Editor's note: Upcoming restaurant closure and Austin's own Pike Place lead this round of top stories. Read on for more of the week's most popular headlines.
1. Favorite South Congress restaurant announces closing date. Austin is losing one of its kitschiest dining destinations. South Congress staple Snack Bar will close at the end of October, according to a letter posted to the restaurant's website on Tuesday.
2. Developers unveil updated plans for Austin's massive public marketplace. It's been almost a year since initial plans for a massive South Austin marketplace akin to Pike's Place were revealed. And after some shuffling, the developers of Saint Elmo Market District have closed on the land and are ready to move forward.
3. Southwest's big sale connects Austin to 26 destinations for under $200. Flying out of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport just became much cheaper. Southwest Airlines’ nationwide fare sale offers decreased, one-way tickets to 26 destinations, with five flights costing less than $100.
4. Fixer Upper star wants to tell the story you don’t get on the HGTV show. What was once a drive-through town on the way to Austin has become the nation’s epicenter of home renovations. And carpenter Clint Harp has seen the whole story unfold from the inside.
5. New study declares Austin the second-best city for liberals to live. Austin has long been considered the lone blue dot in the middle of a sea of Texas red when it comes to politics. And now our fair city ranks as one of the top spots for liberals to live in the country: No. 2 in the United States and No. 1 in Texas.
Austinites who want to catch a glimpse into the lives of the one percent may be surprised to learn that the pre-tax income required to be considered one of the highest earners in Texas amounts to $762,090 in 2024. So says a new study from SmartAsset that analyzed the top one percent income floors for all 50 states.
Compared to SmartAsset's 2023 report, Texans now need to make $130,241 more in 2024 to maintain their status as one of the highest earners in the state. Last year, the income threshold was $631,849. For the second consecutive year, the Lone Star State maintains the 14th highest pre-tax salary needed to be considered in the top one percent of earners in the U.S.
To determine the income needed to be in the top one percent of earners in each state, SmartAsset analyzed 2021 IRS data for individual tax filers, which is the most recent year where data was available. Income data was then adjusted to June 2024 dollars.
Texas' one percent income threshold is not too far off from the national average, which is $787,712.
The study further revealed 126,128 Texans are within the top one percent of earners. For more context, the U.S. Census Bureau says over 30 million people lived in Texas as of 2022, and Austin's population grew to nearly 980,000 residents in 2023.
Connecticut continues to lead the nation with the highest income threshold required to be in the top one percent, with residents needing to make over $1.15 million pre-tax.
If Austinites aim to be within the top five percent of earners in Texas, the pre-tax income threshold is substantially lower, at $280,676. For many Austin residents, however, even achieving a "middle class" status means making between $59,604 and $178,830 a year, according to a separate SmartAsset report.
Meanwhile, the study says the median income in the U.S. comes out to roughly $75,000, and half of Americans are making even less than that. The income disparity is plainly obvious when high-income earners make (at a minimum) 10 times more than the national median income.
The report goes on to say top-earning Americans make up a "disproportionately large part of the tax base," as their income results in paying a 37 percent federal tax bracket rate. (That is, if these high earners are even paying taxes in the first place, considering America's wealthiest are already evading over $150 billion a year in taxes.)
"While state and local level taxes may impact the spread of high earners in those areas, the cost of living can also be drastically different nationwide," the report said. "As a result, what it takes to be considered a top one percent income earner can differ by over $500,000 from state to state."
The top 10 states with the highest thresholds to be considered in the top one percent of earners in the U.S. are:
