Table 1 United States Population Increase 2000 to 2008, by Race

A picture of Asian-American material success begins to emerge when one examines the median household income growth figures (inflation adjusted) and is further illustrated by the number of households that claim an income of over $200,000.

Table 2 clearly shows that Asian-American households used the beginning of the 21st Century to increase their median household income by 33.0% to $69,047, significantly widening their lead over all other racial categories and nearly doubling the median household income of African-Americans ($35,086).

It is important to note that within the broad category of  “Asian-American”, there are significant different rates of median household income. The 2000 Census found that Indian-Americans had the highest median income ($63,669) followed by Filipinos ($60,570). At the bottom end were the Cambodians ($36,155), the Malaysians ($35,767), and the Hmong ($32,076). Each of these low income ethnic groups are relatively small in number compared to the two largest Asian ethnic groups, Chinese and Indians.

As there are no current income statistics by ethnic group in the ACS, it is impossible to know how they have fared over the last 8 years. My guess is that along with the rest of the country, the 2010 Census will show the greatest gains in personal income going to those already at the top of the distribution.

Table 2  Median Household income Increase 2000-2008, by Race

The +$200,000 Club

The story that the rich have gotten a lot richer over the last twenty years is an old story. The physical proof of wealth pooling at the top is easily seen in the vast expanses of  nouveaux riche McMansions on the periphery of almost any self respecting American metro area. The teardown phenomenon in older wealthy neighborhoods is but another symptom of this increase in high-income households.  American material success, following a well worn path in history,  has a strong penchant for displaying  wealth and prosperity through architecture. Americans aren’t what we eat…. we’re what we live in!

The  increase in the number of American households that claimed an income of over $200,000 between 2000 and the ACS of 2006-8 is stunning. Although the total number of households in the United States increased by 8.0%, the number earning over $200,000 skyrocketed by 88.2%. The number of Asian-Americans earning over that amount increased an incredible 181.5%– a growth rate more than twice the national average and more than 3 1/2 times the growth rate in African-American families (a healthy increase of 48.9%, but lagging considerably behind other racial categories).

Table 3: Number of Households Earning Greater than $200,000, by Race

Asian-Americans Flock to America’s Wealthiest Suburbs

As the number of high income Asian households increases dramatically, they have moved easily into America’s most elite suburbs as well as many other places that may not be the richest, but extremely comfortable.

Table Four lists 22 well-to-do American suburbs and illustrates the huge increase in the percentage and number of Asian households. These increases are much larger than the Asian-American population growth in general and corresponds to their growing affluence as a racial group.

The vast majority of the 22 wealthy suburbs listed below have experienced modest population growth. Many are geographically landlocked and their slow but steady growth is usually associated with intensified land-use. However. the growth in the Asian population is overall quite remarkable. As can be seen in the table the only place on the list to see a decrease in the Asian population was found in Potomac, Maryland. Note that the decrease is tiny and well within the statistical variance.

Table 4  High Income Places with Large Asian-American Populations

Cupertino, California: An Asian-American Success Story

Cupertino, California in the heart of Silicon Valley. Apple is headquartered in the city and just a short distance from a major Hewlett-Packard complex.Cupertino has joined Milpitas, California as the second Asian majority affluent suburb in the United States. Cupertino may be an insignificant socio-economic notch below Saratoga to the south or Los Altos Hills to the north, but it is very affluent by any American standard. On Dec 5th, 2009, Zillow.com’s valued the typical Cupertino home at $964,700. The schools are superb and Cupertino has extraordinarily high levels of adult education attainment befitting a high tech mecca.  More adults have graduate or professional degrees (41.0%) than measly Bachelors degrees (34.1%)!

Between 2000 and 2006-8 the percentage of Asian households has increased from 44.4% to 57.1%. Cupertino’s Asian population is dominated by two ethnic groups. Chinese-Americans makeup 47.7% of Cupertino’s Asian population and Indian-Americans makeup an additional 32.2% of the Asian population (2006-8 ACS). With majority status comes political power. I will leave it to the Political Scientists to let us know how local power politics are playing out! Better yet, it would be interesting to hear from some Cupertinos (?) as to racial relations in their fair city. Drop a note on my blog!

Map of Cupertino, California

View Cupertino, California in a larger map

Asian Diversity in the Southeastern Bay

Although not geographically part of Silicon Valley, but close by, are two excellent examples of affluent suburbs with large Asian populations: Milpitas and Fremont

Located to the northeast of San Jose, Milpitas’ population is 60.3% Asian, an increase from 51.8% in the 2000 Census. It is interesting that the population of Milpitas has a very diverse Asian population (Filipinos, 30.6% of all Asians; Chinese, 22.9%; Vietnamese, 20.7%; Indian, 18.4%). Milpitas has one Higley 1000 neighborhood that surrounds the Summitpointe Golf Club on the city’s east side.

Fremont,  just north of Milpitas, is a large city (206,241) that has a high median household income ($94.979, ACS) and a large, diverse Asian population that is dominated by Chinese (36.3% of all Asian groups), and Indians (34.1%)… a close second in population (well within the margin or error). The third largest Asian contingent in Fremont is Filipino. They contribute 12.4% of the Asian-American population.

Fremont has three of the four highest percentage Asian neighborhoods in the entire United States in the  Higley 1000 neighborhoods. They are all found in the Mission San Jose district of the city: Mission Hills-Vineyards North, 74.6 % Asian; Cameron Hills South, 63.9% Asian; and Avalon-Vineyards South, 54.2% Asian. It should be noted that Fremont’s highest income neighborhoods are significantly more Asian than the rest of the city.

