# What's the Beverly Hills of your city/town/shire? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 7, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318 "2009-04-07T23:01:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/61 "2009-04-09T21:25:43Z")
What comes to mind is Quechee, VT; Woodstock, VT; Hanover, NH; and Norwich, VT. The highest-priced house I could find in a cursory search was $9.6M in Woodstock, and Woodstock seems to have the top five or so most expensive listings. The next of Quechee at $3M. They also come with a lot of land, so it’s not like it’s one huge mansion after another in a small area. [http://www.beangroup.com/property/search.php?status=1&\_areas[]=Woodstock\_VT&pp=20&order=1](http://www.beangroup.com/property/search.php?status=1&_areas%5B%5D=Woodstock_VT&pp=20&order=1) ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/62 "2009-04-09T21:32:38Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The area around Little Five seems to be one of those “depending on the street number and the street it may be a beautifully renovated 80 year old craftsman bungalow or a crackhouse”. Is that the case? I’m not as familiar with neither Five Points neighborhood in Atlanta. Now, in Athens, in my part of the neighborhood is either old rental houses (NOT crackhouses) or awesome beautifully maintained brick houses. ---
**Author:** ![Rack-a-Bones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/63 "2009-04-09T23:37:53Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > Hmm…[Madison Park](http://www.redfin.com/search#excl_ss=true&lat=47.63577202591316&long=-122.28600254275187&market=seattle®ion_id=1601®ion_type=1&status=1&uipt=5,1&v=4&zoomLevel=14) (let’s hope these links work…) has places ranging from about $625k to $13m. > > [Medina](http://www.redfin.com/search#excl_ss=true&lat=47.63011533172871&long=-122.23371505737305&market=seattle®ion_id=11400®ion_type=6&status=1&uipt=5,1&v=4&zoomLevel=13) looks like roughly the same range. > [@picunurse](#): > > Medina. Bill Gates lives there. It’s directly across the lake\* from us. > > \*Lake Washington Don’t forget [Mercer Island](http://www.redfin.com/search#excl_ss=true&lat=47.56016244254375&long=-122.2280834238191&market=seattle®ion_id=11460®ion_type=6&status=1&uipt=5,1&v=4&zoomLevel=12) lots of fancy houses out there ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/64 "2009-04-10T00:07:35Z")
In the SF Bay Area there is Belvedere, Ross, Piedmont, Hillsborough, Atherton and Los Gatos. In SF itself, there is Nob Hill, Russian Hill, Pacific Heights, Seacliff and St. Francis Woods ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/65 "2009-04-10T02:19:01Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Well I live in London, so am rather spoilt for choice if I have the odd $50m to spend. It’s often touted as the world’s most expensive city (although I think it’s probably lost its top spot with the credit crunch), and is much loved by russian and middle eastern billionaires who like to throw their monopoly money around in areas like Kensington, Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Hampstead. > > Top billing for wealth goes to a street in Kensington called Kensington Palace Gardens. _Average_ house prices here are in the region of £80m, with the best being in the region of $150m. Prices in this street are beyond the means of even most Hollywood film stars - local residents tend to be foreign oil/steel barons. > > Commuter distance from the city, you’d have to venture out to the County of Surrey, much beloved of city bankers, with the small town of Virginia Water being the most affluent (average house price c.$5m). But many other Surrey towns hold similar honours. Yup, I’d agree with that. Another Virginia Water type area I’d add is Weybridge. I’d think of Virginia Water and Weybridge as being more like Beverley Hills, because they have proper mansions with stone lions at the gates, swimming pools and so on. Kensingston is a different kind of expensive. Like this post says: > [@Omniscient](#): > > There’s two styles of this type of enclave, there’s the suburban version and there’s the dense urban enclave. Beverly Hills is the premiere example of the suburban type and they tend to be easily definable and somewhat homogeneous. The Upper East Side of Manhattan would be the other side of the coin and tends to be much more loosely defined and less insulated. Kensington does also have quite a few council estates (literal) within spitting distance of the multi-million-quid bedsits and billion-dollar houses. In Weybridge and Virginia Water, they’re further away. I’ve known poor people who’ve lived in Kensington, four to a bedroom. The only poor people I’m likely to meet who live in Weybridge will be servants. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/66 "2009-04-10T02:28:01Z")
