Austin metro sees household income increase

The median household in the Austin-Round Rock metro area made slightly more last year than before the pandemic, per new census data.

• The area's median income was $94,604 in 2022, compared to $93,581 in 2019 (inflation-adjusted).

The big picture: The Austin area was the only metro in Texas to see an increase in household income between 2019 to 2022.

• Plus, the area saw the highest median household income of any Texas metro, with Dallas-Fort Worth at No. 2 with $82,823.

By the numbers: The number of residents making between $25,000 and just under $50,000 annually decreased from 16.7% to 13.3% between 2019 and 2022, while those making over $100,000 increased from 40% to 47.4%.

• Meanwhile, the metro area's population rose by 2.9% from 2021 to 2022, jumping from more than 2.3 million in 2021 to 2.4 million in 2022.

Why it matters: The data is another example of how pandemic-era migration transformed Central Texas, bringing more people and more money to the area.

• Between 2020 and 2021, Austin was the top destination for remote workers fleeing cities like New York and San Francisco.

Details: The new data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau in its 2022 American Community Survey's (ACS) one-year estimates, released on Thursday.

• The ACS is one of the best resources available for a regularly-published, quantified look at several facets of American life, down to a remarkably local level.

The intrigue: The COVID-19 pandemic "changed the geography of where money is made in the United States," Axios Macro's Neil Irwin reports, as many higher-income Americans decamped from cities like New York and San Francisco to "rural and exurban places and popular vacation destinations."

Zoom out: Nationally, median household income fell 1.6% between 2019 and 2022 (inflation-adjusted).

• The Lone Star State saw a 2.35% decrease in median household income, from $74,021 in 2019 to $72,284 in 2022.

Of note: Because the latest ACS release is based on 2022 data, it captures what some call the "late pandemic era," when the pandemic was still ongoing yet many parts of normal life resumed.