In both Fremont and Milpitas, the largest percentage increase among Asian population subcategories was clearly seen in American-Indian households. The population increase was significant at 58.4% in Fremont and 66.9% in Milpitas.

Map of Fremont-Milpitas Higley 1000 Neighborhoods (2000)

View Fremont-Milpitas, California in a larger map

In summary, the 2010 Census will give us more concrete numbers and it is my opinion that we will see the estimates of the American Community Survey confirmed: Asian-Americans are flocking to our wealthiest Suburbs in large numbers driven by high levels of education and income.

Asian-Americans are still over-represented in the Elite 100 with 4.3% of the households versus 2.7% of the total households in the United States. Although African-Americans makeup only 1.0 % of the Higley 1000 households, they contribute significantly fewer households (.7%) to the Elite 100. As I have questioned repeatedly on my site, where are the wealthy Black households? They made up 11.7% of all American households in the 2000 Census and 4.4% of the households making over $200,000, yet there representation in the best neighborhoods is negligible.

The Elite 100 is surprisingly diverse in terms of the number of metro areas represented on the list. No less than 27 Metro areas have their “best” neighborhoods on the list, although many of them (13) only have one place. As in the list of 1000 neighborhoods, the New York City metro area dominates the Elite 100 with 30 neighborhoods or small villages. There are 17 in the state of New York, 7 in Connecticut, and 6 in New Jersey for a total of 30% of the Elite 100. The Los Angeles metro area is a distant second with 11 neighborhoods on the list, followed by Chicago with nine.

When defining the type of neighborhoods that make up the Elite 100, it is best to think of a continuum as some neighborhoods are difficult to assess on a national scale. As an example what is “traditional” or “nouveau riche” in Florida? With some equivocation I have adjudged that 65 of the 100 as “traditional” and 30 as “nouveau riche“. The remaining five are hard to catagorize oceanfront Florida neighborhoods (Jupiter Island, Johns Island, the Everglades Club of Palm Beach, Lost Tree Village-Seminole Landing, and Ponte Vedra Beach).

There are 15 neighborhoods found in the corporate limits of central cities, however, only Midtown Manhattan could truly be considered urban.

The richest neighborhood in the United States is the lush Holmby Hills neighborhood just west of the Los Angeles Country Club in the so-called Platinum Triangle (along with Beverly Hills and Bel Air). This small neighborhoods has some of the most gargantuan houses in the United States including Candy Spelling’s 60,000 square foot mansion.

The second richest neighborhood in the United States is located in Denver’s Cherry Hills Village. I have named this collection of upscale sub-divisions Buell Mansion-Cherry Hills Park after two of this Block Group’s most luxurious developments. Cherry Hills Village is typical of the Western United States in that it is hard to categorize. It is a combination of old wealth and the uber-mansions of the nouveau riche.

The second and third richest neighborhoods in the Higley 1000, North Greenwich-Round Hill, and the St. Louis Country Club area located in Ladue, are older and very traditional. They exhibit the mature landscaping on carefully screened acreage typical of this type of neighborhood. Each of these neighborhoods have exceptionally large new homes that are interspersed among the equally large older homes.

Good examples of nouveaux riche neighborhoods are the Potomac Manor-Potomac Falls Estates outside of DC or the claustrophobic Old Shepard Place in Plano, Texas (possibly the most unpleasant wealthy sub-division in the United States). Twelve of the top 100 are gated communities. Almost all gated communities are by definition nouveaux riche, although there are exceptions such as The Highlands outside of Seattle and, Belle Terre, a waterfront gated traditional neighborhood in Greenwich, Connecticut. An excellent example of a gated nouveaux riche neighborhood is Coco Plum-Gables Estates. The Block Group that makes up this “neighborhood” is actually a series of gated communities along Biscayne Bay that also include Old Cutler Bay, Journey’s End, and Hammock Oaks. I don’t really know if “gated” is the term to use for Fisher Island, but I guess it fits if you consider that the former Vanderbilt estate is private and not open to the public (you need a boat for access).

As I have made clear in my methodology section, mean income as collected by the Census Bureau has many flaws (realistically a household can’t claim more the $2 million in income), however, I doubt that any observer would question the end result of my research as the communities that represent their metro area are widely acclaimed as the pinnacle of residential success. River Oaks in Houston, Hillsborough Heights in San Francisco, and Tuxedo Park (a section of Buckhead in Atlanta) are good examples of the “best” places to live in there respective metro areas.

One more disclaimer to consider is that racial minorities may be over represented in the Elite 100 as servant’s quarters that have household facilites are considered a separate household. The houses in the Elite 100 are the largest in the United States and many have such quarters.

Here’s is the entire Elite 100 list and their racial make-up. If you are interested in a particular Metro area click on “Neighborhood Summary by Metro Area” on the right side of the this page.

Map of West Los Angeles Core Area (West Hollywood Hills to Castellammare)

View Larger Map of Higley 1000 Neighborhoods in West Los Angeles

Familiar to many Americans entranced by celebrity, West Los Angeles is centered on the so-called “Platinum Triangle” (Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and Holmby Hills). The small neighborhood of Holmby Hills was ranked number one in the nation and may have the world’s largest collection of nouveau riche uber-mansions this side of Saudi Arabia. Two of its more infamous monuments to excess are the Playboy mansion and the 60,000 square foot Spelling mansion that reportedly recently sold for $130 million. The West Los Angeles core dominates the metro area’s geography of wealth with 42.1% of all Higley 1000 households in greater Los Angeles and 53.3% of all households if you include the five adjacent neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley.

