In 2010 some 44% of Dominican households had incomes that would put them in the middle class. The country has yet to reach the levels before the 2003 crisis (50%), but it certainly has improved quite nicely since the crisis when it shrunk to a mere 35% of households, practically overnight!
Typical middle class neighborhoods tend to have household incomes in the US$20,000 mark. For example, Ensanche Ozama the average household income is around US$20,857; in Julieta Morales is US$22,332; in Villa Juana its US$16,810'; in Mendoza its US$20,593 while in Gazcue it averages US$32,874; to give you an idea.
These are household income, is not limited to income earned from salaries, and the average home has upwards of 3 or 4, many times even more, sources of income.
Also, there is a huge disconnect between the number of people that do earn middle class income vs the people that think of themselves as middle class. The tendency is to underestimate one's socioeconomic position. For example, a little over half of Dominicans that think of themselves as middle class, in reality belong to the high income segment. A similar percentage of truly middle class Dominicans think of themselves as being poor. This has a lot to do with popular conceptions of what middle class lifestyle is, often times connected to the type of job or profession a person does. For example, very rarely would a household headed by a manual laborer would consider themselves middle class, even if they earn enough to be in the middle class and live a middle class lifestyle.
A similar situation happens among the high income segment, which in reality comprises 28% of all households, and yet in self-perception surveys, roughly 6% of all households consider themselves to be of high income. Thus, the majority of high income households believe themselves to be middle class, or even upper middle class, when in fact, they're not. Again, has to do with lifestyle perceptions that have been molded by the media.
The most affluent sector in Santo Domingo, based on average household income, is La Esperilla and its shy of the US$40,000 mark. Piantini comes in second place with US$37,500 and Los Cacicazgos in third with a similar amount. Los Alcarrizos has one of the lowest average household incomes at a paltry US$8,694 and the Palma Real area with almost US$13,000 and Los Mina Norte with roughly US$13,800.