Household Income

If you're a homeowner making $60,000 or less, you might qualify for help on your property taxes. But the deadline to apply is fast approaching. The Homeowners' Property Tax Credit , intended to help low- and moderate-income owners, caps the amount you must pay based on your income. The limit ranges from $4,380 as the maximum tab for eligible recipients making $60,000, all the way down to $0 for those with $8,000 or less in household income. The basic rules go like this: No more than $60,000 in total household income, and a net worth of less than $200,000 -- not including the value of the home and any qualified retirement savings.

After three years of increases, the nation's poverty rate held steady from 2010 to 2011, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau that also detailed trends in health insurance coverage and median income. Nationwide, 15 percent of people, or about 46.2 million individuals, lived below the poverty line in 2011, according to estimates in the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey. Last year, the Census Bureau considered a family of two adults and two children in poverty if its annual household income was under $22,811.

Household incomes in Maryland slipped slightly in 2009, but the state fared far better than most as the recession dragged on, according to figures released Tuesday by the Census Bureau. Data from the American Community Survey found that median household income in Maryland decreased from $69,844 in 2008 to $69,272 last year. In another sign of the effects of the deep recession that economists have declared over, the proportion of Maryland families living below the poverty line last year rose to 9.1 percent in 2009 from 8 percent, a rise of about 63,000 people.

If you're a homeowner making $60,000 or less, you might qualify for help on your property taxes. But the deadline to apply is fast approaching. The Homeowners' Property Tax Credit , intended to help low- and moderate-income owners, caps the amount you must pay based on your income. The limit ranges from $4,380 as the maximum tab for eligible recipients making $60,000, all the way down to $0 for those with $8,000 or less in household income. The basic rules go like this: No more than $60,000 in total household income, and a net worth of less than $200,000 -- not including the value of the home and any qualified retirement savings.

WASHINGTON -- The poverty rate fell in 1994 for the first time in four years, the Census Bureau reported yesterday, but median income remained stuck -- a sign that gains from a surging economy are not getting through to all middle-class households.The census also found that nearly one in seven Americans -- 39.7 million people -- lacked health insurance in 1994, about the same as the previous year.Single mothers and black families gained ground in 1994, but full-time workers and single people living alone were losers.

Maryland had the highest median household income and the lowest poverty rate in the nation during the past two years, the U.S. Census Bureau said yesterday. Household earnings rose to $51,715 according to combined data from 1998 and 1999, meaning that half of all Maryland households earned more, and half earned less. The national two-year median was $40,280. At the same time, the percentage of Marylanders in poverty was 7.2 percent, down from 7.8 percent during the previous two-year period.

MITCHELLVILLE -- Oliver and Frances Henderson have all the suburban trappings a couple in their mid-30s might want: the five-bedroom, $250,000 brick home on a quiet Prince George's County cul-de-sac, the lush lawn, the two cars and the two careers to pay for it all.They're black, they're proud -- and they're prosperous. And they are not alone.According to newly released census figures, Maryland has the nation's most affluent and highly educated black population.Of all states that were at least 10 percent black or had a black population of more than 1 million, Maryland ranked No. 1 with a median black household income of $30,746.

WASHINGTON -- Household income rose in 1995 for the first time in six years, the Census Bureau reported yesterday, as the number of poor people in the United States dropped by more than 1.6 million, reaching historic lows for blacks and the elderly.The bureau said half the households in the country had incomes of at least $34,074, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year.The inflation-adjusted increase of $898 was the first rise inmedian household income since 1989, the year before the nation's last recession.

It's the kind of statistic that makes politicians and economic development gurus cheer: Maryland ranked as the richest state in the nation last year, according to estimates released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The state's proximity to Washington's lucrative jobs, its abundance of workers with advanced degrees, and solid health and research opportunities in the Baltimore area continually keep Maryland at the peak of the economic charts, experts said. "We are able to access a level of job opportunities that are simply not available to the balance of the nation," said Anirban Basu, chief executive of the Baltimore economic consulting firm Sage Policy Group Inc. "That doesn't mean that Maryland doesn't have some degree of impoverishment in rural areas and in Baltimore City.