Orange County accounts for an additional 22.2% of the Higley 1000 neighborhood households found in the metro area. The wealth of Orange County is particularly fragmented although one could say it is centered on Newport Beach as this town has almost 40% of the Higley 1000 households in the county. The larger “satellites” of Newport are Laguna Beach, Coto de Caza, the Tustin Foothills, and Laguna Hills.

There are no Higley 1000 neighborhoods found in the “Inland Empire” counties of Riverside and San Bernardino and only two neighborhoods found in Ventura County (Bell Canyon & North Ranch). One may be surprised that the Palm Springs area has no representation in the Higley 1000, however the statistical answer lies in the large number of retirees and second homes found in the area. This phenomenon is not unusual as the Hamptons are also absent from the Higley 1000.

Racial Patterns in Los Angeles’ Wealthiest Neighborhoods

As is true across the country, the wealthiest neighborhoods of Los Angeles are not representative of the racial make up of the metro area. It is particularly striking that area’s huge Latino population is so poorly represented in the 80 Higley 1000  Los Angeles neighborhoods. In 2000 Latinos made up 28.6% of the households in the metro area, but a mere 2.7% of the households in the Los Angeles Higley 1000 neighborhoods. Once one takes into to account live-in servants that have separately tallied households, this figure is undoubtedly even less than this small percentage.

Summary Table of Los Angeles Racial Statistics: Table 1

Summary Table of Los Angeles Racial Statistics

In 2000, Asian-Americans made up 9.7% of Los Angeles’ households and 6.6% of the households in the Higley 1000 neighborhoods. The distribution of Asians in the Higley 1000 neighborhoods varies immensely: from a high of 17.2% of households in the Pasadena-San Marino area to a mere 0.8 % in Laguna Beach.

Repeating a pattern seen elsewhere in the country, African-Americans are poorly represented in the Higley 1000 neighborhoods of Los Angeles (0.9%). The Los Angeles area has a noticeably smaller number of Black households than found in other large areas. African-Americans made up only 8% of all households found in the metro area in 2000.

Clusters of Higley 1000 Neighborhoods by Race: Table 2

Clusters of Higley 1000 Neighborhoods by Race

Note that the core area of West Los Angeles has a racial distribution that is almost identical to the pattern found in all Higley 1000 neighborhoods. It is quite amazing that in spite of the high concentrations of Asian and Hispanic households in the LA metro area, there are so few households of those minority groups found in the what is the heart of Los Angeles’ geography of wealth.

You can quickly search for your neighborhood within that page by using the Find feature of your web browser, usually by typing <Control>-F. Enter the name of the neighborhood you are seeking, and Find will quickly search the entire list on the web page. If you don’t see your neighborhood, you can look for others in your area by searching for your State or County.

Good luck, and have fun!  Steve Higley

When one looks at the list of the 1,000 wealthiest neighborhoods in the United States, the information is so fine grained, that the larger picture can be lost. In order to give my readers a bit of perspective I have totaled up the the number of Higley 1000 households in each city or town within their corporate limits.  With these totals in mind, one can then get the big picture of where to find the greatest geographical concentrations of wealth in the United States.

Many of the Higley 1000 neighborhoods that are near the top of the list (based on mean household income) tend to be very small homogeneous collections of mansions such as Holmby Hills or the Woodley Road neighborhood of New Trier Township just North of Chicago. If there was someway to statistically isolate the 63 Coops and 5 Condominiums that line Fifth Avenue from 60th to 96th, this would be undoubtedly be the wealthiest “neighborhood” in the United States. Alas, Census Geography includes the west side of Madison Avenue. Consequently, it is impossible to isolate this gilded row of Fifth Avenue using Census data.

It may surprise some that central cities dominate the top of the list for total number of households found in the Higley 1000. Not all central cities have seen their wealthiest citizens flee to the suburbs (e.g. Detroit, Hartford, and Cleveland). In fact, five out of the top six places are central cities. Manhattan easily tops the list with 37,429 Higley 1000 households found in six neighborhoods.

The Upper East Side of Manhattan, with over 23,000 households on the Higley 1000 dwarfs the average neighborhood on the list that has approximately 700 households. Throw in 9,500 households from the Upper West Side and it is easy to see why Manhattan is at the top of the list. The total for Manhattan also includes the much smaller Higley 1000 neighborhoods of Sutton Place, Beekman Place, Tribeca, and Midtown.

Table of the City & Towns with the Largest Number of Higley 1000 Neighborhoods

Neighborhoods containing the
Greatest Number of Households

Within the city of Los Angeles there is a string of 23 neighborhoods from the West Hollywood Hills to Castellammare. When the neighborhoods along the flanks of the Santa Monica Mountains are combined, Los Angeles is a close second to Manhattan. Beverly Hills would add an additional 3,000 households to Los Angeles’ total, but it is a separately incorporated city. The Los Angeles total also includes the four neighborhoods in the Hancock Park area (Hancock Park, Windsor Square, Fremont Place, and New Windsor Square) as well as Los Feliz.

Surprisingly, Chicago’s Gold Coast does not figure in the Higley 1000. In fact, in the entire city of Chicago, only one stray Block Group in Lincoln Park had a mean household income high enough to make the list.

Dallas is in third place when totaling the Higley 1000 households within city limits. At 385 square miles, Dallas is similar to Los Angeles (469 square miles) in having the foresight to annex large amounts of land in the path of upscale development. Consequently, Dallas has no less 15 Higley 1000 neighborhoods that stretch from the unique mansions of Preston Hollow on the South to the tract McMansions of Bent Tree North in Collin County.

