Wildly fluctuating Average Income

[jmallen2982 0]

I have a really weird problem with my city. It is very annoying, to say the least. I noticed this, and I've done nearly everything to fix it. First, my average income is between 25 and 20 most of the time. This is the only thing that is low, every other important stat is high. Also, I don't have any of the top-tier skyscrapers. I was noticing them in the downtown area of my other city, and I was wondering why not here, because I was definitely doing better in this city. This city has HT industry in one tile to the left, and to the right there is Another city, There are loads of highway/subway/train/road connections.

There must be something wrong here...I keep noticing that the $ and $$ commercial offices are in high demand, yet when I lay them they die due to low demand. The $$$ CS will be erratic all the time. The Average income is the weridest thing...It peaked at about 64, ten dropped dramatically...Recently I've had a lot of wild fluctuations, it will switch back and forth between about 35 and 25 every few months. Never higher than 35. It doesn't look natural. I have no idea what's causing it.

I have also looked everywhere to find out what could be causing it. There are no graphs that have anything to do with it, especially not an increase in $$$ or $ R

Could it be transit related? I noticed, and I thought it was weird that my Pedestrian and Subway traffic graphs were almost identical in shape:

I have installed as plugins:

Big Dig Tunnels

Train to Subway tunnels

Airport pack

Beach pack

probably more but I can't remember them all...

Any ideas at all?

[DOXXP29 5]

Welcome to Simtropolis, Jmallen!

Does this happen in all of your cities? I have the same phenomenon, but only in one city. The spikes and fluctuations are really wide and erratic. I've been trying to find what's causing it, but haven't been able to pinpoint anything yet. One thing unique about this particular city is that is had a huge number of R$$$ and C$$$ buildings. (It is part of a region) That's the only thing that seems to stand out. Maybe because of the income potential there is a wider spread, but I've had spikes from over $100k to $15K.

[t_co 0]

I had the same problem; my income dropped from 120k to 60k to 30k to 15k in the space of 10 years (with no noticeable effects other than 0 commercial $$$ demand; didn't even show up on the jobs and pop graph, where the # of R$$> R$$$ > R$). And the drops were huge, cliff-like plunges that happened in a month.

[coolotter88 2]

maybe theres a correllation between CS$$$ demand and your average income....seems logical that the richer your sims, the more expensive stuff they can buy.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Sounds like wildly varying Sims from R§ to R§§§.  If you are getting a lot of abandonment it is due to Sims moving out of town (usually commute time) and being left with only R§ and/or R§§ in town.  If you are trying for heavy R§§§ high values, forget it.  You can'[t get more than about 25% R§§§ because the game wants a balanced hierarchy.  Not everyone can conduct the orchestra.

[DOXXP29 5]

I agree with Coolotter regarding the R$$$ factor because that does seem to be the common thread when I have the wild fluctuations. Maybe they keep refinancing, changing jobs or maxing out their charge accounts buying toys...who knows? Simps are idiots. (Sarcasm alert...!) They can't drive, so why should they be expected to manage money or keep a high paying job for any length of time.

And, for the first time in memory, I have to disagree with N_O_Body. Having a majority of R$$$s might not be typical and might not be easy to do, but it IS attainable. I have a city that has been sitting around 96% R$$$ for many years. And this also is the city where I experience the most serious fluctuation. Abandonment is not an issue...a building may depreciate for a minute, but it inevitably comes back up in value very quickly. (In response or reaction to the income levels, maybe?) What I do find strange about this city is that the income level can drop to under $20k, but there is still no sign of mass abandonment or depreciation. Compare that to other cities where the majority of the population is R$$ but the income level always sits between $100k and $120k. Go figure!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, I know it is possible,  but the original model militates against it.  You have to skew the game by manipulating the neighbor cities quite a bit.

[Star123 3]

I have a city with a population of 1,410,000 with less than 100,000 R$ sims, about 400,000 R$$$, an the rest is R$$. Those numbers make up a healthy city, But my average income went from $60,000 to $6,000 in 300 game years. It even went as low as $1,500. Now it's stuck at around $6,000, up and down by about $2,000 . How on earth can that happen? I always thought the lowest income can only go as far as $15,000.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, if you count the unemployed, the lowest income is §0.  Now a wide fluctuation over a long stretch of 3 centuries is probably caused by the life cycle of the Sims.  Most of them don't live past 70 or so.  The usual human demographics apply.

You have to have natural increase.  This results in young Sims who have to be educated for at least 12 years (to age 18).  During this time their income is zero.  If you have a sudden flush in of R§, their incomes will be low, and will drag your average down.  I hate averages, medians would be much better, but much slower to get because of the sort.

If you are racing through all those years at Cheetah mode, it is possible you are not taking enough time to see these changes coming and to react to them.  Try running on Rhino for a while.

[RJN 1]

yes , i know what are you talking about ; when my city was in the year 60-110 the average income was like 150,000 and then was going down and down , in the year 250 were 65,000 (they were a lot of CO$$$ ; and more than the population in the city and weren't more than 2000 R$ sims) but then the R$ sims were coming and was going more down and down ( I don't know why because the education was 200 and health very high) and Now in the year 390 the education was 200 and health very high but income is 15000 or less and land value is low . I want that somebody tell me why the land value is low and the average income low and why the R$$$ sims don't come and there is demand and high health high and education , water , parks , landmarks , everything . There are a lot of R$$ and $ hi-rises but not more than 6 R$$$ and the jobs are $$$ and $$. I want somebody that tell my how I increse land value and average income and Thanks!!!!!