> [@imfloating](#): > > Sorry, I misread it. I thought you said Beverly Sills. Well, “Bubbles” is a pet shop/pet grooming service in my hometown, Altoona, PA. Now, the Beverly Hills of Altoona when I was a kid was called Sylvan Hills. Now, I have no idea. Might still be. ---
**Author:** ![mattomic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@mattomic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mattomic)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/67 "2009-04-10T03:08:27Z")
In my humble town of Toronto, you’ve got a few options: [The Bridle Path:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridle_Path,_Toronto) home to snobby nouveau-riche who revel in their McMansions, winding roads and terribly annoying cobblestone speedbumps that make me never want to drive around there, even if I am just gawking at the rich folks’ houses. The Artist Currently Known As The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince owns a house there! So does Celine Dion, God help us. Apparently, the movie Mean Girls was filmed here according to Wikipedia, which is information your teenage niece would be interested in. [Rosedale:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosedale,_Toronto) Home of the old money in the city. To live here, your last name has to appear on at least a few corporations, public spaces or book covers. Those are the big two for within the city. There’s also a wide smathering of Rich Uncle Pennybags-types living out in the urban sprawl, but if it’s in a different area code and they don’t pronounce “Toronto” as “Trawna”, we generally see these people as laughably foreign wanna-bes. Sidenote: While these may be the “Beverly Hills” of Toronto, the “Beverly Hillbillies” of Toronto would be either neighbouring Hamilton or Oshawa. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/68 "2009-04-10T06:59:07Z")
There are those who would say all of Bærum is the Beverly Hills of the Greater Oslo region, but that’s because they don’t actually know Bærum. There’s plenty of us normal folk living here, trust me. The highest housing prices are along the fjord, and most particularly on Snarøya, the peninsula out past where the airport used to be. Waterfront areas of Lysaker are probably the second most expensive, then I’m guessing waterfront areas of Høvik or the older areas of Jar. ---
**Author:** ![Cosmopolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/69 "2009-04-10T16:03:59Z")
I’m in southeastern Nassau County, Long Island. _BusinessWeek_ magazine apparently recently listed 25 wealthiest communities in the United States - fully nine of them are within a half hour’s drive: Brookville; Roslyn Estates; Oyster Bay Cove; Old Westbury; Munsey Park & Muttontown (tied for lucky #13); Lloyd Harbor; Sands Point, & North Hills are all home to great wealth. Most are what’re thought of as “Gold Coast” communities - situated on the North Shore in Nassau. Lloyd Harbor is in Suffolk. Then, of course, you have the Hamptons & assorted other towns on the East End, about 1.5 hours east of here; many celebrities & non-famous, yet wealthy people spend summers there, but median income for year-rounders is much more modest (in the $50,000s for a typical family). ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/70 "2009-04-10T17:40:12Z")
Well, practically anywhere in coastal Del Mar or La Jolla. In San Diego proper, I’d guess the harbor side of Point Loma. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/71 "2009-04-10T21:27:11Z")
> [@Driver8](#): > > In my hometown of Cape Town, South Africa I would say the ritzy suburban neighborhoods are Bishopscourt and Constantia. Much of it is forested and in the foothills of the mountain, so it is very private and picturesque. If you are more urban in nature then a trendy apartment on the coast in Clifton or Camps Bay would be more suitable. Capetown is one of the most gorgeous towns on the planet. The funny thing is that when I was there in 2002, I was on a tour bus, and the guide was saying, this is one on the nicest neighborhoods in Capetown, and houses go for upwards of XXX Rand. I smiled to think that my shitty 2BR/1Bath shack was worth more than most of the houses in that neighborhood. Hell, I almost bought a house in St. Lucia for $43,000 just because it was such a damn beautiful place. Now, here in Santa Barbara, we have Montecito (Hi Oprah!) and Hope Ranch. ---
