In Hampton Roads, incomes have been going nowhere

NORFOLK

It's news that won’t come as a surprise to anyone in the region: Households in most Hampton Roads cities have seen their incomes stagnate in the past decade as the national economy has slumped.

But Virginians have fared better than most Americans in both the past year and decade – a small bright spot in the dim financial picture painted by the numbers the U.S. Census Bureau is releasing today. Other parts of the country saw significant declines in median household income, while Virginia’s numbers have held steady.

That’s small consolation to people who have watched their income stall.

“When you talk to people now, they’re not trying to get ahead, they’re trying to hang on,” said Laura Oliver, a Chesapeake resident who runs the coupon website AFrugalChick.com.

“People are getting rid of things they would have once considered essentials – things like cable, Netflix, a family vacation – those are things we’re seeing fall by the wayside, so they can continue to pay their mortgage, pay for gas in their car.”

Old Dominion University economics Professor Vinod B. Agarwal said the local numbers reflect the national economy.

“The story is not that different,” he said. “Incomes are not rising.”

The figures, collected through the American Community Survey in 2010, also show that the state’s poverty rate has climbed.

In suburban areas such as Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, an increasing portion of the population slipped below the federal poverty line in the past year. In Chesapeake, an estimated 6.2 percent of families reported being below the poverty line in 2010, compared to 4.5 percent in 2009.

Last week, the Census Bureau announced that the number of Americans living in poverty in 2010 was the highest since the count began in the 1950s.

The only areas in Virginia where incomes have risen substantially in the past decade are places where the population has boomed, and the income increase reflects a change from a rural to a suburban economy, as more industry and affluent suburban residents have moved in.

That includes places such as Loudoun and Stafford counties, not far from Washington, which saw population and income spikes, as well as Suffolk, the only non-Northern Virginia municipality to see sizable growth in median income.

Suffolk’s median income, in fact, grew faster than any other large city or county in the state. Agarwal pointed to the city’s growth in fields such as modeling and simulation and the influence of the Joint Forces Command campus as contributing factors in the income rise.

Newport News and Chesapeake also saw slight bumps in their median income levels, reflecting some population and industrial growth there. But income throughout the rest of the region and on a statewide level has been statistically flat since 1999. The statewide median income in 2010 was $60,674.

Raymond Mattes, president and CEO of the Retail Alliance, said federal paychecks have helped steady regional income levels, a boost other regions and states don’t have.

“Hampton Roads is very fortunate because we’re protected by our military,” he said.

Nonetheless, the economy of the past few years has taken its toll on businesses, he said: “The retailers that were weak, they’re out. The ones that were strong, they’re still in.”

In Chesapeake, Laura Oliver’s story isn’t unusual. After her employer promised – and then backed out, citing the economy – to reimburse the costs of her tuition for graduate school, she got a second job and cut expenses to pay her tuition. A year and a half after graduating with a master’s in organizational leadership, Oliver lost her job as the construction company made further cuts.

Now, she teaches classes on how others can cut costs. In sessions several times a week, she said, she hears similar stories from parents who have cut spending on dining out, their children’s extracurricular activities and other costs. Her clients are usually middle-income mothers and college students who’ve seen their incomes stagnate and expenses increase, and who want to save enough money on groceries and other bills to afford some of the extras they once took for granted.

“People are trying to get back to the lifestyle they had before,” Oliver said. “They want to get back to what used to be normal.”

Meghan Hoyer, (757) 446-2293, meghan.hoyer@pilotonline.com