Census Figures Rank County Among State’s Most Affluent Areas

Ventura County families, on average, have the third-highest annual income among California’s 23 metropolitan areas, according to U. S. Census Bureau figures released Thursday.

Nationwide, the county ranked 15th among 334 metropolitan areas surveyed--a finding that is likely to bolster Ventura County’s image as a largely affluent region.

Within California, Ventura County’s average annual family income of $50,091 lagged behind only metropolitan San Jose, at $53,670, and Orange County, at $51,167, according to census data reported by the Associated Press.

Mike Flanagan, a Census Bureau statistician in Van Nuys, said his agency recently placed nationwide data collected during the 1990 Census into a new series of ranked income tables.

He said Ventura County, including its 10 cities, qualified as a single metropolitan area because it has at least one city of more than 50,000 residents and more than 100,000 people countywide. The 1990 Census determined that 669,016 people live in Ventura County.

Some local officials who track family incomes said Thursday that they did not expect Ventura County’s average family earnings to be so high.

Dinah Lockhart, a management analyst for the city of Oxnard, said the figure probably results from a large number of affluent families who have moved during the 1980s from western Los Angeles County into eastern Ventura County.

“There’s been a lot of new housing construction in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Camarillo,” Lockhart said. “I suspect that the higher average family income is a result of that type of migration into the county. I think that’s bringing the average figure up.”

Average family income is computed by adding the annual earnings of all families in the county, then dividing by the number of families surveyed. Lockhart cautioned that a small number of families with very large incomes can skew the average upward.

But the latest Census Bureau figure was close to another income measure released last month by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD projected that the median 1993 income for a Ventura County family of four will be $55,200.

Among metropolitan areas in Southern California, Ventura County ranked second, slightly behind Orange County, in median family income.

Median income is computed by ranking each family’s annual earnings and finding the midpoint. By this measure, half of all families earn less than the median income and half earn more.

Lockhart said Ventura County’s high income figures do not mean its communities are free of poverty. Many families could be clustered far above and below the median and average figures, she said.

Oxnard officials have found severe overcrowding in some neighborhoods and other signs that poverty is still present, Lockhart said.

Dulce Conde-Sierra, Simi Valley’s deputy director for housing programs, said she was startled when she received the median-income figure from HUD, which was up 14% from the previous year.

“It’s surprising that it is that high,” she said. “With the economic conditions that are prevalent in California, we did not expect the income figure to have gone up so significantly.”

Despite the area’s apparent affluence, Conde-Sierra said many people still cannot afford to buy a house in Simi Valley. Last year, more than 1,000 low-income families entered a lottery to compete for a chance to buy one of 58 new houses priced below market under a city financing program.

The small offering of affordable houses did little to satisfy the needs of low-income residents, Conde-Sierra said. “There’s no question that the demand is still there.”