The annexation of large swathes of land in the direction of upscale development eventually would prove to be a master stroke. When a city’s elite flees to the suburbs, high-end retail, as well as institutions (e.g. churches and synagogues), are soon to follow. Central cities are filled with Church’s in the hands of much poorer folk that have inherited the cathedrals of the rich.

The loss of the upper and upper middle class tax dollars and spending is bad enough for central cities, but without elites, you also lose their input and their involvement in civic affairs. They also have the means to contribute to “good government” candidates and hire lawyers if necessary to keep the city officials on their toes.

Comfortably ensconced in Grosse Pointes of this world… why care about the problems of the Detroits of this world?  It is an all too unfortunate reality in the United States that suburbanites don’t care if the central city struggles as they only care about their small hometown. When race enters the equation, problems between city and suburbs can grow exponentially. My current hometown of Birmingham is a classic example of very little meaningful cooperation between the African-American city and the lily White suburbs.

Homer Hoyt was Right

Homer Hoyt was a urban sociologist at the University of Chicago in the 1930s. He observed the sector and wedge geographical development of American cities and noticed a pronounced pattern where the wealthy move outward from the original elite neighborhoods… usually towards the metro area’s most scenic and desirable geography. Dallas is a perfect example of this pattern (although if you’ve ever seen Plano, the “scenic and desirable” may not apply…)

With the sole exception of the Lakewood neighborhood, all of Dallas’ wealthiest neighborhoods are found along the Dallas North Tollway and Preston Road heading due north from the CBD. The wealthiest neighborhoods of Dallas are bracketed on the south by the separately incorporated Park Cities (Highland Park and University Park) and on the north by the four Higley 1000 neighborhoods in Plano. As the map below shows, the Dallas neighborhoods of the Higley 1000 make an almost perfect North/South axis.

Map of the Dallas Metro Areas’ Higley 1000 Neighborhoods

View Larger Map of Higley 1000 Neighborhoods in Dallas

It will come as no surprise that Greenwich, Connecticut, the land of Hedge Fund operators as well as Social Register Blue Bloods has the largest number of suburban Higley 1000 households (8,065). This number is just over 1/3 of the total Greenwich households. Not only are there a large number of Higley 1000 households in Greenwich, many of the neighborhoods are also near the top of the list. Five of the 25 richest neighborhoods in the country are found in the sylvan confines of Greenwich: Round Hill-North Greenwich (#3 on the Higley 1000); Burning Tree Country Club (#9); Belle Harbor (#11); Stanwich-Conyers Farm (#14); and the Greenwich Country Club comes in at (#23).

Map of Greenwich, Connecticut and the Surrounding Communities

View Larger Map of Higley 1000 Neighborhoods in the Greenwich area

The five neighborhoods are relatively large in terms of the number of households (Mean 1,476 households).  This is more than twice the mean number of households in all Higley 1000 neighborhoods (676). Although the number of Higley 1000 households in the San Fernando Valley is a distant second to West Los Angeles (7,381 vs. 28,533), it has the second largest concentration of wealth in the Metro area (CMSA). One can find the number of Higley 1000 households by clusters (e.g. Palos Verdes Peninsula, Newport Beach, Coto de Caza) by reading the article “Los Angeles: Beyond the Platinum Triangle” on the homepage.

Map of the Higley 1000 San Fernando Valley Neighborhoods

View Larger Map of Higley 1000 Neighborhoods in San Fernando Valley

I have chosen to group Hidden Hills, a gated incorporated suburb, and Mountainview Estates located just west of Hidden Hills with the Malibu neighborhoods although one could make a good geographical argument that they are part of the Valley. Surprisingly, none of the affluent community of Calabassas’ Block Groups had a high enough mean household income to be included in the Higley 1000.

The San Fernando Valley is large as it covers 345 square miles of which 224 are located within the corporate limits of Los Angeles. The remainder of the valley is found in various independent communities such as Burbank, Glendale and the city of San Fernando.  The LA portion of the Valley has approximately 1.3 million people and according to Wikipedia, has a racial make-up that is about 42% Non-Hispanic White, 42% Latino, 11% Asian, and 4% African-American.

In 2002 the San Fernando Valley failed in an attempt to secede from the rest of the city of Los Angeles. Although the referendum passed by a close margin in the Valley, it did not pass in the rest of the city and therefore the San Fernando Valley continues as a vast suburban hinterland to the rest of the city.

Racial Patterns in the San Fernando Valley Higley 1000 Neighborhoods

The San Fernando Valley Higley 1000 neighborhoods share the same racial profile with the much larger West Los Angeles core to the south. It is overwhelmingly Non-Hispanic White. There is no evidence of the large Mexican presence in the rest of the Valley nor the greater metropolitan area. As I previously remarked on in my essay on West Los Angeles,  concentrations of high income Asians are found in other clusters of wealth in Los Angeles, most notably in the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the Pasadena-San Marino area in Los Angeles County. There are also  relatively large concentrations of Asians found in the Orange County communities of Yorba Linda, Laguna Hills, and the Turtle Rock neighborhood of Irvine.

Table of the Racial Makeup of the Five San Fernando Valley Neighborhoods

Racial Makeup of the San Fernando Valley

A good example of an elite urban neighborhood that did not make the Higley 1000 due to less glamorous rentals and condos amidst splendor is the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago. Some streets such as East Lake Shore Drive and Astor Street are uniformly exclusive. However there are high-rise condos along North Lake Shore Drive that have hundreds of units that are not in Chicago’s highest echelon (e.g. 1150,1350, 1360 & 1400) of wealth.

