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 Children
play in downtown Rancho Santa Fe.
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RANCHO SANTA FE, California
(AP) -- The schools
are outstanding, there's almost no crime and
the sun shines 320 days a year. Only residents
can join the community's world-class golf club.
But only the rich need apply.
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Rancho Santa Fe, a town of 5,000 people 30 miles
north of San Diego, is the nation's wealthiest among
communities of 1,000 households or more, according
to Census figures released Tuesday. "It's
a wonderful place," said Annie Perez, who
owns Bolero Mexican cafe in the tiny downtown
area and lives nearby. "This is the best
life."
The per capita income of more than $113,000
puts Rancho Santa Fe ahead of Atherton and
Woodside, both near San Francisco, Palm Beach,
Florida, and Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Census
figures show. Indian River Shores, Florida,
ranked No. 1 in the last Census in 1990, fell
to seventh place in the latest survey.
Rancho Santa Fe also was the most expensive
place to buy a house in the United States
over the past year. The median single-family
home price is $1.7 million, according to
DataQuick Information Systems of San Diego.
Few residents complain.
"I consider myself lucky," said
Albert Plattner, who lives a short walk
from his real estate office in Rancho Santa
Fe's two-block downtown. "I think it's
the greatest place to live in the world."
What's luring the wealthiest Americans?
For one thing, privacy.
Rancho Santa Fe's rural feel has been zealously
guarded for 74 years by a strict set of
rules, called the Protective Convenant.
Most properties are a minimum two acres.
All the traditionally styled Spanish, Mediterranean
or ranch style homes must meet standards
set by a design board that calls itself
the Art Jury, which strives to ensure even
18,000 square-foot buildings blend into
the landscape.
"To buy a property up here you have
to invest a lot of money," said Keith
Behner, Rancho Santa Fe's planning director.
"But once you invest a lot of money,
you don't have to worry about a McMansion
going up next door that's flamingo red."
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AMERICA'S
RICHEST COMMUNITIES: |
| Per
Capita Income |
Households |
| 1.
Rancho
Santa Fe, California |
$113,132 |
1,200 |
| 2.
Atherton,
California |
$112,408 |
2,385 |
| 3.
Palm
Beach, Florida |
$109,219 |
5,697 |
| 4.
Bloomfield
Hills, Michigan |
$104,920 |
1,523 |
| 5. Belle
Meade, Tennessee |
$104,908 |
1,058 |
| 6. Woodside,
California |
$104,667 |
1,905 |
| 7. Indian
River Shores, Florida |
$102,511 |
1,759 |
| 8. North
Hills, New York |
$100,093 |
1,814 |
| 9. Cherry
Hills Village, Colorado |
$99,996 |
1,980 |
| 10. Portola
Valley, California |
$99,621 |
1,653 |
Click each town
name for a Census Bureau
map. Data courtesy U.S.
Census Bureau/AP. |
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Only residents can join the community's golf
and tennis clubs or use the 26 miles of hiking
and equestrian trails.
There's no home mail delivery, and streetlights
and sidewalks are banned from residential areas
to enhance the sense of country life. On Election
Day, some residents pull up to the polls in golf
carts. Others feel safe enough to leave their
keys in the cars parked in their driveway.
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"We have this country life going on
in the middle of the city," said resident
Joy Bancroft.
Residents owe the rustling eucalyptus groves
sprinkled through the area to a major corporate
blunder. The town's namesake, the Santa Fe
Railroad, planted the area with eucalyptus
trees in 1906, intending to make railroad
ties from the harvested wood. But it was eventually
discovered that the wood was unsuitable. |
"This
is the best life," Annie Perez says
at her Mexican restaurant in Rancho Santa
Fe. |
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates,
the singer Jewel, and the Sultan of Brunei
reportedly own properties here, said Lorine
Wright, editor of the Rancho Santa Fe Review.
Howard Hughes owned a house here long ago,
as did Bing Crosby, who helped finance the
golf course.
Rancho Santa Fe holds the dubious distinction
as the site of the worst mass suicide on
U.S. soil. The 39 members of the Heaven's
Gate cult killed themselves in 1997, believing
they were shedding their earthly "containers"
to catch a ride on a spaceship trailing
the Hale-Bopp Comet.
But there was little to cloud the picture
on a recent weekend as Bancroft lunched
with her family along the main street.
"It's another silver day in Rancho
Santa Fe," she said.
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