South of the suburb where I am now living is the City of Beachwood, Ohio.
Beachwood has a variety of housing, ranging from small ranch houses to McMansions. Unlike the rest of the Cleveland area, though, housing in Beachwood is very expensive for what you get: about $150 to $250 a square foot, compared to half that in Cleveland’s other suburbs. An older two bedroom, one bathroom, 1,200 square foot house in Beachwood will set one back $180K or so, compared to $100K to $130K elsewhere.
Why? I’ve been told it was because Beachwood is populated almost entirely by religious reform and conservative Jews. Cleveland is blessed with a large Jewish population, most living in the city’s eastern suburbs. Apparently, demand is extremely high among some for living in a city that is populated almost entirely by their peers, with nary a BVM shrine, Christmas tree, or roadside cross to be seen.
There are other suburbs of Cleveland with large Jewish populations and close proximity to synagoguges, Judaica stores, Kosher restaurants and other related businesses, such as South Euclid, University Heights, Lyndhurst, Pepper Pike and parts of Cleveland Heights, but Beachwood is considered the chosen place to live. Those other areas have a large Jewish population, but there’s also a good number of goyim living among them; Beachwood, however, is almost exclusively Jewish. Is there such a premium on other middle-income Jewish areas elsewhere in the country? What about other ethnic or religious groups?