As Miami's real estate market has boomed to glittering new heights of luxury since 2010, the area's median household income remains the second lowest of any major metro area while poverty has continued to increase. It's embarrassing, if not depressing.
See also: Miamians Can't Afford to Buy Condos in Miami
According to new data released this week from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, the median income for a household in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area is just $46,946 in 2013.
That's the second lowest level in the nation's top 25 metro areas. Only Tampa has a lower median household income. In fact, the two Florida metro areas are the only areas on the list where the median income is less than $50,000.
The median income is actually down from 2012, when it was $47,154. Though, it's slightly up since 2010 when the median income was $45,352.
See also: Miami Rents Are Wildly Unaffordable for Average Residents
Meanwhile, poverty levels in the city have only gotten worse since 2010, with 17.7 percent of South Floridians now living below the poverty line.
In fact, 7.4 percent of South Floridians live on an income of less than half of what's considered poverty (compare that to the national average of 7 percent). Another 10.3 percent live on an income that is 50 percent to 99.9 percent of the poverty line (compared to the national average 8.8). An additional 5.7 percent live above the poverty line, but make no more than 125 percent of the poverty threshold (nationally it's 4.8 percent).
Miami has the second highest level of those living in poverty or near poverty, behind only Riverside, California.
In 2012, 17.5 percent of South Floridians lived in poverty. In 2010 that number was only 17.1 percent.
Miami certainly seems to be proving that old cliché: as the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
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