DETROIT, MI -- The U.S. Census Bureau dealt Detroit a sobering slap of sad

today from the 2011

.

Median household income in the city dropped to $25,193 in 2011, according to the new figures.

That number dropped each year since 2007, when it was $30,412.

The nationwide median household income was more than twice Detroit's, at $50,502.

The American Community Survey is an annual study sampling 3 million households conducted by the Census Bureau since 2005.

"The results are used by everyone from retailers, homebuilders and police departments, to town and city planners," said Census Bureau's Acting Director Thomas Mesenbourg in a news release.

Those planners and builders are looking at even starker differences between Detroit and the rest of the nation when it comes to housing values.

Detroit's median value for an owner-occupied home in 2011 was $50,200.

Nationwide, that number was well over three times higher, at $173,600.

It was $88,800 in Detroit in 2007 and has dropped each year since then.

Perhaps most staggering is the percentage of Detroit families living in poverty.

It's more than three times the national rate, at 35.5 percent, compared to 11.7 nationwide.

The percentage of children living in poverty is troubling nationwide, at 22.5 percent.

But that number in Detroit -- 57.3 percent.

In other notable findings from the survey, 77.4 percent of Detroit residents over 25 years old have completed high school, compared to 85.9 percent nationwide. And 13 percent over 25 in Detroit hold bachelor's degrees, compared to 28.5 percent in the U.S.

Follow Khalil AlHajal on Twitter @DetroitKhalil or on Facebook at Khalil MLive. He can be reached at kalhajal@mlive.com or 313-643-0527.