Monmouth County, New Jersey is one of those counties in the BosWash megalopoli that is difficult to categorize. The county has a relatively large population (635,285, 2006 Census estimate), but no true central city. Historically, the closest thing to that end has been the twin resort towns of Long Branch and Asbury Park. Both communities’ [...]

West Suburban Chicago View Larger Map of Higley1000 neighborhoods in West Suburban Chicago The West Suburban cluster of neighborhoods is centered on Oak Brook and Hinsdale. They are the odd couple of Chicago’s suburbs. Hinsdale (the Felix Unger of the two) is older, gracious and stately. Hinsdale’s lovely tree lined streets have been the site [...]

The Higley 1000 neighborhoods located in the San Fernando Valley are the logical geographic extension of the core area of West Los Angeles. It consists of five contiguous neighborhoods on the northern slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains: Woodland Park, Tarzana Hills, Encino Hills, Sherman Oaks, and Studio City Hills. I have added the term [...]

Morris, Somerset, and Hunterdon counties have the largest number of Higley 1000 households in New Jersey. The three counties are the exurban extensions of suburban Essex and Union counties, and are characterized by quaint villages, discrete estates on country lanes, and even a few standard suburban subdivisions. There are extensive areas of horse farms, particularly [...]

Union County is Essex County’s smaller, poorer neighbor to the South without the racial diversity found in some of Essex’s Higley 1000 neighborhoods. The wealthiest neighborhoods of Union County are an extension of the physically similar suburbs to the North along the first Watchung Mountain. At the apex of Union County’s suburbs is the fully [...]

As I have mentioned in my posting on wealthy urban neighborhoods, one cannot really compare entire city neighborhoods to homogenous single family suburban neighborhoods. The 69 suburban Chicago neighborhoods in the Higley 1000 have an average of of 624 households. The 11 contiguous central Chicago neighborhoods spotlighted in this essay have an average of 7,740 [...]

The Barrington Area View Larger Map Higley 1000 Neighborhoods in the Barrington area One could almost consider the Barrington Area as an annex to the North Shore. New upscale development was blocked to the north along the lakefront by downscale North Chicago and Waukegan, therefore it moved west. The Barrington area (as I have defined [...]

One of the laments of this web site it the paucity of African-American households found in the Higley 1000 neighborhoods across the United States. Although Blacks made up 11.4% of all households in the United States, they made up only 1.0% of all households found in the wealthiest neighborhoods. That is not to say that [...]

Suburban Essex County is beautiful. I supposed the burghers of Montclair and Short Hills are inurred to insults so often hurled at New Jersey by late night comedians. I can’t help but sneer at the provincial Manhattanite hipsters who denigrate the Garden State as is if it all looked like the ghastly stretch of the [...]

The second cluster of wealthy neighborhoods in Bergen County is what I have dubbed the Saddle River-Ridgewood area. Ridgewood’s West End is unquestionably the wealthiest of the neighborhoods in this area with a mean household income of $326,140. The West End of Ridgewood is the 6th wealthiest neighborhood in New Jersey. The top Five are [...]