Median household income: $119,540
With a median household income that is a full $16,000 higher than the second-place finisher Fairfax County, Loudoun County has become the richest county in America.
Another county in the Northern Virginia Washington DC Metro area, Loudoun borders West Virginia and Maryland and is the home to Washington Dulles International Airport. The Appalachian Trail runs along its western border. The area was largely an agricultural community until the airport was built in the 1960s.
The population has continued to increase since then, with the area nearly doubling in population from 2000 to 2010. The poverty rate is also an incredibly low 3.2%.Median household income: $103,010
Fairfax County is one of the largest counties in terms of population to make the list (1,081,726 residents in 2010), but it is also notable for its real estate. Fairfax is one of only two counties on the list to break the half-million mark in home values. Coming in at $507,800 for the median value of an owner-occupied home, the county truly has some spectacular real estate.
Langley (headquarters of the CIA) is within the county and the US Government is a short commute away in Washington DC. The unemployment rate in the county has been astoundingly low historically, hitting 1.4% in 1999, when the national rate was 4.3%.
Median household income: $94,986
Living in Arlington isn't cheap, so you'd better be making at least the median household income to live in this county, which sits just outside Washington, D.C.
Arlington may not be the richest, but it does set a high for real-estate values. The median value of an owner-occupied home in Arlington County is $571,700 -- almost $70,000 more than any other county on our list.
This county also stands out as the most educated on our list: 70.1% of residents hold a bachelor's degree or higher.
Median household income: $94,317
With just 128,961 residents, Stafford County is one of the smallest-population areas on the list and is a bedroom community for jobs in Northern Virginia and Washington DC The county's unemployment rate is just less than 5%, much better than the national average of 8.3%. The county is situated between Richmond and the Washington Metropolitan Area.
Median household income: $92,655
Prince William County has seen its median household income increase from 2009, even as the national average declined.
Prince William is near Washington, D.C. What makes it stand out from the rest, though, is the 43.2% population boom it has seen in the past decade. The area is home to many historical sites, including Manassas National Battlefield Park, where two Civil War battles took place.
Comments(0)