There are 10 Higley 1000 neighborhoods in New York City that are found on the list of the wealthiest places in America. Seven are in Manhattan and one each are found in Brooklyn (Brooklyn Heights), the Bronx (Fieldston), and Neponsit in Queens. The geography I use to identify neighborhoods for Gotham is problematic as I base my boundaries on Census Block Group geography. Undoubtedly, the 63 coops and 5 condominiums that line Fifth Avenue would be the wealthiest neighborhood in America (yes, I’m stretching the definition of neighborhood here!) However, due to Block Group geography, the statistics for these luxurious buildings are compromised by the buildings that are on the other side of the block groups, the west side of Madison Avenue.

There are 38,259 households in the seven Higley 1000 neighborhoods of Manhattan. These golden blocks make up a mere 5.2% of Manhattan’s 738,644 occupied housing units in the 2000 Census. As might be expected, the Upper East Side dominates the Manhattan statistics with 60.2% of all the households. The Upper East Side and it’s two satellites (Sutton Place and Beekman Place) are whiter than white. The households of the Upper East Side are only rivaled in their lack of diversity by the Higley 1000 neighborhoods of Fairfield County, Connecticut.

The second largest concentration of wealth in Manhattan is found on the Upper West Side. The wealthiest Block groups of the Upper West Side are hard to categorize as they consist of no less than five noncontiguous Block Groups stretching from Columbus Circle to 92nd and West End Avenue. (see the map below). These ultra Liberal neighborhoods are only moderately more integrated than the Upper East Side. Asians make up 6.5% of the households on the Higley 1000 Block Groups on the Upper West Side, however there are few Blacks (1.7%).

There are an extremely wealthy collection of Block Groups that I have dubbed Midtown Manhattan made up of a portion of the mainly commercial area south of 59th Street. With a mere 494 households (barely enough for a couple of high-rises), it is none-the-less, extraordinarily wealthy.

The downtown area is represented in the Higley 1000 by most of Tribeca. Tribeca is 7.9% Asian, a number that is significantly higher than any other of the Manhattan neighborhoods in my survey.

Map of Manhattan Higley 1000 Neighborhoods

View Larger Map of Higley 1000 Neighborhoods in Manhattan

Racial Patterns in Manhattan

The geographic pattern of wealthy neighborhoods in the New York City metro area does not lend itself to easy geographical generalization. Because of waterways intersecting the core of the metro area, wealthy neighborhoods spread in virtually every direction from the core in Manhattan, skipping over the outer boroughs. Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens each have only one Block Group that made the Higley 1000 (Brooklyn Heights, Fieldston, and Neponsit).

The geographic patterns of wealth are contiguous and fairly compact in Fairfield County, Connecticut and the Gold Coast of Long Island. On the other hand, the geography of the Higley 1000 in New Jersey is completely fragmented. Wealthy neighborhoods stretch from Bergen County in the north to Princeton in the southwest and Rumson in the southeast. There is no real geographic organization that I can discern in New Jersey! Westchester County has a more scattered geographic pattern that falls somewhere between the Gold Coast and New Jersey.

As everyone in New York City knows, the Upper East Side ends abruptly at 96th Street. The definition of the “Upper East Side” includes all of the Census Tracts east to Lexington Avenue with a bump out to Third Avenue between 66th and 79th. The rest of the. The remainder of the Upper East Side is defined as “Yorkville” in the Higley 1000.

The Upper West Side was a much more challenging exercise as the Block Groups that were wealthy enough to qualify for the Higley 1000 are geographically scattered from 59th to 92nd in five noncontiguous groups. As of this writing, a Block Group would need to have an approximate mean household income of $181,000 to be included in the list. There was only one Block Group found in Greenwich Village along the Hudson waterfront of the West Village . On the other hand, most of Tribeca is represented in the Higley 1000.

Ironclad Racial Segregation Predominates All of Metro New York City’s Clusters of Wealth

From the posh coops of Fifth Avenue to the spectacular mansions in North Greenwich; From horse farms of Bedford to the horse farms of Far Hills, New Jersey; racial segregation is surprisingly constant. Although there are concentrations of Asians found in all of the metro areas clusters of wealth (with the exception of Fairfield County), there are few Latino households and even fewer African-American households found in New York City’s Higley 1000 neighborhoods. In this respect, as the table below clearly shows, New York City’s minority representation is statistically the same as the rest of the country.

Higley 1000 Racial Statistics by Region

New York Metro Area Summary

	

	

		
REGION
		
# OF NEIGH
		
HOUSEHOLDS
		
BLACK
		
ASIAN
		
HISP
		
WHITE
	
	
	

		
Manhattan
		
7
		
38,259
		
0.9
		
4.1
		
3.4
		
89.5
	
	

		
Long Island
		
53
		
34,407
		
0.7
		
4.8
		
1.4
		
92.2
	
	

		
Westchester
		
47
		
40,312
		
1.1
		
5.2
		
2.3
		
90.4
	
	

		
Fairfield
		
44
		
36,641
		
0.5
		
2.1
		
1.2
		
95.6
	
	

		
New Jersey
		
68
		
58,791
		
1.5
		
5.7
		
1.8
		
90.3
	
	

		
Higley1000
		
1000
		
739,501
		
1.0
		
4.9
		
2.3
		
90.9
	
	

		
NYC CMSA
		
NA
		
7,735,264
		
15.2
		
5.6
		
14.3
		
62.4
	

My 1995 book, Privilege, Power & Place found Greenwich with more Social Register families than any other town of it’s size in America. The only greater concentration of old money is found on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

I have stumbled upon many tiny elite enclaves that for various reasons don’t make the Higley 1000. Most commonly because they are too tiny to register or are summer vacation spots that are dominated by second homeowners that report their income at their main residence. There are no racial statistics to report, the following places are almost exclusively non-Hispanic White with the exception of an occasional caretaker.

