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Of course, cost of living comes into play, as might other factors.
NYC 35.1%
Boston 33.1%
SF 30.3%
LA 29.7%
COL aside (big aside) Boston has more black households at $200k+ than any of these cities- save for Houston. And in a much smaller land area (just 48 square miles) and smaller black population. 4x as many as Charlotte...
After SF (17.1%) NYC (10.4%) and Boston (10.7%) have the highest concentrations of Black households making 150k plus (aside from DC I'm sure). This makes sense as these are the two metros with the wealthiest black median household income after DC. One big reason for that is affluent black people in NYC but in Boston especially prefer to live in the city, not the suburbs.
Also worth noting that the tax on your income in NYC is significantly higher than in Boston (Mass. has a flat income tax, NY State has a progressive tax. Boston has no wage tax, NYC does) so take home income is much higher. On top of that Cost of living is 10% higher in NYC than Boston
I kind of ignore SF because there's only 18,000 black households in the city. Lotta folks making over 150k but only 13% in between 75-150k. This is an obvious indicator that the middle class isn't very robust. But I guess you need at least 200k to be middle class in SF anyway.... COL is 59.1% higher than Boston.
Last edited by BostonBornMassMade; 07-11-2022 at 02:07 PM..
Yea this is another reminder of why you can't rule cities out.
Boston LA Oakland DC NY are all in the same boat. For COL and incomes.
Those Sunbelt cities do really really well for their COL. But still, people making those high incomes in the aforementioned cities are middle class in mindset/credential even if their homes don't show it as much. Not everyone values the big home and yard- I know i sure as hell don't.
I cant include SF due to the outrageous COL. Obviously, middle-class black people prefer Oakland, and having been to both I totally get why.
^ Yes, I agree and I think Oakland is a great example of a city where only one side of it is portrayed, when there is this more affluent side to it as well.
COL aside (big aside) Boston has more black households at $200k+ than any of these cities- save for Houston. And in a much smaller land area (just 48 square miles) and smaller black population. 4x as many as Charlotte...
After SF (17.1%) NYC (10.4%) and Boston (10.7%) have the highest concentrations of Black households making 150k plus (aside from DC I'm sure). This makes sense as these are the two metros with the wealthiest black median household income after DC. One big reason for that is affluent black people in NYC but in Boston especially prefer to live in the city, not the suburbs.
Also worth noting that the tax on your income in NYC is significantly higher than in Boston (Mass. has a flat income tax, NY State has a progressive tax. Boston has no wage tax, NYC does) so take home income is much higher. On top of that Cost of living is 10% higher in NYC than Boston
I kind of ignore SF because there's only 18,000 black households in the city. Lotta folks making over 150k but only 13% in between 75-150k. This is an obvious indicator that the middle class isn't very robust. But I guess you need at least 200k to be middle class in SF anyway.... COL is 59.1% higher than Boston.
New Haven CT: 20.4% (6.3% above 150k)
Baltimore MD: 24.9% (5.0% above 150k)
Providence RI: 23.8% (2.9% above 150k)
Philadelphia PA: 19.6% ( 4.1% above 150k)
@CKHTHANKGOD hopefully this can illuminate why Black professionals gravitate to Boston over Providence. Baltimore has a pretty solid Middle-Class Black population despite only having 17.4% with a college degree or higher. It lacks some of that more top-tier 150k+ money you see in NYC DC and BOS though.
Was shocked to see how large some of these cities are in terms of land area. I went back and checked and noticed the numbers you posted include water. For example, Minneapolis land area is 57.51 sq miles; 54 of that is land and 3.51 is water.
Columbus 220 square miles
Raleigh 147
Indianapolis 362
Minneapolis 54
Las Vegas 142
Charlotte 307
Washington DC 61
Houston 640
Dallas 340
Phoenix 518
^Yeah, I was a bit surprised by how low they were...
On the other end, Carson CA is a city where 58% of the black households make at least $75k. Inglewood CA and Vallejo CA come in at 38.6% and 39.9%. All three are some of the blackest cities in CA/the Western part of the country(Carson is around 23%, Inglewood is around 39% and Vallejo around 20% black).
As for a predominantly black city, Mount Vernon NY comes in 36.2% and is the highest I've seen in that regard, as of now(around 63% black).
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