December Median Household Income At A New Post-Recession High

The Sentier Research median household income data for December, released this morning, came in at $57,153. The nominal median rose $361 month-over-month and is up $2,731 year-over-year. That’s an increase of 0.6% MoM and 5.0% YoY. Adjusted for inflation, the latest income was up $424 MoM and $2,368 YoY. The real numbers equate to increases of 0.7% MoM and 4.3% YoY.

In real dollar terms, the median annual income is 1.1% lower (-$628) than its interim high in January 2008 but well off its low in August 2011.

Background on Sentier Research

The traditional source of household income data is the Census Bureau, which publishes annual household income data in mid-September for the previous year.

Sentier Research, an organization that focuses on income and demographics, offers a more up-to-date glimpse of household incomes by accessing the Census Bureau data and publishing monthly updates. Sentier Research has now released its most recent update, data through November (available here). The numbers in their report differ from the Census Bureau’s in three key respects:

It is a monthly rather than annual series, which gives a more granular view of trends.

Their numbers are more current. The Census Bureau’s most recent is the 2014 annual data released in September 2015.

Sentier Research uses the more familiar Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the inflation adjustment. The Census Bureau uses the little-known CPI-U-RS (RS stands for “research series”) as the deflator for their annual data. For more on that topic, see this commentary.

Monthly Median Household Income Since 2000

The first chart below is an overlay of the nominal values and real monthly values chained in the dollar value as of the latest month. The red line illustrates the history of nominal median household, and the blue line shows the real (inflation-adjusted value). Callouts show specific nominal and real monthly values for the January 2000 start date and the peak and post-peak troughs.