They are for the most part gated and the only view inside is through Bing Live Local or Google Earth. Those that aren’t gated are definitely private and off limits to the geographic explorer. If any of my readers would like to add comments about these places, it would be much appreciated. I can guarantee you that the residents aren’t talking!

Here is a map of the ten places I am highlighting today:

United States Map of Ten Exclusive Enclaves

View Ten Exclusive Enclaves: Quiet Please... No Publicity! in a larger map

Northeast Harbor, Maine: Summer Headquarters of  the Social Register

Located on the one of the many picturesque harbors on Maine’s Desert Island, Northeast Harbor is the Grand Dame of Social Register summer homes. It is relatively large place for this list as it has 651 houses of which 368 are seasonal (56.5%). Northeast Harbor is a rarity for this list as it is neither gated nor private and is open to tourists.

In my study of the 1988 Social Register, 117 listees maintained a second home in Northeast Harbor. Only 11 families listed it as their main residence. Considering Maine’s winters, this is not surprising. The other coastal enclaves of the upper class had fewer Social Register homeowners (North Haven, 56;  Scarborough, 40; and Islesboro, 36).

The permanent population of this tiny burgh is 527 and one can safely assume that their main occupation is servicing the estates of the wealthy. The median household income of the townees was a relatively low $37,885 per household. About half of the permanent residents lived in rental units and half in single family homes.

The waterfront homes of the summer visitors are grand and are often passed from generation to generation with little publicity. Brooke Astor must be rolling in her grave as her Northeast Harbor $5.5 million manse, Cove End became a centerpiece in the recent trial and conviction of her sons’ machinations to score as much of her wealth as possible in her dotage.

Sailing and enjoying the private benefits of old money are the main activities although there are some tourist accommodations.  I recommend the Grey Rock Inn, a converted mansion with 8 guest rooms. The internet reviews of the the much larger and well known Asticou Inn (48 rooms) are generally poor. The Northeast Harbor Fleet is headquartered on the nearby Blank Harbor and has 400 members.

Map of Northeast Harbor, Maine

View Northeast Harbor, Maine in a larger map

Nonquitt, Massachusetts: A Well Kept Secret

As befitting another Social Register enclave, Tyra Pacheco’s essay on Nonquitt was the only source I could find on the internet. She wrote the following for the website From House to Home.

“Tucked away in a waterfront corner of South Dartmouth, Nonquitt is a small community, born of a desire to escape the hustle and bustle of city life in the late 1800s.

In its early days, Nonquitt was an open space of unused farmland, where a group of families and friends would retreat in the summer. For a number of years, a small colony of tents dotted the shoreline in the summer, occupied by a close-knit group of family and friends.

In 1870, this well-kept secret on the shore leaked out and soon other families appeared with their tents, within view of Nonquitt’s earliest settlers. This prompted the group to begin the process of securing what they had come to consider their land for their own, exclusive use.

Two years later, under the leadership of former Roxbury Mayor James Ritchie, the group formed the Nonquitt Beach and Wharf Association. Together, its members purchased a total of 455 acres of land. Before they began the process of dividing lots for development, the corporation established an area of common land along the shore, to be shared by all of the residents of Nonquitt.

The following year, construction began on the Nonquitt Hotel. A social gathering place for visitors and residents alike, the hotel expanded over its 20-year life to include three buildings, before it was destroyed by fire in 1893.
Shortly after the fire, construction began on a new public building, The Casino, a building which is still used as a meeting hall and activity center.

The loss of the hotel prompted many residents to build additions on their summer homes, as they had been relying on the Nonquitt Hotel for meals and socialization.

While many people still summer in Nonquitt, many of the original cottages have been winterized for year-round occupation, and new construction is well-suited for four seasons.

A good number of the properties in Nonquitt have been passed down from one generation to the next. As real estate prices and tax rates have increased, holding on to that property can be difficult for younger families.

The original settlers of Nonquitt were not considered to be wealthy, but rather, middle class merchants. Current real estate prices hint at the quality of modern life in Nonquitt. Listings for land include $1.1 million for just over an acre to $5.75 million for 3.8 acres.

Among Nonquitt’s well-known former residents are Civil War hero General Philip Henry Sheridan, artist Robert Swain Gifford, and author Louisa May Alcott.

Today, Nonquitt is a private, gated community. Visitors are allowed by invitation only, and members of the community are reluctant to publicize any aspect of life behind the gates.

Residents are filled with stories of history, but reluctant to go public, for fear their quiet corner of the world will be exploited.

A book detailing the history of Nonquitt was published in 1987. “Nonquitt: A Summer Album, 1872-1985” by Anne Morse Lydell is filled with anecdotes and photos of years gone by, but little is revealed about more recent life in the community.

“People like to guard their privacy, and they don’t like the world to know about Nonquitt,” one resident says.

Historical information for this story was gathered with permission from “Nonquitt: A Summer Album, 1872-1985,” as well as Nonquitt residents who, for the sake of privacy, asked not to be identified.”

Located just south of Nonquitt is a condominium development that has a much more colorful past, Round Hill. It is built on the grounds of Colonel Edward Howland Robinson Green’s estate and features a main road named for the notorious Hetty Green, the Witch of Wall Street…. but that’s another story.

Map of Nonquitt, Massachusetts

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Fishers Island, New York

Yet another bastion of old money, Fishers Island had 110 Social Registerites in my 1988 study. The locals live on the Western third of this 4.2 square mile island and the gated Eastern two-thirds is given over to the blue blood estates and the uber elite Fishers Island Club (known locally as the “Big Club”. Access to the island is provided by a ferry that runs from New London, Connecticut.

