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Every major MSA has a section of suburbs that are generally wealthy as opposed to middle-class. The following list is my guess as to where most of them generally are in every MSA with 1,000,000+ population...
Wealthy suburbs mostly to the north
- Atlanta
- Chicago
- Columbus
- Dallas/Fort Worth
- Detroit
- Indianapolis
- Los Angeles
- Milwaukee
- New Orleans
- Oklahoma City
- Pittsburgh
- San Antonio
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- Charlotte
- Cincinnati
- Cleveland
- Las Vegas
- Louisville
- Oakland
- Orlando
- Phoenix
- Rochester
- Sacramento
- Salt Lake City
- Seattle
Wealthy suburbs mostly to the west
- Austin
- Baltimore
- Boston
- Hartford
- Houston
- Minneapolis/St. Paul
- New York
- Philadelphia
- Portland
- Raleigh
- St. Louis
- San Jose
- Tampa
- Washington DC
I understand that not all wealthy suburbs are in the same place, but again, I'm attempting to categorize these MSAs based on where the largest concentration of wealthy suburbs is. For example, Pittsburgh has a few wealthy suburbs to its south, but most of its wealthy suburbs are to the north, so it's listed there. I'm not necessarily categorizing them based on where the wealthiest suburb is either. Like if a certain MSA had one super-wealthy suburb to the east, but otherwise, most of the rest of the wealthy suburbs were to the south, then I'd categorize that MSA as one in which the wealthy suburbs are mostly to the south.
Anyway, feel free to correct this list if I'm wrong on any of them. However, if you do, then please limit it to one direction only, and keep the directions simple too: north, south, east and west. Thanks.
For Raleigh, most of the wealthy neighborhoods are in the city itself. Cary is a "wealthy" suburb statistically because of its strong and large upper middle class population, its new country club neighborhoods and its general lack of any poverty or working class demographic. And true to the OP, it's to the immediate West of Raleigh. However, the true wealth in Raleigh is in its older neighborhoods "Inside the Beltline" in the city itself. These neighborhoods were established before RTP was even an idea. Places like Hayes Barton, Budleigh, Country Club Hills and Anderson Heights come to mind.
Newer suburban development on the north end of the city (out of the city limits but with Raleigh addresses) is built around the Falls Lake watershed and is often superior to neighborhoods in Cary. This is due to the fact that development must be sparse in the lake's watershed to protect the drinking water. Some of these neighborhoods have homes that are absolutely monstrous on large lots and often in gated and secured neighborhoods. These are not McMansions like one often finds in Cary....these are just mansions. It's difficult to find developments with truly large plots of land in Cary.
San Francisco has a crap load of really wealthy suburbs down the Peninsula to its South due to the enviable position of being between SF and SJ. Marin County to the north is certainly wealthy but, because San Mateo Co. is almost triple its population, the sheer volume of wealth in San Mateo County is impressive.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Portland's wealthiest suburbs aren’t really going west as OP stated, but more to the South around Lake Oswego and down towards Tualatin and Wilsonville. Many might be under the impression that wealth is concetrated in West because of the wealthy enclave of the West Hills, a gorgeous neighborhood with awesome views of the city and Mt. Hood but that neighborhood is in the city limits of Portland. Beyond those hills is Beaverton which is mostly middle class. As far as wealthy suburbs go Lake Oswego is a standout located south of the city.
Boston does indeed have a whole chain of wealthy suburbs in Metro West; Newton, Wellesley, Weston, Concord, and Lincoln are among the wealthiest. To the south of the city is one of Boston's wealthiest suburbs of Milton (home of a few billionaires) juxtaposed next to one of the city's poorest neighborhoods of Mattapan.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 09-14-2011 at 07:32 AM..
The wealthy suburbs of Memphis are to the east, not south. Desoto Co is solidly middle class while Germantown, Collierville, and now Piperton are the more prestigious addresses.
In Buffalo, I'd actually would say that the Main St. corridor to the Northeast of the city has the most wealthy suburbs(Snyder in the town of Amherst, Williamsville, East Amherst and Clarence).
I agree about Chicago, to an extent. We have the North Shore, which is a cluster of about 7-10 suburbs extending from Northern Cook County to Lake County- Plenty of old money types from what I heard. There are other clusters of wealth(though not as prestigious as the North Shore) heading Northwest and West(Dupage County) such as Oak Brook, South Barrington, Hinsdale, Burr Ridge etc. These ones are more new money/nouveau riche with newer homes and not as white as the the North Shore.
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