Madison County households are making more than $13,000 than they were in 2018, according to a report by the University of Alabama-Huntsville and the Huntsville Area Association of Realtors.

The report, released last week, lists the median household income for Madison County at $76,977 in 2022. Madison County households were making $63,417 in 2018. In fact, incomes have jumped nearly $10,000 in just the last two years.

The numbers are based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Alabama Department of Labor, Huntsville Area Association of Realtors monthly housing statistics reports and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Inflation and job competition appear to be the biggest factors in the increase in pay, Jeff Thompson, a research scientist with the UAH Center for Management and Economic Research, said in an interview with the Lede in November.

The inflation rate in the U.S. was 8.6% last May, the highest since December 1981. The rate dropped at the end pf March to 5%. And there are up to 18,500 jobs available in the metropolitan area. That’s with a workforce that topped 201,500 in the county at the end of March.

Thompson expected the county’s median household income to continue to rise given the number of job opportunities with the growth in space and defense industry industries here, and the expansion of advance manufacturing in the area. Manufacturers like Mazda Toyota Manufacturing were still trying to reach full employment in recent months.