Denver suburb among wealthiest towns
The Silicon Valley town that’s home to billionaires Eric Schmidt of Google and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook is America’s richest community for the third year in a row.
Atherton, Calif., whose household income averaged $450,696 in 2017, topped the Bloomberg Richest Places annual index.
Stanford University is just 2 miles down the road from the town.
Atherton Mayor Bill Widmer said the tree-lined streets and lot sizes of at least 1 acre offer the residents privacy.
“We value a semi-rural environment,” said Widmer, who moved to Atherton in 1996. “There are few sidewalks, and many places don’t have street lights.”
Scarsdale, N.Y., a wealthy suburb north of Manhattan, moved up to the No. 2 spot on this year’s list as its residents enjoyed a $30,000 increase, on average, in annual household income from the prior year, pushing Cherry Hills Village, a Denver suburb, to the No. 3 spot. Top school districts are one reason residents choose to live there.
“We moved here as many did because of the outstanding school system,” said Scarsdale Mayor Dan Hochvert, a 40-year resident. “That is one of the primary drivers.”
Accessibility to a city center also is a key characteristic of all three. Just as Atherton is accessible to San Francisco and Scarsdale is a train’s ride away from New York City, Cherry Hills Village is only a 20minute drive from downtown Denver.
“It happens to be located kind of beautifully,” said Steve Blank, a managing broker at Sotheby’s International Realty in Denver.
Bigwigs living in Cherry Hills Village include Super Bowl-winning quarterback Peyton Manning and Denver Broncos general manager John Elway.
More than half the top 100 richest places in America were in the tri-state area — New York, New Jersey and Connecticut — or in California. Still, a number of Midwest and Southwest areas made the cut, and a handful even are in the top 20.
The bar to make it among the top 100 places was raised to $209,000 in annual income from $198,000 a year earlier. Four places made their top 100 debut this year, including two in California: Tamalpais Homestead Valley in Marin County and
beach city Del Mar. Also making it: Jericho on New York’s Long Island and Medina, Minn.
Wealth is further concentrated specifically in six counties: Westchester, Bergen and Fairfield counties outside of Manhattan; Cook County of Chicago; Los Angeles County; and Montgomery County in Maryland, bordering Washington, D.C.
Rounding out the national top 10 are Los Altos Hills and Hillsborough in California; Short Hills, N.J.; Highland Park in Texas; Darien in Connecticut; Bronxville in New York; and Glencoe, Ill.
Glencoe, a suburb 7 miles north of Northwestern University, climbed five spots to land the last spot in the top 10 for the first time.
Rumson — a wealthy corner of Monmouth County in New Jersey — ascended 19 spots into the top 20.