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Census webinar: Use 2024 5-year ACS and know difference between median family and household income
Summary
Presenter Brian Berman emphasized using 2024 5-year ACS estimates for tract-level Opportunity Zone eligibility and clarified median family income differs from median household income, which affects eligibility cut lines.
Brian warned participants that tract-level eligibility work must use the 2024 5-year American Community Survey estimates and not default 1-year tables when comparing to metropolitan or statewide benchmarks.
"Every time you pull up 1 of these tables, we're doing opportunity zones. The 1st step, we're gonna click on dataset, click 5 year. Super, super important," Berman said, repeatedly urging attendees to change the dataset to five-year estimates. He explained that larger geographies default to 1-year and mixing 1-year with 5-year data would produce incorrect comparisons for eligibility.
Berman also clarified the difference between median family income and median household income, noting Census tools more often provide household income and that family income typically yields higher values because families often include multiple earners. He urged users to verify which income metric their chosen table uses before computing 70% or 125% thresholds for eligibility.
