Joining Washington’s one percenters takes more than the U.S. average
By Annie Gowen, Carol Morello and Ted Mellnik, Updated: Saturday, April 21, 12:00 PM
At the Collection at Chevy Chase, a $1,100 purple python pump gleams in the window of the Gucci store. Across Wisconsin Avenue at Sotheby’s, realtors prepare to sell a $32 million riverview home near Annapolis — one of the most expensive properties ever listed in the D.C. market. And at a nearby Whole Foods, a string of BMWs idles in the circular drive, as their owners dash in for $19.99-a-pound Dijon-crusted rack of lamb.
Long before the one percent became part of the political lexicon, a growing number of highly educated, dual-income families were driving the region’s top income levels into the stratosphere.
To be considered part of the one percent in this area, it takes household incomes far above the national average of $387,000. The gateway for the region is $527,000. In the District alone, the top one percent of households bring in at least $617,000, in Montgomery County more than $606,000 and in Fairfax $532,000, according to a Washington Post analysis of statistics provided by Sentier Research, a firm that analyzes census income data.
Most of those making the big bucks are exactly who you’d expect: doctors, lawyers, chief executives, managers and management analysts. Eight in 10 households in the one percent are white. Just 6 percent are black. Many of the one percenters are clustered in affluent enclaves in Northwest D.C., Bethesda and Chevy Chase.
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