Pepper Pike 41st richest community, per Bloomberg (Cleveland, Mentor: low income, 2014)

[WRnative]

This listing requires a minimum of 2,OOO households, so Pepper Pike qualified for the list.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...for-third-year

Hunting Valley is larger than Pepper Pike in geographical area, but has only 277 households and a population of less than 1,000! In the 2010 census, median HV household income was over $507,000, making it the 17th wealthiest community in the U.S.

https://higley1000.com/archives/638

You can find median household incomes for cities of over 5,000 population at the following census bureau link. E.g., Shaker Hts.' median household income in 2017 was $82,830, now less than the over $86,000 in Beachwood. It's 99,000 in Solon! Highland Hts. is close to $104,000!

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fa...o,US/INC110217

Many decades ago, Shaker Hts. was one of the very wealthiest communities in the U.S. Things change!

[Regajohn]

Appears to be 46th actually.

[motorman]

^ Correct. Bloomberg ranked Hinsdale, IL in its #41st slot.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...for-third-year

[dr_j_planning]

Have things changed? According to your link, the per capita income in Shaker Heights over the 12 months of 2017 was higher than in the other communities you selected:

Shaker Heights - $55,564

Beachwood - $51,382

Highland Heights - $48,996

Solon - $48,713

Mentor - $31,877

These numbers beg the question: which variable(s) define a community's "quality," which is the construct you appear to want to measure? If one of those variables is income, what type of income measure is most appropriate? Is it median household income? Is it per capita income? What about another measure(s) of income? What about the time period of measurement? Does it matter that per capita income was measured only in 2017 while median household income was measured over a five-year period (2013-2017)? Is it possible that median household income patterns for these five communities might mirror per capita income patterns if the median household income data were only taken from 2017 and not earlier years?

Furthermore, according to your link, the percentage of the adult population with at least a bachelor's degree is higher in Shaker Heights than in the other communities you selected.

Shaker Heights - 64.7%

Solon - 62.6%

Beachwood - 59.2%

Highland Heights - 55.8%

Mentor - 32.3%

I know many people who care about educational attainment and level of professional accomplishment and use that as a measure of a community's "quality," perhaps even more so than level of income.

My point is that there are a suite of variables to consider when you assess a community's quality. You need to carefully define what construct you want to measure and, with equal care, determine what variables you use to build that construct. I don't think the data you link supports your statement that "things have changed" in Shaker Heights, at least based on measures of income and educational attainment.

DR J

Originally Posted by WRnative

This listing requires a minimum of 2,OOO households, so Pepper Pike qualified for the list.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...for-third-year

Hunting Valley is larger than Pepper Pike in geographical area, but has only 277 households and a population of less than 1,000! In the 2010 census, median HV household income was over $507,000, making it the 17th wealthiest community in the U.S.

https://higley1000.com/archives/638

You can find median household incomes for cities of over 5,000 population at the following census bureau link. E.g., Shaker Hts.' median household income in 2017 was $82,830, now less than the over $86,000 in Beachwood. It's 99,000 in Solon! Highland Hts. is close to $104,000!

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fa...o,US/INC110217

Many decades ago, Shaker Hts. was one of the very wealthiest communities in the U.S. Things change!

[WRnative]

All good points. I whipped through the material pretty quickly, and obviously didn't carefully check Pepper Pike's ranking in the Bloomberg article.

Most comparisons use median household income, but that can be distorted by the median size of households and the number of earners in each household. Using per capita income has much merit. I didn't even look at that statistic, but only considered household income because that was used in the Bloomberg article. A community that has many single individual households and/or households with fewer children can have higher per capita income relative to median household income compared to communities with the reverse characteristics.

BTW, I believe there are many characteristics that measure a community's "quality" than just income statistics.

E.g., mass transit access and proximity to University Circle IMO are important measures of Shaker Hts.' quality of life relative to other communities.

[on3]

Oh look, it's Indian Hill at the #11th spot.

Shocker

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by on3

Oh look, it's Indian Hill at the #11th spot.

Shocker

Glencoe is at #10, Winnetka at #13, and Lake Forest at #34. Chicago wins.

[ferraris]

One thing to keep in mind with Shaker Heights stats is the large apartment, duplex, and condo community. This includes a lot of young people and young families at the beginning of their careers with relatively lower incomes, students with no income, and retired people with low income (but potentially high net worth).

[Stonepa]

I'm surprised Medina, Washington isn't in the top 2. We have only 2900 residents and a majority are billionaires or Microsoft millionaires.

[216facts]

Originally Posted by Stonepa

I'm surprised Medina, Washington isn't in the top 2. We have only 2900 residents and a majority are billionaires or Microsoft millionaires.

I believe there's a population requirement. We have a more exclusive suburb in Cleveland but it has very low population, Hunting Valley.

https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and...-united-states