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Not at all. Wealth isn't measured by home prices. Throwing out the tails is also common practice (or use median/per capita). The fact that there are more 250,000+ wage earners in Wilton on a nominal basis despite less than 1/3 of Fairfield's population is game, set and match.
The top wealth in Fairfield is clearly an order (or several) of magnitude greater than Wilton. That is what the housing prices are telling you whether you wish to believe it or not.
The top of Wilton's price range will not buy 38 homes in Fairfield located in Southport and Greenfield Hill. Fact.
All of your points could be made about Greenwich, which has a lower HHI level (like Fairfield) than Wilton. But the wealthy in Greenwich are many orders of magnitude richer than Wilton (and Fairfield).
There are significant areas of Fairfield with tremendous wealth.
That having been said it is certainly correct to say on average Wilton is wealthier, but to paint Fairfield by the "average" brush is to completely miss the true nature of town.
There are six homes for sale in Wilton with an asking price of $2 million or more. There are over 70 in Fairfield. Fairfield has roughly 3 times the population of Wilton, but over 11 times the number of homes over $2 million. Again clearing indicating greater wealth amongst the wealthiest of Fairfield when compared to Wilton.
And home prices are a reasonable barometer for wealth.
I will admit I might be getting way more of the complaints because I'm an "outsider" for Wilton (despite going to school and camp there for a number of years) but the response I usually get about WHS is: "Loved the school and the teachers but disliked the annoying type of parents/kids," if that makes sense. From the kids I get how boring the town is, which is fine and works for some of the kids honestly. My mom has clients that put their kids through the system there, I know my friends that have attended and some that currently send their kids there (yeahhh I'm at that awkward age myself). It's just something to consider, as the overall culture may be ok for some families and not for others. And when I was talking about rug sweeping I was really talking about dumb stuff kids do everywhere (drugs, reckless driving, satanism, jazz, and dancing) that get quietly handled in a way that does indeed protect the kids in the near term but certainly puts pressure on the whole group to keep up appearances.
The only reason why I brought up the multi-generational is because it seems to help give perspective on the bigger pictures in life: hanging out with friend's grandparents helps remind that youth may be turbulent but ultimately a small part of life, seeing friend's older cousins mess up shows not everything has a happy ending, and just generally knowing that not every family is the same. There are negatives, but it seems to me that having a full view of life in all its' stages and different cultures really seems to help make sense of this confusing world. As for which is more multi-generational, it's far and away Fairfield for better or worse.
As for the wealth angle, while students do come into play you have to understand there is a bigger geriatric community than Wilton here as well that only pull what they need out of their savings and investments to get by and spoil grandkids with the errant $20 here or there. Fairfield does also have more affordable housing as units, but much more expensive by the sq foot. Still doesn't take away that the exceptionally wealthy in Fairfield are far from concerned about with yearly income (which could honestly be as low as $60k/yr) but rather their value in their companies many of which are world wide brands. There are guys and gals that slum in the neighbourhood bars that you would never be able to pick out and say "ah haaaa that homeless looking dude is worth millions." Not saying it's better or worse but the vast majority in Wilton are simply playing a different game, and certainly not that Wilton's families aren't making enough to be extremely comfortable.
To wit, to pick the school system best for their kids one has to take into account if a higher energy and achievement orientated environment is better, or one slightly more relaxed that focuses on classical liberal education. Some kids would thrive at Wilton high that would suffer at Warde, and some vice versa.
There are six homes for sale in Wilton with an asking price of $2 million or more. There are over 70 in Fairfield. Fairfield has roughly 3 times the population of Wilton, but over 11 times the number of homes over $2 million. Again clearing indicating greater wealth amongst the wealthiest of Fairfield when compared to Wilton.
And home prices are a reasonable barometer for wealth.
Well by your same logic, Danbury with two billionaires residing in city limits is wealthier than either Fairfield or Wilton which have zero. What is the average income and average home price (I'll even let you use the mean which will be skewed by waterfront property). We can discard list prices and use actuals. A handful of extreme wealth along the water or in Greenfield hill doesn't speak for the whole town lara.
