City of Williamsburg, by the numbers

http://www.city-data.com/ has more numbers than you'll ever need for any city you could ever want to know about. There's data for both the City of Williamsburg and Williamsburg the county.

Some interesting/relevant tidbits:

(Williamsburg city)

Population in July 2007: 12,434. Population change since 2000: +1.7%

Estimated median household income in 2007: $46,254 (it was $37,093 in 2000)

Williamsburg:	$46,254
Virginia:	$59,562

Estimated median house or condo value in 2007: $427,735 (it was $182,000 in 2000)

Williamsburg:	$427,735
Virginia:	$262,100

Mean prices in 2007: All housing units: $500,825

2008 cost of living index in Williamsburg: 104.6 (near average, U.S. average is 100)

According to our research there were 64 registered sex offenders living in Williamsburg, Virginia in early 2007.
The ratio of number of residents in Williamsburg to the number of sex offenders is 194 to 1.

Daytime population change due to commuting: +9,499 (+79.2%)
Workers who live and work in this city: 2,212 (52.2%)



Unemployment in September 2007:

Here:	4.1%
Virginia:	2.8%

Residents with income below the poverty level in 2007:

This city:	18.3%
Whole state:	9.6%

Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level in 2007:

This city:	9.3%
Whole state:	4.3%

There's a whole page with numbers on the poverty levels in Williamsburg:
http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Williamsburg-Virginia.html

(We will definitely talk about this on the first morning).

Next, if you type in "poverty in Williamsburg virginia" in Google, this memo will show up:
http://www.wrl.org/info/Demographic_Update.htm

One little bit from there caught my eye:

Income and Poverty

• The Census Bureau¹s model-based estimates for income and poverty should be used with caution. Still, they reflect the existence of a relatively intractable segment of the population in poverty in both James City County and Williamsburg.
• Poverty is more prevalent in Williamsburg than in James City County. Part, but not all, of this trend can be attributed to William and Mary students.
• Black youths are especially likely to live in poverty. This trend is most noticeable in Williamsburg where 49% of black youths were in poverty in 2000.

If you're very interested in the issue of affordable housing, here's a site that might be worth a look. Every year they have the "Va Governor's Housing Conference," a major gathering of everyone involved in the area. The presentation powerpoints can be found here (most are very technical):
http://www.vagovernorshousingconference.com/presentations.html

Out of all the presentations, those of you living in NoVA will find this one particularly relevant, as it details the unusually high number of foreclosures in the NoVA area:
http://www.vagovernorshousingconference.com/PDFs/Presentations/11_13/Economics%20of%20Homeownership/Economics%20of%20Homeownership%20-%20B%20Merchant.pdf