San Jose -- still filthy rich, but poorer than it was
The San Jose area is still filthy rich compared with the rest of the country -- in fact, it's second only to Washington, D.C. -- but Silicon Valley residents have on average become poorer for two straight years, new data show.
A Bloomberg analysis released Wednesday of recent U.S. Census Bureau figures says the typical household income in the San Jose area last year was $83,944, compared with the nationwide median of $50,046.
Still, it's a 4.7 percent drop for Silicon Valley from record income levels reached in 2008. The typical household last year made some $4,100 less than it did two years prior.
Like in 2009, Washington, D.C., last year was still the richest metropolitan area in the country, Bloomberg reports. Its median income has also been dropping, although not as dramatically, and in 2010 was $84,523.
The Bloomberg report attributed the wealth in the nation's capital to a high concentration of lawyers and the big salaries given to federal workers.
Despite its prosperity, a greater percentage of people in the South Bay are still without a job compared with the rest of the country. Yet just 6 percent of residents here are considered "very poor," meaning they make less than half the poverty line.
Surveys indicate the area that includes some 1.8 million people in the South Bay have a combined income of $67 billion.
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