Income: Metro Areas

Santa Fe and Farmington were the two New Mexico metropolitan statistical areas to beat the 2006-2007 national average for per capita income growth. The national growth was 6.2% for 06/07 and 6.8% for 05/06.
Santa Fe's per capita income grew 6.8% in 06/07 to $45,230. The 05/06 growth was 7.2% to $42,363. The performance popped the City Different to 27th place in income among metros nationally. Santa Fe is the only New Mexico metro beating the national 2007 per capita income of $38,632.
Farmington's growth percentage beat Santa Fe tidily. Other oil and gas communities such as Midland and Odessa in Texas were top performers in income growth. Income in Midland grew 14% between 2005 and 2006 and another 7.5% between 06 and 07. Farmington started from a much lower based than Santa Fe. Income in Farmington was $29,183 per capita in 2007. Growth was 10.1% between 05 and 06 and 7.5% between 06 and 07. Nationally, Farmington ranks 296th in income.
In Albuquerque, per capita income grew 5.4% between 2005 and 2006 to $32,727 and another 4,2% to $34,109 between 06 and 07. Albuquerque's income now ranks 163rd among the nation's metros.
Las Cruces beat Albuquerque in income growth between 2006 and 2007 with a 4.4% increase to $25,351. Las Cruces 06/07 increase was 4.6% to $24,293.
Metro areas with the nation's lowest per capita income tend to be along the border with Mexico. Among the nation's 363 metro areas, income in Las Cruces ranks 350th. El Paso is 344. McAllen, Texas, is last.
The highest earning metro areas on a per capita basis are the Bridgeport-Stamford, Connecticut, area; Naples, Florida, and San Francisco.
The income figures were released August 7 by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.