Claremont is the Top Earner – and Most Expensive

Claremont is a city in eastern Los Angeles County, California, USA, about 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in the Pomona Valley. After the founding of Pomona College in the early 20th century, the city gained in resilience and residence.

The city is known for its tree-lined streets and quaint shops. It also has the distinction of having one of the highest number of residents with doctorate degrees, at almost 30% of its population..

In July 2007 it was rated by Money Magazine as the fifth best place to live in the United States, and was the highest rated place in California on the list. Another distinction of the city is that the average household income is the highest in the country at over $95,000.

So what is it about Claremont that makes it so livable, and gives its residents such a high income bracket?

The supporting economy.

Much of the community of Claremont is supported by the nearby colleges, or more accurately, the consortium of colleges.

According to Wikipedia, “The Claremont Colleges are a consortium of five undergraduate and two graduate schools of higher education located in Claremont, California. Unlike most other collegiate consortia, such as the Five Colleges Consortium in Massachusetts and the Tri-College Consortium in Pennsylvania, the Claremont College campuses are adjoining and within reasonable walking distance of one another. Put together, the campuses cover roughly one square mile.

The purpose of the consortium is to provide the specialization, flexibility and personal attention commonly found in a small college, with the resources of a large university. Their compartmentalized collegiate university design was inspired by Oxford University. James A. Blaisdell, the creator of the Claremont Colleges, declared in 1923, “My own very deep hope is that instead of one great, undifferentiated university, we might have a group of institutions divided into small colleges - somewhat of an Oxford type-around a library and other utilities which they would use in common. In this way, I should hope to preserve the inestimable personal values of the small college, while securing the facilities of the great university.”

The Wall Street Journal wrote that the five undergraduate Claremont colleges are the “intellectual capital of the western world,” a statement that appears in many college guides.

The five undergraduate colleges are:

 Claremont McKenna College, a small, coeducational, liberal arts college which specializes in economics, political science, international relations, and public policy. It also maintains a broad set of majors in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
 Harvey Mudd College, a small, coeducational college specializing in engineering, mathematics, computer science, and the physical and biological sciences.
 Pitzer College, a small, coeducational, liberal arts college offering an alternative curriculum, noted for inter-disciplinarity. It also has a particular emphasis upon social justice. Pitzer is part of the SAT optional movement among liberal arts colleges.
 Pomona College, a small, coeducational, liberal arts college which offers majors in both the sciences and humanities.
 Scripps College, a small, liberal arts, women's college, which offers majors in both the sciences and humanities.

The two graduate universities are:

 Claremont Graduate University
 Keck Graduate Institute, a biomedical graduate school

The Claremont Colleges regularly receive millions in grants and endowments, and employ some of the best professors available in the world of academia. Some 3,000 persons in the city are employed in the field of education alone.

The cost of success.

It’s interesting that while Claremont has the highest average household income in the country, they also have some of the most expensive real estate. The average cost of a residential home is over $650,000. As a matter of fact, while Claremont made number five of Money Magazine’s Best Places to Live list, it also made number five of their priciest homes in the United States as well.

The cost of living in Claremont is of course then one of the highest in the country. When figuring a cost of living index, most statisticians use an average of 100; an amount below 100 means that the cost of living is less than the average cost along the U.S., an amount above means that it is more expensive than average.

Most data trackers put Claremont’s cost of living at around 143.32 – almost half over again the average cost of living throughout the country.

Overall, Claremont (zip 91711), CA cost of living is 143.32, but what is most interesting about this statistic is that the home cost average is rated at over 200, meaning twice the average of homes in the country; this number is no doubt a big reason why the average overall is so inflated.

Claremont is not without its advantages, however. For those in the field of education, working at the colleges can be a rewarding and lucrative career. One of the reasons that Money Magazine gave it the rating it did is because the city encourages its residents to continually plant trees to help offset the California smog. Claremont has won the National Arbor Day Foundation's Tree City USA award for 19 straight years.

The downtown is a mix of hip boutiques and old-school businesses. And the historic College Heights Lemon Packing House is now home to the Claremont Art Museum, restaurants, a jazz bar and artists' lofts.

All in all, Claremont may not be the most economical or affordable place to live, and if you need to save money on your home, you should definitely look elsewhere. But the city does offer its residents a certain upscale community feel, with its emphasis on family, health, arts, recreation, and education. Many residents are often seen just simply strolling the tree-lined streets with their children, stopping to chat with their neighbors on a regular basis. So if you’re looking for a beautiful and tranquil city, and can afford the price tag, you may want to consider whether or not you too think that Claremont is one of the best places to live.

Contents

• How Much Mortgage Can You Afford?
• Buying a Good Vacation Home
• Buying a Home for Resale Purposes
• Claremont is the Top Earner – and Most Expensive
• Commercial Real Estate Still a Safe Bet
• Determining Your Offer Price
• Empty Homes for Sale
• Exercise Caution When Flipping
• Expensive and Alternative Homes
• Figuring Property Taxes for the High-End Real Estate
• Florida’s High-End Real Estate Goes Limp
• Foreign Investors and the Hamptons
• German Investment in U.S. Real Estate Creates a Bidding War
• Getting Wealthy From Real Estate Investing
• Going Green
• High-End Goes High-Tech
• High-End Investors – Why Immune to the Real Estate Crunch?
• High-End Real Estate Feels the Crunch?

• High End Property Site Map