I don't think I can follow that logic either - in my town there are 11 homes with an asking price of over $2million, and every single one of them is waterfront on the lake. Not one of them is representative of my town in general though.
There are six homes for sale in Wilton with an asking price of $2 million or more. There are over 70 in Fairfield. Fairfield has roughly 3 times the population of Wilton, but over 11 times the number of homes over $2 million. Again clearing indicating greater wealth amongst the wealthiest of Fairfield when compared to Wilton.
And home prices are a reasonable barometer for wealth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilton2ParkAve
Well by your same logic, Danbury with two billionaires residing in city limits is wealthier than either Fairfield or Wilton which have zero. What is the average income and average home price (I'll even let you use the mean which will be skewed by waterfront property). We can discard list prices and use actuals. A handful of extreme wealth along the water or in Greenfield hill doesn't speak for the whole town lara.
Not what I said at all. Fairfield has 11 times more high priced homes than Wilton with only 3 times more population. That is not being skewed by two billionaires as you. If you look at the upper end of Fairfield it is wealthier than Wilton. FULL STOP. Or in your parlance, game, set, match.
You just don't want to admit that the wealthy of Fairfield are richer than the wealthy of Wilton.
Just to put this discussion in perspective and put it to bed. Here are the major towns with homes asking price above $2 million. And there is little surprise in the rankings:
Not what I said at all. Fairfield has 11 times more high priced homes than Wilton with only 3 times more population. That is not being skewed by two billionaires as you. If you look at the upper end of Fairfield it is wealthier than Wilton. FULL STOP. Or in your parlance, game, set, match.
You just don't want to admit that the wealthy of Fairfield are richer than the wealthy of Wilton.
Just to put this discussion in perspective and put it to bed. Here are the major towns with homes asking price above $2 million. And there is little surprise in the rankings:
Not at all Lara. There are wealthier people in Fairfield, Greenwich and Manhattan than Wilton. But Farfield is not a wealthier town.
Any reason you are using listing prices as opposed to actuals? I think it reveals that Greenwich has over $1 billion in total value of $2mm plus sales vs ~70mm for Fairfield. I think this also validates that Wilton is a bit less ostentatious. We can get a lot of house for $2mm, for the uber wealthy we can focus on building wealth or second properties in San Tropez, Montauk or the Cap/MV.
Not what I said at all. Fairfield has 11 times more high priced homes than Wilton with only 3 times more population. That is not being skewed by two billionaires as you. If you look at the upper end of Fairfield it is wealthier than Wilton. FULL STOP. Or in your parlance, game, set, match.
You just don't want to admit that the wealthy of Fairfield are richer than the wealthy of Wilton.
Just to put this discussion in perspective and put it to bed. Here are the major towns with homes asking price above $2 million. And there is little surprise in the rankings:
Not at all Lara. There are wealthier people in Fairfield, Greenwich and Manhattan than Wilton. But Farfield is not a wealthier town.
Any reason you are using listing prices as opposed to actuals? I think it reveals that Greenwich has over $1 billion in total value of $2mm plus sales vs ~70mm for Fairfield. I think this also validates that Wilton is a bit less ostentatious. We can get a lot of house for $2mm, for the uber wealthy we can focus on building wealth or second properties in San Tropez, Montauk or the Cap/MV.
As I wrote earlier: "That having been said it is certainly correct to say on average Wilton is wealthier, but to paint Fairfield by the "average" brush is to completely miss the true nature of town."
What I have addressed is the impression some have about the general nature of Fairfield as to the amount of wealth in town. There is a very large percentage of folks in town that are very, very wealthy and that is hidden in the averages.
As to ask versus sold. Just simply easier and a deeper sample. The ask to sold price % is very similar across FFC so it doesn't affect the resulting conclusions/inferences.
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