How Rich Is Rich? A Look at OC and Other Moneyed Enclaves
By SANDI CAIN
Orange County’s richest enclave, Newport Coast, checks in at a median household income of $143,781.
That’s more than three times the national average, according to La Jolla-based ESRI Business Information Solutions. The Newport Beach neighborhood is one of 11 OC ZIP codes with household income above $100,000.
For all its wealth, though, OC isn’t as rich as several other moneyed places across the country, many of them much smaller in size. Those range from the exclusive 200-home Jupiter Island in Florida to suburban hideaways outside Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle.
OC’s stiffest regional competition comes from the Bay area, where a mixture of old San Francisco gentry, newly rich technology executives, celebrities and others have created flush enclaves on the fringes of Silicon Valley.
“The tech sector boom went to unreal heights in Silicon Valley,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “There’s still a lot of residual wealth there from people who got out early enough.”
A big chunk of Bay area wealth lies in Atherton in San Mateo County, where corporate executives and celebrities drive the median household income to $234,792, the highest of any residential ZIP code in the country, according to ESRI.
Once the summer home domain of wealthy San Franciscans, Atherton is the full-time residence for about 7,100 people, the bulk of whom commute to San Francisco or Menlo Park. The town counts Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Larry Ellison and sports announcer Ted Robinson as residents.
Like the Bay area, a good part of OC’s wealth can be found inland.
Of the 11 local ZIP codes where median household income surpasses $100,000, only three are coastal,Newport Coast, Corona del Mar and the Back Bay.
Rich spots away from the beach include the hills above Orange and Tustin, Villa Park, Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills.
The same can’t be said for Los Angeles, where coastal enclaves such as Palos Verdes Estates ($123,000 median), Rolling Hills Estates ($109,000 median), Malibu ($102,000 median) and even Manhattan Beach ($100,000 median) lead the way.
Still, inland Los Angeles boasts its share of fame and fortune.
Beverly Hills’ 90210,perhaps the county’s most famous ZIP code,nets out at about $108,000 median household income, on par with Irvine’s Northwood.
But Beverly Hills isn’t the wealthiest in Los Angeles County. Those honors go to 91123 in Pasadena, where median household income is $208,785, making it one of just a handful of neighborhoods nationwide that exceed the $200,000 threshold.
Pasadena, which in-cludes the San Marino district, is known for old money from 19th century pioneers such as railroad tycoon Henry Hunting-ton and David and Mary Gamble of Procter & Gamble Co.
New communities across the U.S. have become increasingly alike in recent years, creating some striking similarities with OC.
Douglas Co., Colo., is almost a mirror image of the Irvine Spectrum and South Orange County. It’s the state’s new tech corridor between Denver and Colorado Springs and is one of the fastest-growing regions in Colorado. Homes in its Highland Ranch even were built by the Mission Viejo Co.
One former resident of Highlands Ranch who moved to Mission Viejo said she felt like she never even moved.
Median income in Douglas Co. is $88,518,a tad higher than Mission Viejo’s $82,091.
Westport, Conn., where the median income hovers in the $119,000 range, bears a resemblance to its coastal counterpart of Corona del Mar, with a similar median income. A commuter town, it’s an exclusive part of the Stamford area, much like Corona del Mar is to Newport Beach.
Onetime bedroom communities surrounding Washington, D.C., have evolved into commercial centers of their own, just as OC has become much more than an outgrowth of Los Angeles.
Florida, like California, is known for warm, sunny days and beaches. But its higher percentage of retirees helps keep median income below $100,000 in much of the state.
There are exceptions. The most southern of Florida’s Barrier Islands, tiny 400-home Jupiter Island has a median age of 62, but its median income is around $200,000.
Just to the north, the Barrier Island town of Palm Beach has one of the heaviest concentrations of bankers in the country. Its notable families have included the Vanderbilts, Kennedys and Trumps. With a median age of 67, Palm Beach’s median income is $94,562,on a par with Tustin Hills. OC’s main retirement community in Laguna Hills comes in at $52,330.
The wealthy often pick secluded areas for privacy and space, so it’s not surprising that some of the richest neighborhoods aren’t household names.
Take Hunts Point, Wash. At only 185 acres and 450 people, it hardly seems fair to call it a town. But it claims $179,898 in median income,driven by Microsoft Corp. and other tech companies in nearby Bellevue and Seattle.
And who in Southern California would suspect that La Canada-Flintridge would outrank all but 10 of OC’s ZIP codes? Described by the Wall Street Journal as a place of “Ozzie and Harriet” ambiance, the Pasadena neighbor has 20,318 residents and a median household income of $109,989,about the same as Northwood in Irvine.