The 2000 Census found 289 permanent residents living in 138 housing units. The median household income of $54,000 is obviously not reflective of vast wealth found in the estates of the East Enders that number around 2,000 during the summer. The 2000 Census showed 448 Seasonal homes, easily dwarfing the housing available for service workers.

The social and economic distance between the locals and the East Enders has only grown through the years. In 1988 Nick Ravo wrote a profile of the island for the New York Times that illustrated this problem when the median price of an island home was $585,000 (“The Talk of Fishers Island; Isle’s Summer Gentry Squeezing out ‘Locals’“, Sept 14, 1988). Today, at the beginning of 2010, Zillow estimates the median cost of a home on the island at $1,671,800.

Mr. Ravo’s article also lamented the fact that the population of townees had dropped 50% in the 15 years preceding 1988 to about 350. Obviously, the rapid decline has abated, but the affordability issues continues to loom large. Twenty-one years ago controversy was stirred when the Walsh Park Benevolent Corporation proposed building 12 affordable housing units “to maintain a ‘critical mass’ of ‘help’ on the island and to maintain the island’s crusty character.” I was unable to ascertain as to whether the affordable housing was ever built, but a tour of the island via Bing Live Local shows that were numerous huge estates under construction at the time of the flyover.

There is an interesting history of the island found at The Fishers Island Website.

Gibson Island, Maryland

Gibson Island is another low key island refuge for the wealthy and it is found in the Chesapeake Bay in Anne Arundel County. Gibson Island is connected to the mainland by a causeway and is gated to keep the hoi polloi out. The island is about 20 miles southeast of Baltimore and 35 north of Washington DC.

Map of Gibson Island, Maryland

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The island had a 2000 population of 310 in 136 houses. The Census also found 52 seasonal houses (as well as 21 vacant houses).

The following description is posted on the Gibson Island website:  “Gibson Island’s rich and colorful history includes its use as a summer residence by Native Americans in the 1600’s. History also tells us that Captain John Smith sailed past Gibson Island in his voyage up the Chesapeake Bay in 1608. By 1663, the first land grants were established. There were many owners between these original land grants and the purchase and consolidation of the Island in the 1920’s. W. Stuart Symington, the founder of Gibson Island as we know it today, purchased the three existing Island farms with his brother Thomas. They envisioned and developed it as a residential community where families from the Baltimore/Washington area could spend summers. One of the early owners was a man named Gibson – it is his name that identifies the Island.

The Symington brothers set certain areas aside for community facilities and divided the remaining land into building lots offered for sale through the Gibson Island Company, now known as Gibson Island Corporation. From that time to the present, Gibson Island has had its own real estate department specifically handling the listing and selling of Island properties. Revenue generated from these sales is returned to the community for its upkeep and beautification.

The Symingtons, upon the advice of Edward H. Bouton, the developer of Roland Park and Guilford areas in Baltimore, hired Frederick Law Olmsted to create a master plan for the Island. One of the premier landscape architects of his time, he designed many important landmarks across the country, including Central Park in Manhattan. In 1925, the first Deed and Agreement was adopted and recorded which provides Gibson Island Corporation with architectural oversight powers, helping to maintain the beauty and tranquility of the Island over the years.

The Great Depression halted rapid development of the Island. In 1936, a group of gentlemen deeply interested in the future of the Island undertook the reorganization of its ownership, passing control to the Island’s homeowners, thus putting those with the greatest interest in a position to preserve the Island’s ambiance. Succeeding generations have carefully maintained the natural environment of the Island, with about two-thirds of its land set aside for recreation, forestry and open space.”

In August of 2009, Forbes magazine claimed that Gibson Island had the 12th most expensive median Zip Code asking price for a home at just over $3 million dollars. Home prices start at about $1 million.

Mountain Lake Estates, Florida: Where Blue-Bloods go to Die in Their Own Private Heaven

You may ask.. just where is this mountain in Florida. Well look no further than the towering 295 foot high Iron Mountain just north of Lake Wales, Florida. This exclusive enclave with yet another high concentration of people listed in the Social Register is small (114 houses) and completely off the beaten path of the usual Florida haunts of the rich and famous, most notably Palm Beach and Boca Grande.

The gated community features the obligatory golf course and a lovely hotel, the Colony House at Mountain Lake. Although the place is definitely low key, if one does a bit of research, you can find some information on Mountain Lake.

This is the info posted on the hotel’s website:

“Mountain Lake is one of Florida’s best kept secrets, especially for the avid golfer. A private community founded in 1915, Mountain Lake also has a top-ranked golf course designed in 1916 by Seth Raynor.

Mountain Lake is located in the rolling hills and lake region of Central Florida, just outside the small citrus town of Lake Wales. The community is within easy driving distance of both Orlando and Tampa.

Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., whose father designed Central Park and the Boston Common, among other projects, did the original layout for Mountain Lake. He also designed the Colony House, which serves as a clubhouse and private hotel. The Colony House and Mountain Lake Estates Historic District are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Since its earliest days, Mountain Lake has kept its original character as a place of great natural beauty with a style of living that is outdoor oriented and unpretentious. The community has been described as “a setting of wondrous isolation from the clutter of commercial life.”

Golf & Travel magazine named Mountain Lake one of the most attractive golf communities in America. There are 125 residences, few of them within sight of the golf course, so the gently rolling land is open and space is abundant. Mountain Lake is an ideal getaway spot for those who appreciate great golf, tennis, and croquet in beautiful natural surroundings, with an atmosphere that is warmly hospitable and relaxed.

