Author Topic: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors  (Read 41497 times)

Mister Fancypants

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #50 on: March 19, 2014, 07:15:56 PM »
Wow. I'm surprised such detailed information is available.

There's a ton of data like this out there.  I use even more granular data that attempts to map it down to individual households and even persons for most of the US.  Age, income, education, mortgage amount, magazine subscriptions, etc.  Accuracy is often questionable... but its there and a little scary.

If you have any links with data you would like to share I am sure it would not be unappreciated.

Thanks,
-Mister FancyPants

JohnGalt

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #51 on: March 19, 2014, 09:54:12 PM »
It's rather expensive data, not really available as a link anywhere.

Mister Fancypants

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #52 on: March 20, 2014, 08:03:19 AM »
It's rather expensive data, not really available as a link anywhere.

I might be interested in paying for some data, what type of sources do you use, feel free to PM me if you would rather not discuss freely.

Thanks,
-Mister FancyPants

bikebum

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #53 on: May 30, 2014, 09:49:19 PM »
My block is ~$50k, but it's right next to a lot of $500k+s! It's crazy how geographically close the rich neighborhoods can be to the poorer ones

This is a very interesting map. :)

That's like my 'hood and the rich neighborhoods near me.  I get to enjoy the benefits of a nice area generally, but only pay to live in the much lower cost housing here in my 'hood.

Kinda like my place, although I probably don't have any rich neighbors. My street is a mix of nice homes and ghetto-looking apartments. If I start walking away from downtown, the homes get nicer, bigger, and cleaner fast; if I walk towards town it gets more ghetto. Median net worth in my area is ~$11K. Walk up the hill 10 minutes and it's ~$148K.

horsepoor

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #54 on: May 30, 2014, 10:41:12 PM »
Very interesting map!  Our neighborhood is in the $350K range, so we are probably slightly behind, but then, I'd venture that we're below the median age by at least a decade.  Our old neighborhood is at $113K, which surprised me (thought it would be lower), but perhaps there are some retirees who've owned there since the 70's and have some NW.

Huh.  Just looked at this again, and we're right in line with our neighborhood for NW.  Hopefully we'll surpass it soon!

Rural

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #55 on: May 31, 2014, 01:28:57 AM »
My "block" is about 40 square miles, net worth in the 15k - 83k range, with about 60% of the households showing a net worth under 15k on the graph (I know that doesn't fit the range, but I didn't do it. go figure). The big farms seem to be pulling up the average, which makes sense.

libertarian4321

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #56 on: May 31, 2014, 01:30:42 AM »
The site is down right now, but I'd love to know how they determined "net worth."

No one in "real life" knows my net worth other than my parents.  A few close friends know I've got some money, but they have no idea how much.  How does someone determine "net worths" of families or neighborhoods?

deborah

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #57 on: May 31, 2014, 01:37:38 AM »
The site is down right now, but I'd love to know how they determined "net worth."

No one in "real life" knows my net worth other than my parents.  A few close friends know I've got some money, but they have no idea how much.  How does someone determine "net worths" of families or neighborhoods?
This would rely on figures form the census and/or the tax department. These figures are available as part of government making their statistics more public. They would not have names attached, and to protect privacy they would only be available in large enough chunks that individuals can not be identified.

In the past decade governments have been under increasing presure to make these types of figures available. In fact there is even an app contest to make good apps in a day(?) with some sets of figures.

FIreDrill

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #58 on: May 31, 2014, 01:56:44 AM »
Looks like the net worth of my neighbors is around 160k.  I better hurry up and catch up to them! lol

libertarian4321

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #59 on: May 31, 2014, 02:10:25 AM »
The site is down right now, but I'd love to know how they determined "net worth."

No one in "real life" knows my net worth other than my parents.  A few close friends know I've got some money, but they have no idea how much.  How does someone determine "net worths" of families or neighborhoods?
This would rely on figures form the census and/or the tax department. These figures are available as part of government making their statistics more public. They would not have names attached, and to protect privacy they would only be available in large enough chunks that individuals can not be identified.


But how do they know my net worth?  They know my income from my tax statements.  That's all they know.

I got the most intrusive and obnoxious version of the census in 2010.  I didn't answer any of the questions except for the number of people who live here (because that is all the US government needs to know according to the Constitution), but I don't think even that ridiculous thing asked my net worth (though I believe it did ask how many toilets I have- because, you know, the Federal government has a compelling need to know how many options I have when I need to take a dump).

warfreak2

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #60 on: May 31, 2014, 04:39:37 AM »
because, you know, the Federal government has a compelling need to know how many options I have when I need to take a dump
The census isn't really the Federal government collecting data for its own purposes - I mean, some of the data is useful to them, but most of the public benefit comes from having (somewhat) reliable public data that anyone can use to answer questions the Federal government might not even realise are worth asking. In the same sense, you don't just write Wikipedia articles because you think Jimmy Wales wants to read them.

