West Bloomfield, Northville townships join $100K club

Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News

Despite growing economic woes in Michigan, two more Metro Detroit communities have seen median household income top $100,000, according to new census data released Tuesday.

But those gains, in West Bloomfield and Northville townships, will likely be short-lived: Both communities, like most of the region, saw unemployment double or nearly double since the census data was gleaned from surveys conducted from 2006-08.

Bloomfield Township remained in the top spot, with a median household income of $117,880, down slightly from 2005-07 surveys.

Northville Township followed at $101,712, up slightly when compared to 2005-07. However, compared to the township's inflation-adjusted median income in 2000, the township has seen income fall. But at nearly 3 percent, the township's decline is far smaller than most Metro Detroit communities that have experienced double-digit income drops in the last decade.

West Bloomfield Township saw its median income climb to $101,260.

The two townships joined Bloomfield Township in that rarest of air: household incomes exceeding $100,000, double the state's median of $49,694 and well above the nationwide median of $52,175.

Don Grimes, a senior economic researcher at the University of Michigan, said the numbers reveal, again, that the recession has not hit every income group as hard as those workers tied intimately to making cars and manufacturing. "They (the wealthy) really are more resilient," he said.

Wealthier communities include more professionals who are somewhat insulated from blue-collar woes, he said. But he said that drops in income for the wealthy -- perhaps a household making more than $200,000 losing $50,000 in income -- could still leave that household above the median. The Census Bureau released social, demographic and economic data on Tuesday for communities with at least 20,000 residents; prior releases from the American Community Survey have covered only townships, cities and counties with 65,000 people or more.

The data is compiled from surveys taken between 2006-08. The surveys, and the results they generate, are replacing the so-called "long-form" that was given to one in six households once every decade.

Demographers caution that it can be difficult to compare the results of the ACS three-year surveys from one year to the next because each has two overlapping years of data.