The community has a fascinating history. Mountain Lake was founded in 1915 by Frederick S. Ruth of Baltimore, whose family owned property in the area. Ruth assembled 3,500 acres in the hilly, verdant land, which is among the highest in the state. He engaged Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to lay out 600 acres of the property for the residences and brought in Seth Raynor to design the golf course.

In the mid 1920s Edward W. Bok, the publisher of The Saturday Evening Post and The Ladies Home Journal, was a homeowner at Mountain Lake. He had come to America from Holland and became very successful in his career. Wanting to make a lasting contribution to his new homeland, he acquired over 100 acres of the highest land of the park and created what is now known as Historic Bok Sanctuary. The “Singing Tower” is one of the world’s most renowned carillons, and outdoor concerts and other events are scheduled on a regular basis. Bok Sanctuary also hosts an international festival of carillonneurs* each year.”

*People that play music on bells in freestanding towers

Map of Mountain Lake Estates, Florida

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Map of Casey Key, Florida

Casey Key, Florida: The Longest Stretch of Mansions on a Barrier Island in the World

Located just south of Sarasota, this 6 1/2 mile of barrier island is about as low key a place as there is on Florida’s gulf coast. Starter homes go for $1.8 million and the huge houses top out in the $7-8 million region. Casey Key is unincorporated and the beaches are private. Surprisingly, it is not gated and anyone can drive through and take a gander. Just don’t stop… everything is private.

Casey Key has 447 homes of which 162 are seasonal and 285 are “first” homes resulting in a population of 630 very fortunate residents.

The Highlands: Seattle’s Most Elite Address

Good luck finding any information on this tiny enclave of Seattle’s old moneyed families. Tucked between Puget Sound and the Seattle Country Club. this neighborhood of 110 homes stands apart from exclusive neighborhoods of Seattle that bracket Lake Washington to the east (e.g. Hunts Point, Medina, & Denny Blaine). There is virtually nothing on the internet about this tiny enclave that is populated with the mansions of Seattle elites with names like Boeing, Nordstrom, and Finkelsteins.

Map of The Highlands, Washington

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The Yellowstone Club: A Fiasco of Wretched Excess or Why the Old Money loathes the Nouveau Riche

If  you really want to read about the super-rich involved in what is certainly one of the biggest real estate fiascos ever cooked up by some of the most vulgar people since Gilded Age, wade through this long New York Times article:

Checkmate at the Yellowstone Club – NYTimes.com

The most laughable quote in the article is that the members “have to be willing to check their egos at the door”….just how delusional are these people?

It’s hard to wrap your mind around and “invitation only” club with a membership fee of $250,000 and lots selling for $2 million/acre and homes that are for occasional use and sell for between $5 million and $35 million.

The woman at the center of this sordid bankrupt menagerie, Edra Blixseth, can be summed up by a few observations in the Times article.

• A  30,000 square foot mansion with a private “Prayer Room” (what a Christian!)
• A private 240 acre golf course
• A boyfriend who is a former underwear model
• A Billion dollar bankruptcy
• Only 40 servants (down from 110)

Where is the Guillotine when we really need it!

Map of The Yellowstone Club

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The Wausaukee Club: Republican Communists in the Woods!

Hidden in the idyllic forests of Northern Wisconsin resides a tiny and exclusive club for some of Chicago and Milwaukee’s old money families. The Wausaukee club has a mere 35 houses and only 9 of them are winterized.

There is not gate to the 2400 acre development and several years ago I managed to infiltrate this bastion of privacy and even had a cryptic interview with a very nervous General Manager.  I had become aware of this tiny slice of heaven through my research of the Social Register and to my delight I found that this sylvan club was a mere 47 miles northwest of my family’s cottage on Green Bay just south of Marinette, Wisconsin.

I hope he wasn’t fired for talking to me. The information I was able to gleen from the internet came about because of an advertisement that the club ran for a new General Manager.  The homes are modest by most standards and surround an astoundingly pristine and beautiful private lake. There is a large communal dining hall….. I repeat communal….. and probably Republican Communists at that.

The annual budget for this seasonal endeavor is $1.1 million. The operating budget is shared by the members… Communists!!   As many as 160 of these Red Devils share the bliss of a Wisconsin summer in high season (July-August).

Like the Yellowstone Club, I’m only guessing at the boundaries and I rest comfortable that absolutely no one  will really want to bother these fine people.

Harbor Point, Michigan: When Harbor Springs Just Isn’t Exclusive Enough…

Map of Harbor Point, Michigan

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The following description is from a 1965 article in Time Magazine. No doubt, it is still applicable although I suspect the homes have been passed to heirs and heiress at this point.

“Harbor Point is Michigan’s most exclusive because the millionaire and blue-blooded families who live there guard their privacy well. Located on a point that juts out into Little Traverse Bay near Harbor Springs, Harbor Point does not even allow automobiles to intrude upon its seclusion. Instead they are parked at the entrance to the point, and the residents are delivered to their doors by a horse and buggy that makes a circle of the area every 15 minutes. The buggy also is used when residents visit their neighbors. There are some 70 homes on the point, two-or three-storied with numerous sun porches and beautifully kept lawns leading down to the shore. Among the house owners are Wrigley Offield, scion of the chewing gum clan, Elton MacDonald, creator of Plaid Stamps, and Frederick S. Ford, a director of Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass. The Harbor Point Association carefully screens anyone wishing to build on any of the 103 lots still available in the area. There are two golf courses near by, and there is a club at the entrance to the point with a huge swimming pool and a sprawl of tennis courts. Most residents also keep a boat, which is docked in front of their homes.”

Read more:  Recreation: Splendors at Home, by Time Magazine