WASHINGTON -- For the first time in eight years, the income of a typical U.S. household dropped in 1990, and the number of people in poverty rose for the first time in seven years, the Census Bureau reported yesterday.At the same time, the government also estimated that the number of people without health insurance rose by 1.3 million last year."Using all these indicators, economic well-being seems to be worse off," said Dan Weinberg, head of household statistics for the Census Bureau.While the national poverty rate climbed from 12.8 percent to 13.5 percent last year, the bureau estimated, roughly 9.9 percent of Marylanders were living in poverty then.

If you're not spending a bundle on housing costs but still feel pinched, you probably don't live close to your job. The Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology says many places that appear affordable really aren't once you factor in transportation costs . Three out of four communities in the country have typical rent and home prices that don't require more than 30 percent of a typical household's income, a common affordability measure....

From 2008 to 2011, average monthly applications for food stamps in Baltimore increased by 66 percent, and applications for temporary cash assistance rose 35 percent, according to the Maryland Department of Human Resources. These numbers are the most dramatic of many that all tell the same story: The recession has hit middle- and low-income Baltimore residents hard. "We are seeing a whole new demographic of people: formerly middle-class people living middle-class lives who've lost their jobs and now are struggling to put food on the table," said Deborah Flateman, chief executive officer of the Maryland Food Bank.

Baltimore ranks among the top 10 cities for singles , according to Kiplinger. The personal finance magazine rated cities on whether household income exceeded the national average of $49,536; the percentage of singles in the city -- must exceed the national average of 49.4 percent -- and the average price of a date night that entails two movie tickets and a bottle of wine. Singles don't eat on dates? Not sure if cities were ranked in order, although Kiplinger listed Baltimore as No. 4. The average median household income here is $66,195, and the percentage unmarried households amounted to 52.9 percent.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said the parts of Gov.Martin O'Malley's budget proposal capping the income levels at which taxpayers can make full use of income tax exemptions and reduction will be the most difficult to get through the General Assembly. Miller said the provisions are particularly controversial because they would affect many middle-class families, including couples who together make as little as $100,000 a year in taxable income. Speaking to reporters after Thursday morning's Senate session, Miller said he was "not sure" whether the governor would have to raise those thresholds in order to win passsage of an income tax increase.

The Occupy Baltimore protests , like those around the country, have relied on the rallying cry of "We are the 99 percent. " If you've been curious whether your household income falls, or how close your family is to the 1 percent, the Wall Street Journal is prepared to help you. A "percentage calculator" on the Wall Street Journal's site will tell you where your income stacks up. I discovered it via a blog post on The Atlantic website...

About one in four Baltimore residents is living in poverty, a one-year increase of more than 20 percent, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Although the recession officially ended in June 2009, a federal survey conducted last year shows that the downturn's enduring effects have led poverty rates to skyrocket over a short period. The uptick is straining government and charitable resources and leaving Baltimore leaders scrambling for solutions. "People who were managing have now dropped into poverty," said Susan J. Roll, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work.

When you tune in to Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, don't expect to see Howard County. Palm Beach it isn't. But what Howard does claim is a lot of very comfortably well-off residents. So well-off, in fact, that only six counties in the nation have a higher median household income, according to Census Bureau 1998 wealth and poverty estimates released today. Howard County's median household income was a stunning $72,187, according to the estimates, which combine records such as tax returns with updated 1990 Census data.

The chasm between Howard County's richest and poorest neighborhoods is widening. At the top in the state's wealthiest county is a census tract that includes most of Clarksville, where the median household earned $117,101 in 1999, according to new Census 2000 data. At the bottom are Ellicott City's neighborhoods bounded by U.S. 29, U.S. 40, Interstate 70 and the county line, where the median household earned $41,237. Those two census tracts held the same ranks 10 years earlier. But while both gained financially during the 1990s, Clarksville gained more - 15.5 percent compared with 5.5 percent in the Ellicott City tract, when adjusted for inflation.

I enjoyed Yagenah Jane Torbati's article "Maryland is wealthiest state, Census data show" (Dec. 14), but I wish to take issue with the choice of the word "wealthiest" in the headline and the article. "Wealth" is defined as "a great quantity or store of money, valuable possessions, property, or other riches," which is quite distinct from household income, which is what the Census Bureau measured. Thus it is possible for Maryland to have the highest median household income without having the highest median level of household wealth.