Prospective homebuyers looking for the wealthiest community in the United States cannot do better than Westlake, Texas.
Nope, can’t be done, according to Forbes online, which recently named Westlake “America’s Most Affluent Neighborhood” even though it's a city.
The population in Westlake sits at 703 and the estimated annual median household income is $250,000, according to data from the U.S. Census' American Community Survey as gleaned by Forbes.
Salaries such as those paid to Texas Rangers star, for now, Josh Hamilton; Matthew Rose, the CEO of Burlington Northern Santa Fe; Rangers owner Chuck Greenberg, and the Jonas Brothers (OK, I just watched and listened to about 40 seconds of my first Jonas Brothers video. I will not do that again. Swear. To. God.) — all of whom live or own houses in Westlake — factored heavily into the median income calculation.
Yet all is not well in the land of milk and honey. The Forbes piece states, “Westlake recently introduced a property tax that was necessary because declining sales tax revenue was forcing the town to eat into its financial reserves.”
Meanwhile mayors in just about every other city in America ask, “Financial reserves? What the hell are those?”
Hey, times are tough all over.
Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. There’s a reason he doesn’t live in Westlake, and affluence isn’t it. OK, it’s one reason.
