Asian Americans are the only ethnic segment whose median household incomes have not fallen since 2007, according to data released by the U.S. government last month. The Associated Press reported that Asian incomes remained flat at $65,469, 32 percent higher than the overall U.S. median household incomes which dipped to $49,777, the lowest since 1997. Blacks had the biggest income losses, dropping to $32,584. They were followed by non-Hispanic whites, whose income fell to $54,461. The sharpest drop-offs were in the Midwest and Northeast. Call it the migration bust: Many of the fast-growing U.S. areas during the housing boom are now yielding some of the biggest income drops in the economic downturn. Whites and blacks have taken big hits since 2007 in once-torrid Sunbelt regions offering warm climates and open spaces, including Florida, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada, according to 2009 census data. Hispanics suffered paycheck losses in many “new immigrant” destinations in the interior U.S., which previously offered construction jobs and affordable housing, such as Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. The few bright spots: Washington, D.C., San Jose, Calif., San Francisco and Boston. Their household incomes remained among the highest in the nation last year partly due to steady demand for government and high-tech work.
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