**Author:** ![stanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@stanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stanger)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/72 "2009-04-10T23:51:06Z")
In San Antonio, Texas - As stated before, the Alamo Heights area is one of the weathiest in the city. It is a completely separate and incorporated city that is surrounded by San Antonio. I doubt they have the San Antonio police come in for something serious. They probably handle it themselves or call in the county sheriff. Alamo Heights is the 78209 zip code, so people who live there refer to themselves as “09’ers”. This is where the old money lives. The most famous person I can think of right off that lives there is Tommy Lee Jones. The new money lives out Interstate 10 at the northwest side of town. It is called “The Dominion”. This is where George Strait and a lot of the Spurs basketball players live. It is build partially on two hills that where previously part of a military reserve. The reserve is still active, and though I live a couple of miles away on the other side of the highway, I can often hear explosions and machine gun fire from their war games. I imagine that sounds real nice when you are just on the other side of the hill from all that. All the lighting in The Dominion and surrounding area has to be specially shielded so that it doesn’t interfer with night-time helicopter training. Me, I would much rather have a house a little bigger than what I have now on as big of a piece of land as I could afford. Having an expensive house on an acre or two of land seems silly to me. Construction has messed up the traffic on I-10 in front of The Dominion for over a year now as they build a multi-million dollar bridge and ramp system just for the Dominion folk. Can’t have them driving down the road an extra mile or so just to get on and off the highway, now can we? ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/73 "2009-04-11T04:20:31Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > In Pittsburgh, it would be [Fox Chapel](http://www.fox-chapel.pa.us/), home to the best high school in this part of the state, Theresa Heinz Kerry’s local residence and Bill Cowher, ex-coach of the Steelers. mmm…I’d have to argue the best high school is Upper St. Clair, because of the only the IB program in the region. It’s where most Pitt professors send their kids. Fox Chapel is definitely richer, IMHO, and home to Shadyside Academy. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2009, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318/74 "2009-04-11T04:47:35Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > Outside of the city limits, we have East Amherst, a suburban area of large, pricey homes that is known as an affluent area and is now blending into the next township over, Clarence. Different town, the exact same developers kept rolling on. This is all new construction and has a reputation for being a little McMansiony, with bland architecture. Fraught with construction defects, really. But on the plus side, good schools, convenient shopping. The whole thing is très nouveau. > > In the city, the nicest area is still the Delaware District and Parkside, built around Delaware Park, an Olmstead jewel. Grand old houses with woodwork to die for. On the downside, while many of the houses are showpieces, the neighborhood is up and down and you could easily find yourself with a neighbor who is letting his house fall down around him. Public schools are eh, the assumption is you would be sending your kids to private school anyway. The last stand of Buffalo’s patriciate, they’re still clinging to it. In Buffalo proper, Nye Park (the former site of the Pan-American Exposition, north of Hoyt Lake in Delaware Park) and Central Park (the area north of Parkside and south of North Buffalo) are extremely well-off; much wealthier than Parkside, which is really middle-class to upper-middle-class. The thing about Buffalo is that _anyone_ who is middle-class can afford to live in any part of the region. There’s really no area that is equivalent to the Chagrin Valley 'burbs of Cleveland, or the eastern suburbs of Rochester, where it’s _solidly_ high upper-middle-class and up. East Amherst and Clarence are seen as wealthy by Buffalonians, but there’s still plenty of decent houses in those areas that will sell for under $200K. My parents are solidly middle-class, but they have a prestigious 14221 ZIP code. An uncle was a middle-class engineer, and he housed his family in 14226.; a ZIP code that carries the same cachet among Buffalonians as 90210. Among the monied Amherst crowd, Snyder is seen as a bit more established, while East Amherst and Clarence are considered new money. Buffalo’s REAL Beverly Hills is in Fort Erie, Ontario on the Lake Erie shoreline. Buffalo’s old, smelly money will still have an address in the Delaware District, but they’ll spend most of their time at their lakefront estate in Fort Erie. East Aurora, in the Southtowns, has the polo club and 10-acre gentleman’s estate crowd, but for the most part Buffalo’s wealth is concentrated in the city and the northeastern 'burbs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-beverly-hills-of-your-city-town-shire/492318.md?page=3)