Map: Where the Rich Live
Eight of the Bay Area's 10 wealthiest neighborhoods are in San Mateo County
President Barack Obama's plan to have the wealthy pay more in taxes would likely affect San Mateo County residents more than those in any other part of the Bay Area. Eight of the region's 10 richest neighborhoods are in San Mateo County, a Bay Citizen analysis of income statistics released last month by the Census Bureau shows.
The president used his State of the Union message Tuesday night to call on America's wealthiest residents to pay more in taxes, trumpeting a "Buffett rule," named after financier Warren Buffett, designed to prevent the rich from paying taxes at a lower rate than middle class residents.
“We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by," Obama told a joint session of Congress, "or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules."
Wealthy residents of a Menlo Park neighborhood just north of Sand Hill Road, where many Silicon Valley venture capital firms are located, had the highest incomes in the Bay Area. The richest 5 percent of households in that neighborhood made $1.8 million a year on average.
That was followed by an Atherton census tract west of El Camino Real; a neighborhood in Saratoga; a section of Woodside above Interstate 280; and a neighborhood in Hillsborough. In each of those areas, the richest 5 percent of households took in roughly $1.7 million a year.
The next-wealthiest areas were San Francisco's Presidio Heights, where the richest 5 percent had an average annual income of $1.47 million; San Mateo County's Hillsborough Heights; a section of Woodside below 280; and western Burlingame, where the richest 5 percent of households made $1.4 million a year.
The wooded San Mateo County enclave of Portola Valley rounded out the top 10, with the richest 5 percent of households making $1.35 million a year.
The median household income in California is $60,000 a year. Click on the map below to see the average income for each area, how much the richest 5 percent in that area make, and the median income for the surrounding county. Zoom out to see information for the entire state.
Map and analysis are based on the Census Bureau's American Community Survey five-year estimates, 2005-2010. Earnings of the richest 5 percent are the mean income of the wealthiest 5 percent of households in each tract. The richest 5 percent's share of income refers to the share of all income in each census tract earned by the top 5 percent of households.
This map was created using data from tables B19082, B19081, B19013 and P1 retrieved through the U.S. Census Bureau's FactFinder utility. Because some census tracts had no data in tables B19081 or B19082, not all tracts are featured on the map. You can view the complete data set here.
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Gale Mitchell
It would be helpful to provide a working link that tells what your census track area(s) are by zip code.
MotherLodeBeth
Warren Buffet still wont pay more in taxes if the rich are taxed more since his income comes from capital gains. If we look hard at the Hollywood, NYC rich folks I bet most of them have their money tied up in investments per capital gain tax breaks.
And if Warren Buffet wanted to he could send a BIG check to the federal government if it bothered him that he wasnt taxed enough. Wish he would put up or shut up!
Jen McVicker
I really don't think this map is all that accurate. I live in eastern Contra Costa County, and I can tell you right now, there is NO WAY that the majority of people living here make over $200K. Just to be sure, I checked the Census Bureau data directly and sure enough, the number of households estimated to make $200K or more in Pittsburg/Antioch was 1,183 -- out of a total 46,338 households. That's only 2 1/2% of households. The vast majority of households make under $100K, and nearly 13% are below the poverty level. In fact, in the entire Contra Costa County (including the very expensive areas of Alamo and Orinda/Lafayette), under 11% of households make over $200K. See: http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_10_5YR_B19001&prodType=table
Aaron Glantz
Jen, I think you are misunderstanding our map. It shows that the median household income of people living i n Pittsburg/Antioch to be about $40,000 a year -- But it also shows the richest people in that area make about $200k.
That is quite different from Orinda where the median income is about $150,000 but the richest families make over $1 million
Jen McVicker
Aaron, I zoomed in on the map in the Antioch area. The largest census tract in yellow (if you zoom in close enough it says "West Hartley" in it) is census tract 3551.08 (per the map on the http://factfinder2.census.gov site). On the google doc with your data (https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1eKVafx5BfdZxrdhBq2AwR6b-b8cY8cV6cs_zaBY&hl=en_US) if you find tract 3551.08 in Contra Costa County, the "Tract Estimated Household Income" is listed as $102,652.00. That's nowhere near the $300K-$400K that you have it labeled as. So...where exactly are you getting this data from?
Jen McVicker
Nevermind, I see now. You are color-coding based only on the richest 5% of households in each census tract. Not based on the average household income. *sigh*
Douglas Montgomery
Income does not define wealth. Net worth defines wealth. Most high net worth individuals didn't get that way from high incomes, but from investments that appreciated.
Helene Gelber-Lehman
I'm from NYC and while not too happy about what's become of that purported "cultural center of the universe", the one thing it used to have going for it --though I'm not sure it still is true-- is that the very wealthiest lived in spitting distance of the poorest, and economic isolation because of lack of funds, was never a social factor there. However, the extreme rise in cost of housing there, has driven many economically disadvantaged out of the city, so economic isolation is now becoming more prevalent, even there.
This is the shame & tragedy of low-income communities. It is not a matter of racial discrimination but of economic discrimination. Not all poor people are people of color or Latinos. Not all poor people are uneducated. But socio-economic, cultural and intellectual isolation is exacerbated by poor public transportation in and out of low-income communities such as Bay Point, Pittsburg and East Contra Costa County, that creates more problems of discrimination than almost any other factor.
If you can't get there from here, and there is where you need to be, it can be devastating.