How the Other 6.9% Lives
Maybe it’s coincidence, or maybe it’s a marker of gentrification. Either way, the census tract with the fastest-growing population of high-income households used to contain one of the nation’s highest-crime and most poverty-stricken public housing projects.
Two decades after the Chicago Housing Authority began demolishing the Cabrini-Green Homes on the city’s Near North Side (pictured), the area’s percentage of households earning $200,000 or more per year has gone from 0% to 39%, Bloomberg News reported. Where once there were row houses, there are now luxury condominiums that sell at up to $2 million for a three-bedroom penthouse.
Bloomberg’s report is based on an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data from 2000 to 2017, conducted by San Francisco-based Webster Pacific. It excludes recently-created tracts, those defined as tracts of significant change, and any tract with fewer than 100 households in either 2000 or 2017. Some 6.9% of U.S. households earn $200,000 or more.
About 20 miles north of the top-ranked census tract is another Cook County enclave of high-earning households. The Glen, a planned community built on the site of a former naval air station in Glenview, IL, is the nation’s seventh fastest-growing concentrations of $200,000-plus households.
For the greatest concentration of census tracts with fast-growing populations of relatively high earners, though, one needs to go to the East Coast—not to the nation’s largest city, but to its capital.
The Washington, DC metro area is home to 29 of the top 100 growth areas, including four of the top 10. (New York is home to numbers nine and 10.)
In the vicinity of Arlington, VA, where Amazon will build one of its two HQ2 campuses, planned communities of single-family homes have exploded in value since they were built in the 1990s, Bloomberg reported. Home prices in Fairfax County, Virginia’s most populous jurisdiction, have more than doubled since 2000, and now average $565,509.
“Lobbyists, defense contractors, law firms and technology companies all played a role in the Washington area’s ascent,” according to Bloomberg. Another factor is the high ratio of multi-earner households, George Mason University’s Jeannette Chapman told Bloomberg.
However, many high-income DC-area residents don’t feel especially wealthy, Chapman said. “A household earning $200,000 here still might be struggling in a way that’s just unfathomable in other parts of the country because the costs are so much higher.”
For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Paul Bubny
- ◦Economy
Connect CRE News
Your source for daily news covering CRE transactions and trends. Stay informed on national, regional and property sector news that matters to your business.
Connect Events
Whether digital or in-person, Connect Events set the stage to bring together relevant content with CRE’s most active players to engage, influence and inform.
Connect CREative
A full-service marketing agency dedicated to CRE clients. Combining our CRE background with our team’s business, marketing, communications, technology, to develop and execute comprehensive strategies to create, build, and and grow successful brands.