100 Wealthiest Towns and Cities in Maryland (Baltimore, Columbia: fit in, apartments, home equity)

[truthhurts]

Originally Posted by ChocLot

What responses are you expecting?

Um great question not really sure, but it was just odd that there were no reponses for an awful long time. This thread got a lot of eyes looking, but not a lot of hands writing, so that to me was odd.

[twinbeach2128]

thank you for taking the time to post those very intresting

[truthhurts]

Is it shocking to anyone that Montgomery County dominates the wealtheist places to live in the state of Maryland? Also take note that the wealth is completely concentrated along the River Road area's and along the Potomac River in Montgomery County.

I expected Montgomery to have the most wealthiest places just based on size and affluence, but they are crawling with places that make over 100,000 a year. What was interesting when i did this was Howard County. It is one of the smallest counties with a population of at most 200,000, and most of the areas are not wealthy at all. However, it has the third wealthiest area in the state in Clarksville. Howard is definitely not an overall affluent county like Montgomery. It basically rides the coat tails of Clarksville, Columbia, and Ellicot City. The rest of the locations are pretty well balanced out between $40,000 at the low end and about $80,000 toward the middle range. However, we are dealing with a small number of people when compared to the almost 1 million people in Montgomery and the almost 900,000 in Prince Georges. It will be interesting to see what happens to Howard's "wealth" as the county ballons to 500,000 and beyond over the next 10 years. Will they continue to be able to maintain a large number of high income earning individuals etc. I guess time will tell!

Okay, what i also found interesting was Prince Georges County, Carrol County, and Ann Arundel County. All of these counties down to the bone have extremely similiar characteristics. The counties are by in large lower middle to middle class, but have a large number of areas with extremely high income earners. This is more true for Prince Georges than the Carrol and Ann Arundel. Based on size PGC has the second highest number of "affluent" individuals in the state behind Montgomery County. Total numbers refers to the actual number of people that are affluent, so size of population helps dictate total numbers. Anyway, if i included a list of the poorest places in the two Metro Areas Baltimore County, Prince Georges County, Carrol County, and Frederick County would have all placed heavily on the list. I may at some point just include this list. I think its interesting in relations to Prince Georges the outside of the beltway is extremely "affluent" with most of the towns making over $80,000 plus dollars while the inner beltway is extremely poor with most towns making in the range of $40,000 to $60,000. Carrol County, Baltimore County (which had the poorest suburbs if i created the list) and Ann Arundel are all the same way. However Carrol County and Ann Arundel County areas are larger poor and rurual whereas Prince Georges County and Baltimore Counties poorer areas were largely urban and densely populated.

Maryland is truly a wealthy state, but the seperation in counties between the "wealthy" and the "poor" is just disheartning and unbelievable in such a high cost area. It totally reflects the direction in which this country is headed. The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. While this data is all from 1999-2000 census data i'm sure if i listed a more current list the names wouldn't change. The only thing that would change is the number of households making over $100,000, as it would definitely increase. The households that were making over $85,000 would all be closer to making over $100,000 and sadly to say the households that were making between $40,000 -$50,000 in the areas would probably still be in that range and in some cases due to economic flight of lower middle into the middle class areas may be poorer.

[RFMD]

Yes you are right on point. There is a great disparity between those who have and those who have not. This dividing line will become more defined as times goes on in my opinion.

I do believe the haves will be concentrated around the major economic centers of this country (in this case Washington DC) and those on the fringes will be living a great distance from where the economy is centered. Remaining areas of DC that house lower middle class individuals will eventually gentrify. The same will eventually happen to other surrounding jurisdictions just outside of DC as affordable real estate in these areas becomes scarce and subsequently push those who are not able to afford to reside in these areas further out as this process unfolds. Real estate a short distance from where all the jobs shopping and other amenities will be very valuable as this process takes place.

This is taking place all over the country. The big picture of this however will not be pretty.

[ChocLot]

Originally Posted by truthhurts

Um great question not really sure, but it was just odd that there were no reponses for an awful long time. This thread got a lot of eyes looking, but not a lot of hands writing, so that to me was odd.

I guess my response would be I live in Upper Marlboro and don't consider myself wealthy at all. Maybe I'm living in the wrong place (or working at the wrong job).

[ChocLot]

Originally Posted by truthhurts

Um great question not really sure, but it was just odd that there were no reponses for an awful long time. This thread got a lot of eyes looking, but not a lot of hands writing, so that to me was odd.

Actually, ya know what? I'm surprised that Bowie doesn't come in higher. Many in PG County believe that Bowie is a very affluent area and I expected the income to be much higher than $82,403.

[truthhurts]

Originally Posted by ChocLot

Actually, ya know what? I'm surprised that Bowie doesn't come in higher. Many in PG County believe that Bowie is a very affluent area and I expected the income to be much higher than $82,403.

Well ChocLot, often our beliefs do not usually run in accordance with fact. Hell, I had never heard of Marlton before, so i was a bit shocked when i noticed it had a high income.

In reference to your wealth I guess if you lived in the area is off of Croom Road, William Beanes Road and the Marlboro Pike in Upper Marlboro you'd probably think differently. While i doubt most of those individuals think of themselves as "wealthy" its where most of the "upper middle" class Upper Marlboro people live. Bascially anything off of Penn Avenue to 301. It's mostly farm land for the most part and 6,000 sq houses.

Upper Marlboro is a huge area and there are many different economic incomes. There are lower middle and middle and upper middle, but all live in there defined areas. Does not seem to be many mixed economic incomes out there. If you live in an affluent neighborhood you're pretty much surrounded by affluent people. If you live in a middle or lower you're pretty much surrounded by those people.

Hell, there are "poor" places in Potomac, MD, so while i used the word wealthy it is very subjective and centers on the income in those areas vs the income in the majority of Maryland suburbs. Nationally a lot of towns in Maryland would be consider in the top 5%. The DC area is just packed full of heavy money pockets.

[ChocLot]

Originally Posted by truthhurts

Um great question not really sure, but it was just odd that there were no reponses for an awful long time. This thread got a lot of eyes looking, but not a lot of hands writing, so that to me was odd.

Actually, ya know what? I'm surprised that Bowie doesn't come in higher. Many in PG County believe that Bowie is a very affluent area and I expected the income to be much higher than $82,403......was expecting at least $100K.

[Kensington]

I was a bit surprised about Bowie too, but I think Bowie has a quite a few singles and retirees who would bring the average income down a bit.

[nickluva]

Originally Posted by ChocLot

Actually, ya know what? I'm surprised that Bowie doesn't come in higher. Many in PG County believe that Bowie is a very affluent area and I expected the income to be much higher than $82,403......was expecting at least $100K.

$83k for a city of 50,000+ is pretty impressive I'm surprised that it wasn't much lower