Jim Heaney, Founder of investigativepost.org
BUFFALO, NY - Investigative Post and 2 On Your Side are starting a new feature called DataBank. Each week, the researchers at Investigative Post will dig up data that provides insight into topics ranging from government to education to our environment.
This week, we are comparing richest and poorest neighborhoods in our community based on the 2010 Census.
Investigative Post found that there's a wide disparity in incomes.
In Orchard Park, incomes are more than ten times greater than on the Lower West Side of Buffalo.
The median household income in the most affluent Census tracts in Erie and Niagara counties, specifically in Orchard Park, tops $130,000.
Income in the poorest Census tract located in Buffalo's Lower West Side is about $12,500.
Median household incomes top $100,000 in four other Census tracts located in Amherst, Clarence and Lancaster.
Most of the region's poorest Census tracts are located not on the city's East Side, but the lower and upper West Sides.
There are also notable pockets of poverty in Niagara Falls.
Home ownership helps distinguish the wealthy from the poor. For example, in Orchard Park, 97% of residents own the house they live in.
On the Lower West Side, only 15% own the home they live in.