bridgeport, Conn., San Jose, Calif., and Washington, D.C., metro areas, according to the latest numbers from the United States Census Bureau. (These areas are broader than the city limits; the Bridgeport metro area, for example, encompases wealthy suburbs Norwalk and Stamford.) What's more, as incomesplummeted in many areas across the country--real adjusted family income was the lowest it has been since 1997, according to the Census Bureau--these cities all saw a rise in median family income from the previous year.
The fact that residents of these wealth centers bring in over $100,000 per year is hardly surprising. Some of these places create wealth, like Washington, where the U.S. government is a robust employer, or San Jose, a tech-industry hot spot. Others, like the Bridgeport area, are where powerful executives make their home--and bring their paychecks--after a long week in the big city.
Behind the Numbers
Forbes ranked the median family income for all 369 Metropolitan Statistical Areas for which the U.S. Census Bureau publishes data as part of its annual American Community Survey. MSAs are geographic entities that the U.S. Office of Management and Budget defines and uses in collecting statistics. The survey, released Tuesday, updates select subjects from the decennial U.S. Census, using a smaller sample of the population. It measures characteristics of the population for the year 2008.
Though the economic news has been dismal across the country, all 20 of the highest-earning cities in the U.S. saw higher incomes than in 2007. In part, this can be explained by timing: The survey asked Americans about calendar year 2008, which hit workers the hardest only at the end of the year.
"In 2008 we were debating what income would look like because of inflation," says Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank that focuses on policy issues. "But things didn't get grim until October, when cascading job losses began."
Bedroom Communities Do Best
While urban centers, growth-industry towns and university hubs may generate profits, it is often the suburbs and small cities surrounding those areas where workers take their paychecks. That's why Bridgeport tops our list, as the metro area it inhabits also includes Stamford and Norwalk; all are roughly an hour commute from New York City, and Stamford is a financial center in its own right, the location of companies like General Electric Capital and Xerox.
Similarly, in the Trenton, N.J., area, families live well, on a median income of $88,789 annually. This is likely not thanks to the town itself, which had 989 violent crimes in 2008, but neighboring Ewing, which has emerged as a key business location for the recent biotech boom in the state. The metro is also within commuting distance of New York and Philadelphia.
Areas where one might expect families to do quite well, like New York City itself (it ranked 29th), instead see much of their wealth transferred to outlying suburbs. New Yorkers still earn a lot (the $77,760 that families there gross is well above the $58,270 national average), but comparatively less than in some suburban areas. In part, this is because the New York City Metropolitan Statistical Area isn't just limited to Manhattan; it includes the outer boroughs, Long Island and parts of New Jersey. Thus many working-class families live adjacent to the wealthy city center, and their incomes are reflected in the lower median number.
Baltimore and Poughkeepsie, N.Y., modest areas in many ways, found their way onto this list with their surprisingly high median incomes of $81,036 and $85,463, respectively, for the same reason that other suburban metros made the top 20: Baltimore is close to Washington, D.C, and Poughkeepsie houses commuters to New York City.
Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Boston families also took home more pay in 2008 than those in nearly all other metro areas in 2008. Boston's sprawling metro area includes Cambridge and Quincy--both relatively well-to-do cities. In San Francisco, the high end of incomes are so far above the national average that the median is tugged upward.
The Jobs Picture
The numbers also confirmed something that most already knew: Where tech goes, so goes the money. Highly skilled workers congregate in high-tech cities like San Jose, Calif., where families earn a median $103,164 annually.
Other growth industries can create clusters of well-off families, and help explain why Oxnard, Calif., families make around $86,784 a year. The health industry, one of the fastest-growing in the country, helps support the city. St. John's Regional Medical Center employs more of this city's residents than any other company.
While high gross pay doesn't always trickle down evenly when taxes, Social Security, housing and other living costs are factored in, looking at median family income does give a good indication of where the country's money is pooling.
"Because 2008 was so bad, clearly, some places have borne the brunt more than others," says Bouchey. "It could be that these are the places left standing."
Top 5 Places Where Median Incomes Are Highest
1. Bridgeport, Conn.
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn., Metropolitan Statistical Area
Median Family Income: $105,132
2. San Jose, Calif.
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., Metropolitan Statistical Area
Median Family Income: $103,164
3. Washington, D.C.
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.V., Metropolitan Statistical Area
Median Family Income: $101,590
4. San Francisco, Calif.
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif., Metropolitan Statistical Area
Median Family Income: $94,236
5. Trenton, N.J.
Trenton-Ewing, N.J., Metropolitan Statistical Area
Median Family Income: $93,912
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