<p>There is a house on the street where my parents live in Fairfax County, VA… listed at $625,000 for 1700 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. The houses in my parents’ neighborhood would probably be $200-250k in many other parts of the country. I watch HGTV and am just stunned at some of the houses people can buy for $250,000 in some places. 4000+ square feet, etc</p>
<p>It is not like people here are living large… lots of houses have 2 parents that work. Lots of people have education beyond the BA/BS level. A median income of $100-120K is nowhere near the “1%”</p>
<p>I live in one of the Maryland counties on the list. It’s ridiculous how expensive houses are here. Our old house, we bought for $340,000. We were living in the “ghetto” of our county. Our current house, we bought for $1.1 million, and it’s still the smallest of all my friends’. If my house were in Kansas, it would be listed for under $400,000. I can’t wait to get out of this privileged, sheltered, overpriced bubble.</p>
<p>We live in one of those MD counties, too. Move our 45 yo, 2400 sq ft 1960s split level to any of the towns where my sibs live (Georgia and Kentucky) and the purchase price goes to the low 100s. </p>
<p>The new townhouses in the next subdivision across the street are STARTING at $500k – 3 BR, 2.5 BA, 2500 sq.ft. 2900 sq ft SFHs start at $625k. This is an hour’s commute door-to-door to downtown DC!</p>
<p>We had to decide on paying for a house or college 15 years ago. Our RE agent thought we were nuts for not maxing out on the house we could afford, but there is no way could we have done college with a huge mortgage. But there is also no way our kids would have gotten the education they did had we lived where my sibs do. </p>
<p>I would hazard a guess that there are a number of fellow posters who don’t live in these counties who are far closer to the 1% than we ever will be. There are no 1%-ers im my neighborhood, though there are definite advantages to having one’s plumber, roofer and tree guy on our block. :)</p>
<p>“Isn’t the 1%'s income almost exclusively from unearned investments? (No data, just what we hear.)”</p>
<p>That would work well if you believed in propaganda. The top 1% are made up of people who make over 380K, and who mostly pay a very high income tax rate. Of course, you can focus on the people who make billions and pay a low tax rate because it’s off of unearned investments, but that is not the bulk of people who make up that group. A very large number are physicians and professional couples, very few in the financial services industries. Though that’s certainly not what you hear.</p>
<p>The use of income tax returns does prevent about 5,000 residents of ZIP code 94964 who have trivial or no income from affecting the median income reported there.</p>
<p>Another thing I remembered on my drive into work today: around here, it’s the property that is so valuable, not necessarily the houses. Our tax assessment values the house at X, but the land (1/2 acre lot) it sits on is worth 1.75 times the house. The land values drive prices here; the closer to DC, the more expensive the land. The assessment of the house itself is in line with what one would expect for an older house in need of updating.</p>
<p>Yes for Hunterdon County, NJ. The beauty spot of NJ. No large towns let alone cities. High Schools have broad range of income/people. Not many extreme poor. Some very rich but everyone gets along.</p>
<p>For those of you who bemoan the fact your small home is worth X times that of a similar home in Kansas,move to Kansas…The reason your home is worth more is the simple fact it is in a desirable area,where people are willing to pay significantly more then the exact same home in Kansas… Location,location,location</p>
<p>Interesting that Bergen County, NJ, Westchester County, NY and Fairfield County, CT are absent, as those are typically thought to be some of the richer areas in NYC. I guess the older, retired populations bring down the average and the former farms, now mega-mansions in rural NJ pass them by.</p>
<p>"“The top 1% are made up of people who make over 380K
Ok. Can you point to the data/statistics? I don’t see it in the thread. Thanks!”</p>
<p>I’ve heard that number repetitively, and when I google it, there are millions of sites to go to, I just pulled up one of the top ones that states:</p>
<p>WHAT THE TOP 1%, 5%, 10%, 25% and 50% MAKE IN AMERICA</p>
<p>Based on the Internal Revenue Service’s 2010 database below, here’s how much the top Americans make:</p>
<p>When you hear that the top 1% are those who are making hundreds of millions, paying almost nothing in taxes, that is completely propaganda. Sure there are some of those lucky people out there, but most in that category are merely professional couples, business owners, physicians and others in highly skilled professions. Now the top 0.01%, that’s a different story.</p>
<p>To add onto that, wikipedia states that the CBO study in 2011 says:" . People in the top 1% are three times more likely to work more than 50 hours a week, they are more likely to be self-employed, and they earn a fifth of their income as capital income. The top 1% is composed of many professions and has an annual turnover rate of more than 25%. The five most common professions are managers, physicians, administrators, lawyers, and teachers."</p>
<p>I currently live in one of those counties and have lived in 3 of the other counties. Mostly, it means that we spend a small fortune in real estate and property taxes. My state also excels in the area of auto insurance, so we also have the fun of spending a small fortune there too. If we retire and move out of state, we’ll come out ahead. </p>
<p>Until then, although we look rich on paper and fit the demographic for where we live, I’m not giving up my habit of clipping coupons any time soon. And a vacation would be nice. Someday.</p>
<p>“I guess the older, retired populations bring down the average”</p>
<p>There are working-class and poor people in those counties, too. As noted upthread, this list isn’t really about where rich people are, it’s about where poor people aren’t.</p>
<p>qdogpa, we DID make our decision based on location, location, location…it’s called jobs, jobs, jobs.</p>
<p>My sibling with a BS in accounting makes $9.50/hr in a career-related position with 10 years of experience in the small city (~200k population) where she lives. She is darned happy to even HAVE a job. They are few and far between there.</p>
<p>This is a national average, so the regional differences will be telling. According to the Washington Post, you have to earn more like $545,000 in the DC Metro area to be 1%. I can’t find that link, but this one shows the overall 1% to be earning more than $500,000.</p>