Highest and Lowest Median Incomes By Geography

I was reading this article on Boston.com today and started wondering if you plotted the high incomes vs. low incomes on a map, would you see a pattern? So that is what I did on my lunch-break.



There is definitely a pattern! If you're a Western suburb of Boston, you will have a high median income. But if you are west of 495, you are poor. I bet that is because Western MA had a huge manufacturing industry and now those jobs are in another country. Also, it could be linked to funding. For example, in Q3 2010 Hampden county was awarded $557,318,372 in Recovery Act Funds. For the same time period, Suffolk county received $1,800,660,696. Boston's unemployment rate in November 2010 was 7.4%. Springfield's is 9.2% for the same time period. Another way to look at this data is to search for high median incomes and low real estate costs. That would be the place to live. Let your rich neighbors support the town infrastructure!