- Atherton ranks as the highest-earning community in the U.S., with an average 2017 household income of more than $450,000.
- Los Altos Hills and Hillsborough also rank among the country’s five richest enclaves.
- California claims nearly one-quarter of America’s 100 wealthiest communities.
A San Mateo County community tops the latest list of America’s 50 most affluent communities, and many Bay Area locals won’t be surprised to find out which one it is.
For the third consecutive year, the annual Bloomberg Richest Places index ranks Atherton as the country’s wealthiest enclave, with an annual average household income of $450,696 in 2017. The well-heeled community is a short distance away from many of Silicon Valley‘s best-known and highest-paying tech companies, and current and past residents of the town include Google’s Eric Schmidt and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
Last fall, a PropertyShark report ranked Atherton as the country’s most expensive ZIP code, with a 2018 median sales price of $6.75 million. And in January, an analysis of MLS data on the Compass California blog found that Atherton was one of the Bay Area’s 10 fastest-appreciating housing markets in the fourth quarter of 2018, with the $6.5 million median single-family home sales price up by 48.7 percent year over year.
Two other Silicon Valley communities rank in the top five in the U.S. for wealth: No. 4 Los Altos Hills ($386,174), and No. 5 Hillsborough ($373,128). According to MLS data, the median sales price for a single-family home in Los Altos and Hillsborough was a respective $5 million and $4.2 million in the most recently completed quarter.
California is home to nearly one-quarter of America’s 100 wealthiest communities. Bloomberg breaks out income data for the top 50, which includes a total of 11 Golden State cities.
Other Northern California communities that rank among the country’s most affluent include No. 21 Kentfield ($299,450), No. 26 Los Altos ($280,162), No. 30 Piedmont ($275,243), No. 31 Orinda ($272,918), No. 33 Tiburon ($269,419), and No. 38 Alamo ($263,301). Southern California’s representatives in the top 50 are Santa Barbara County’s Montecito (No. 28, $276,564) and Los Angeles County’s Malibu (No. 43, $263,371). All Golden State cities named to this year’s top-earnings list were also included in 2018.
(Photo courtesy of Bernard Andre)