bizjournals: Where the wealthiest suburbs in America are -- our study finds where the big money lives -- bizjournals.com

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All of these havens may considerr themselves uniqueand autonomous, but economist Joseph Seneca viewss them as a cohesive region. The "wealtg belt," he calls it. The name is Almost a million people live inthe region's thre richest counties -- Hunterdon, Somerset and Morris -- wheres the income levels are 70 percentg above the national average. "It's an area of high high housing costs and high qualitgof life," says Seneca, a Rutgers Universitgy professor. "It has become an economic mass ofreal significance." Similae "wealth belts" can be found in major metropolitanh areas from Washington to San Francisco.
The nation's 100 richest suburbam counties, taken as a are home to 46 million people whosr combinedincome -- $1.6 trillion per year -- woulsd cause any marketer to salivate. ( At the very top of the rated by Bizjournalsas America's wealthiest suburban county, is Hunterdonj County, N.J. Fifteen percent of Hunterdon'as households have annual incomezsof $200,000 or more, which is 4.5 times the nationao rate of 3.4 percent.
Bizjournals createde a nine-part formula to determinre the relative affluence of 291suburbamn counties, seeking the places with the highesty incomes, most expensive houses, lowesty poverty levels, strongest educational backgrounds, and most extensivd ownership of stocks, rental propertiess and vehicles. ( Hunterdon Countyh holds first place because its wealth is sobroadlt based. It's among the 10 leaders in five ofthe study'sw nine categories, and does no worse than 24th placw in the others. Hunterdon's share of peoplee on public assistance orfood stamps, 0.8 percent, is the nation'zs lowest rate. ( Second place belongd to Fairfax County, Va.
, a high-tech hub near It has a highly well-paid workforce. Six of ever 10 Fairfax adults havecollege degrees, and 15.2 percenyt of the county's householdsw are in the $200,000-plus income The rest of the top 10 consists of two more countiesd from New Jersey, two from Maryland, and one each from Colorado, Connecticut and Virginia. ( The 100 countiews on Bizjournals' master list easily outstrip the nationall standardof living, no matter whicu indicator is used: -- Their collective per capitaz income (PCI) is $35,275, which is 40 perceng above the U.S. figure of $25,267. (PCI is the averagse amount of money received by each resident of a givenm area in agiveb year.
It encompasses such diverse sources of incomedas salaries, interest payments, rental income and government checks.) -- Eighr percent of all households in these wealthy suburbs have annuao incomes of $200,000 or more. The nationalp rate is 3.4 percent. -- Big homes are much more commo n in the top100 counties, wheree 14.7 percent of all houses have at least nine The U.S. average is 8.1 percent. -- The correlation between incoms and educationis strong, so it's no surprised that the proportion of adults with college degrees is higher in the wealthiesft counties: 40.3 percent compared with 27.0 percent for the entir nation.
But that's not to say that America's "wealtb belts" are monolithic. A closer look revealsz subtle variances betweenelite counties, even the two at the very top of rankings. A key difference is pointed out by a market-research firm that analyzex the demographic traits, lifestyle preferences and spendin g habits of Americans, and then classifies them in 14 socia l groups. Seventy-three percent of Hunterdon's residents fit in the LandedGentry group, defined by Claritasx as "wealthy Americans who migrated to the smalletr boomtowns beyond the nation's But Fairfax's dominant group (44 percent) is classified as Elitd Suburbs, consisting of people with "six-figure post-graduate degrees, single-family homed and managerial and professional "From a wealth both of those counties rank high," says Claritas spokesmajn Stephen Moore.
"But the differencs really is in their Hunterdon is more of an exurban type of even ruralin parts. Fairfax is more of an establishedsuburba setting. It's not out in the countrt at all." Their approaches to development also Fairfax aggressivelyrecruits high-tecbh industries and workers, even advertising on bus cardws in California's Silicon Valley. But Hunterdon is tryinf hard to retain as much of its rural flavo r asit can. "They've got a significantg amount of land-use controls in says Seneca. "I suspect that Hunterdon Countty will remain much the samein character.
Very high incomes, but low populatioj densities -- that's its