Singleton remains the highest-paid area in the Hunter and Newcastle has accelerated well ahead of Lake Macquarie when it comes to household income.
Census 2021 figures show the mining town of Singleton had a median weekly household income of $2016, well ahead of Maitland ($1766), Newcastle ($1760), Muswellbrook ($1628), Lake Macquarie ($1623), Cessnock ($1493), Dungog ($1485), Upper Hunter ($1429) and the retirement haven of Port Stephens ($1372).
Towns and suburbs popular with mine workers were among the best-paid in the Hunter, including Bolwarra Heights ($2546), Fletcher ($2545), Cameron Park ($2464), Branxton ($2266) and North Rothbury ($2206).
But the Australian Bureau of Statistics data show Newcastle local government area has the fastest-growing incomes in the region, rising 29 per cent since 2016.
The Newcastle beachside suburbs of Bar Beach ($2300) and Merewether ($2287) again attracted high incomes, but the increasingly gentrified areas of Tighes Hill, Maryville and Mayfield East experienced spectacular rises in median income.
The median household income in Tighes Hill jumped 52 per cent from $1372 in 2016 to $2084 in 2021. Maryville's was up 38 per cent to $2067 and Mayfield East's 37 per cent to $1809.
The top-earning suburbs in Lake Macquarie included Dudley ($2487), Murrays Beach ($2303), Eleebana ($2227), Rankin Park ($2214), Kilaben Bay ($2186), Valentine ($2159) and Coal Point ($2148).
Cessnock's median household income grew 27 per cent in five years and Lake Macquarie's 24 per cent.
In 2016, Lake Macquarie's median household income was $1313, only $55 behind Newcastle's, but now the gap is $137 a week.
House prices across the region have skyrocketed in the past two years, but, by one measure at least, housing affordability has improved.
Newcastle households with mortgages were spending 32 per cent of their income on loan repayments in 2016, but this fell to 28 per cent by last year.
In Lake Macquarie, the proportion of income spent on mortgages fell from 33 to 30 per cent in the same period, though these figures are poised to change markedly as interest rates rise.
Residents in affluent Singleton spent a relatively low 24 per cent of their incomes on home loan repayments in 2021, and those in Muswellbrook spent only 23 per cent servicing their mortgage.
