sdcellar, yes, some segment will do worse while others will do better. That’s why I took a specific area to see what’s the median house hold income is. Although their two sites disagree with each other on the exact number for 2008, they’re the same for 2000. Adjusting for inflation, it’s only off by ~$1k/~1.5%. Not a big deal in my book. Still get my point across that median house hold income in an area is relatively stable adjusted for inflation. In more newer developed areas like CV, it actually went up.

Regarding the class of 2000 comment, yes, it’s the former. Class of 2002 made about $45-50k fresh out of school. Now, those same people are making around $80-100k. The fresh grads now are making between $55k-65k, based on salary.com. So, if you’re comparing fresh grad vs fresh grad, the salary went up between 22%-30%.