Middle-class income hit highest level in 2016

Status
Not open for further replies.
Income is just a fancy number; just because someone makes $400/year more than it was in '99 means a whole lot of nothing...let them show the purchasing power.
 
I'll take the 80's- loads of cash in my pocket and way too much work to do for the decade
Few here remember turning down work because you couldn't expand fast enough. In my business the middle class is still MIA
 
According to multiple inflation calculators I just plugged this into, to live equivalent to making 55,000 in 1999 today, you would have to be making over 80,000. So highest average pay is useless when inflation means your dollar is only worth 66 percent of what the dollar was at the last highest average pay.
 
Middle class in the 80's:

Couple modern newish cars, nice good sized house, good summer vacations, small amount of savings.

Middle class today:
Older cars, average sized house but paying a ton for it, short vacations if that, struggling to save money and pay off bills/debt, and getting a 2nd job to make ends meet.

Thats my view, however I do realize people are not as good with money today as they were in the past.. but nonetheless.. its not like it used to be. Looking at my household income and how Im doing, I thought I'd be doing better than I am.
 
Median new home price in 1999 was $161,000 which in 2017 dollars is $238,869.

Median new home price in 2017 is $313,700. So home prices have grown by 31% which can account for the two jobs, higher stress, etc.

But... the median existing home price is $238,500 in 2017
.
 
Originally Posted By: 4WD
$400/month barely helps at today's costs ...

BITOG is not only US but (like you) International...
 
"Almost everyone saw an increase in income last year, Census officials said. They cautioned, however, that the Census changed its methodology in 2014, so they are hesitant to definitively say it's the highest median income ever."
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Yet it is about the same as it was in 1999, which is depressing.


why is that depressing, 1999 was a pretty good year?
 
Originally Posted By: mazdamonky
According to multiple inflation calculators I just plugged this into, to live equivalent to making 55,000 in 1999 today, you would have to be making over 80,000. So highest average pay is useless when inflation means your dollar is only worth 66 percent of what the dollar was at the last highest average pay.


I think the OP meant "inflation adjusted"
 
Could it be that we're in the same virtuous cycle that we saw beginning in the early eighties that continued through the mid '00s with only a brief and mild recession to interrupt it?
The signs are there. Unemployment is low, help wanted signs are up everywhere and entry level and even garbage job wages are rising.
We enjoyed many years of prosperity following the deep recession of the late nineties.
Could we be seeing the same in the years following the deep recession of 2008?
These two recessions had radically different causes and brought radically different policy responses, but could these two awful events have subsequent long-term economic benefits in common?
I hope so, for the sake of all those younger folks out there looking to find a solid career path.
I'm invulnerable either way, but I want to see my sons along with everyone else's progeny do well in the coming years.
 
Originally Posted By: Alfred_B
Median new home price in 1999 was $161,000 which in 2017 dollars is $238,869.

Median new home price in 2017 is $313,700. So home prices have grown by 31% which can account for the two jobs, higher stress, etc.

But... the median existing home price is $238,500 in 2017
.


New construction happens in booming geographical regions and the existing homeowners rig it so the new houses pay more in school tax and ergo need to be more expensive.

If my house burnt to the ground I'd buy another like it; cheaper than rebuilding. But my state isn't hot for growth.
 
1999 was on the cusp of the real estate market going wild starting in 2000. I owned a home purchased at the end of 1999 in the low 2's. The next year similar homes in the same town were going for 3, and the year after that they were pushing 4. They kept going up to who knows where before crashing around 2007 or 2008. Sold in early 2012 for the high 4's.

The first decade of the current century was some truly wild times in real estate. Lots of people got into the business from all ends, finance, building, speculating, flipping and whatever.
 
Originally Posted By: madRiver
The figures will morphed/elaborated into 2017 and certain folks will take credit for it all.


Of course they'll take credit for it!
Were the results negative, they'd certainly be given the blame.
Just how things work since the pocketbook issue is always paramount.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top