You Could Be Considered 'Upper Class' If You Live In This Type Of Neighborhood

Officially achieving "upper class" status takes more than just having a specific yearly income. While millennials won't peg you as upper class unless you make a salary above a certain number, where you live is also an important factor in determining whether you fall in this financial category. According to research by Claudia D. Solari published on Sage Journals, an affluent neighborhood is one that's not only safe, but also has easy access to jobs and top-tier schools. A neighborhood with high-quality schools automatically increases its desirability, which leads to higher home values, per a Zillow report. As the value of homes increases, so does the amount of money people need to live in the neighborhood.

Additionally, when a neighborhood's homes are worth more, property taxes go up. This means more money for local school districts to improve education. With more money, schools can pay teachers higher salaries — attracting the best people for the role — and provide students with abundant resources for a wider range of learning opportunities. Many families place good schools high on their list of priorities when searching for the perfect area to live in, but you don't have to have kids for schools to matter when buying a home. Because the better the schools are in a neighborhood, the more likely the residents are upper class and home values are high.

Searching in the most expensive cities to buy a house in the United States isn't the only way to find a home in an upper-class neighborhood. There are several tools available to assist homebuyers in choosing a new home in a neighborhood that checks all their boxes, including having high-quality schools. GreatSchools.org, for instance, rates schools in most major U.S. cities, using information about academic progress, college readiness, and test scores to provide an accurate picture of how well a school is performing. The site also provides a link to Homes.com, making it simple to begin the process of finding the ideal home in an upper-class neighborhood.

Schools play a big role in making a neighborhood affluent for a variety of reasons. Parents who appreciate education tend to be more involved in their community, which leads to residents who take pride in maintaining their property. Driving around a neighborhood allows a homebuyer to judge for themselves whether homes are being kept up, but talking to the people who live in an area is another excellent way to gauge the class of the citizens who live there. Many real estate websites have details about an area's schools as well, and even if information about school performance isn't provided, the names of the closest schools usually are. This means those searching for the perfect home can do their own research regarding school statistics so they can find the ideal neighborhood in a spot where home values are stable or rising.