December 2, 2012 4:00pm by David Farrar

Household incomes

The latest household income survey has some good and interesting news in it.

Average annual household income from all regular sources increased from $79,256 to $81,067 – a 2.3% increase
Average annual household income from wages and salaries increased from $77,843 to $82,029 – a 5.4% increase
Total housing costs as a proportion of total regular household income decreased from 16.4 percent to 16.0 percent.
The median annual regular household income went up 5.8% from $62,853 to $66,469
The median annual regular household income from salaries went up 7.9% from $46,410 to $50,057
The median annual personal income from salaries, for someone in employment, went up 5.9% from $37,673 to $39,889
The average annual personal income from salaries, for someone in employment, went up 4.0% from $44,376 to $46,169
The average household with a mortgage is paying $20 a week less than a year ago
In Auckland the average annual housing cost has dropped from $17,619 to $16,654 while the average income has increased from $90,762 to $93,532 so the proportion spent on housing costs has dropped from 19.4% to 17.8%.
Only around 20% of those in the two lowest income deciles say they are dissatisfied with their material standard of living, and 60% are satisfied.
10% of NZers have income of over $80,000. If you have a bachelors degree it is 24%, masters 26%, and doctorate 34%