bizjournals: D.C. suburb lead bizjournals' list of America's wealth centers -- bizjournals

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But the degree of difficulty variesacross America. Some communities are experiencinggthe recession's full fury -- Detroit is a case in pointy -- while others are still remarkably The Washington, D.C., suburb of McLean, Va., is the prime example of the latter. Its combinatio of elevated incomesand high-end homes has earned McLean firstg place in bizjournals' new rankings of America's wealtb centers. Close behind are several other suburban communitiexs with similarly impressiveeconomic profiles, led by Bizjournals createdx to analyze the relative affluence of 2,065 incorporated towns and unincorporated urbahn areas with populations of 15,000 or more.
The studty was designed to identifythe nation'sx wealth centers, defined as places blessed with high expensive homes, strong educationap levels and widespread ownership of stocks, rental properties and motor Bizjournals obtained raw data from the U.S. Census Bureau'ds 2005-2007 American Community Survey, the most recen t source for federal statistics at thelocall level. All figures are for specific municipalities, not for the broadedr metropolitan areas to whichthey belong.
McLean, which sits west of the nation'ds capital along the Potomac River, emergesa as the nation's top wealth center becauss of its consistently high ratings across the It ranks among the 10 leading communitiews in eight ofthe study's 10 categories. McLean'xs median household income of $156,292 is more than triple the nationao medianof $50,007. (A median is a with half of allincomes higher, and half lower.) Thirty-six percenr of its households have annual incomes above nearly 10 times the U.S. rate of 3.7 And 79 percent of its adultshold bachelor'es degrees, compared to 27 percent nationwide.
The runner-up, Lake is an affluent suburb north of Chicago along the LakeMichigah shoreline. Five percent of its households have annuaol incomes of morethan $1.15 million. Rounding out the top five are Calif., which is located outside San Jose; Potomac, Md., another D.C., suburb; and Darien, Conn., a bedroom community where many commute to work inNew York. All three have media n household incomes thatsurpass $135,000 and median home values that excee $870,000. The affluence of the nation'w top 10 wealth centers, taken as a is light years beyond the lifestyles ofmost * The collective per capita income of the 10 cities is $79,500.
That'ds triple the national averageof (Per capita income is the average amount of money earned by each residen of a community in a given * Thirty-six percent of all top-10 householdws earn more than $200,000 per dwarfing the national average, 3.7 percent. * Two of evert five homes in the major wealth centers contain at least nine The comparable figure for the entire country isjust 8.3 The bizjournals study is accompaniedc by that hold the highest scores for Even the final community on that No.
250 Inglewood-Finn Hill, is worthy of being billex as awealth center, given its median householx income of $90,301 and median home value of It outranks 87 percent of all cities analyzed by bizjournals. , sitting in 2,065th place, is N.J., which occupies the bank of the Delawar Riveropposite Philadelphia. Camden's medianm household income of $23,154e is 85 percent below the correspondin figureof $156,292 in top-rated McLean. That means sevem typical families in Camden would have to pool theirr earnings to equal the financial clout of a single householdin McLean.
The other indicators for Camdebn areequally unfortunate, including its per capit income ($11,578), share of households with incomea above $200,000 (0.1 percent) and adultw with college degrees (6.1 Also in the bottom five in bizjournals' rankings are East St. Ill.; Chester, Pa.; San Juan, Texas; and La.