March 21, 2014 – An urban geography expert has identified the 65 highest-income neighborhoods in the United States and 11 of them are in Chicago.

Dr. Stephen Higley crunched census and other data to show how urban and suburban neighborhoods compare. While income in the city tends to be lower, urban neighborhoods are slightly more integrated.

“High income urban neighborhoods,” says Higley (left), “are mixtures of condominiums, rental apartments, and townhouses with occasional blocks of single family homes. Therefore the mean household incomes of these places tend to be much lower than in the suburbs.”

River North is ranked seventh in Chicago. Half of its 2,971 households earn more than $100,607. The downtown neighborhood is 74.4 percent non-Hispanic white, 10.9 percent black, 6.4 percent Asian, and 4.5 percent Hispanic.

Chicago’s wealthiest neighborhood may make more money but is decidedly less integrated. The Gold Coast has a mean household income of $153,358. It is 92.7 percent white and non-Hispanic.

Of the 11 neighborhoods – among those Higley says are “highly desirable“ to their residents – the most integrated is on the south side of The Loop. Dearborn Park/Printers Row is ranked tenth in income but is 63.6 percent white, 23.2 percent black, 7.7 percent Asian, and 2.9 percent Hispanic.

Higley, who published his results in February, is a professor emeritus of urban geography at the University of Montevallo, a small liberal arts college near Birmingham, Alabama. He is retired and lives in Chicago from May to October.

 Website: High Income Urban Neighborhoods