That said, I doubt the data comes from the census - I could be wrong, but don't banks have to report basic details to the IRS?

Apples

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #61 on: May 31, 2014, 10:00:23 AM »
I live in a more rural area, so my "block" is approx. 32 square miles.  But the avg. NW is $75,000-which (now that I'm getting married) we're actually doing worse than, but should be above it by the middle of 2016.  I'll be 25 at that point in time, and my SO will be 29.  A lot of the population has NW <$15,000...the average is brought up by the smaller group that have >$500,000 NW.  I"m betting all the farmers in the area are in that group, while their employees fall in the lower brackets.  Interesting.

Mister Fancypants

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #62 on: May 31, 2014, 11:31:09 AM »
The site is down right now, but I'd love to know how they determined "net worth."

No one in "real life" knows my net worth other than my parents.  A few close friends know I've got some money, but they have no idea how much.  How does someone determine "net worths" of families or neighborhoods?

Your financial institutions have your balances, address ad social security number, it gets reported to the IRS annually for taxes, this get correlated with the census.

The rest is math...

Your personal data is removed from things like this for privacy, but this is how public statistics are calculated.

-Mister FancyPants

tomsang

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #63 on: May 31, 2014, 12:01:20 PM »
The site is down right now, but I'd love to know how they determined "net worth."

No one in "real life" knows my net worth other than my parents.  A few close friends know I've got some money, but they have no idea how much.  How does someone determine "net worths" of families or neighborhoods?

From looking at my neighborhood and others, it appears as if the net worth calculation is accurate +- $5,000,000.  It taps out at 501,000.  Not overly accurate or useful.  It is probably used to determine mailing list for payday loans or luxury yachts. 

blackomen

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #64 on: June 01, 2014, 12:08:11 PM »
The median net worth of households in this block group in 2012 was $20,859, or 31% of the national average.

I live on the border with a dark blue neighborhood.

It seems pretty much every neighborhood I've lived in is in the 15K to 83K group, even the ones in wealthier cities. 

RootofGood

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #65 on: June 02, 2014, 02:44:52 PM »
The site is down right now, but I'd love to know how they determined "net worth."

No one in "real life" knows my net worth other than my parents.  A few close friends know I've got some money, but they have no idea how much.  How does someone determine "net worths" of families or neighborhoods?
This would rely on figures form the census and/or the tax department. These figures are available as part of government making their statistics more public. They would not have names attached, and to protect privacy they would only be available in large enough chunks that individuals can not be identified.


But how do they know my net worth?  They know my income from my tax statements.  That's all they know.

I got the most intrusive and obnoxious version of the census in 2010.  I didn't answer any of the questions except for the number of people who live here (because that is all the US government needs to know according to the Constitution), but I don't think even that ridiculous thing asked my net worth (though I believe it did ask how many toilets I have- because, you know, the Federal government has a compelling need to know how many options I have when I need to take a dump).

I made an honest attempt to report my income, assets, NW, etc correctly on the census.  I bet there's a lot of other folks out there that don't mind sharing data anonymously.  The census does sampling, so over the hundreds of respondents to the long form from a given census tract or BG, they are getting decent info in the aggregate. 

libertarian4321

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #66 on: June 03, 2014, 03:16:02 PM »
The site is down right now, but I'd love to know how they determined "net worth."

No one in "real life" knows my net worth other than my parents.  A few close friends know I've got some money, but they have no idea how much.  How does someone determine "net worths" of families or neighborhoods?

Your financial institutions have your balances, address ad social security number, it gets reported to the IRS annually for taxes, this get correlated with the census.

The rest is math...

Your personal data is removed from things like this for privacy, but this is how public statistics are calculated.

-Mister FancyPants

I'm pretty sure your account balance is NOT reported to the IRS, only interest, dividends, and capital gains.

It would be quite a trick for the IRS to analyze my ~15-20 accounts based on name, address, and income alone, and come up with an accurate net worth.  Even if they had the time and skill to back calculate the value of my holdings based solely on my income from that year, they would be missing several key pieces of information, such as how long I'd had that account, how much switching I did between accounts (and across firms).  Could someone with skill and time make a pretty good estimate based on that limited information?  Perhaps, but I don't think IRS personnel have either.  Certainly not enough time to work that calculation for hundreds of millions of people.

More likely, they are estimating using sampling data (as someone else here mentioned) from people who willingly give them information.

libertarian4321

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #67 on: June 03, 2014, 03:31:04 PM »
The site is down right now, but I'd love to know how they determined "net worth."

No one in "real life" knows my net worth other than my parents.  A few close friends know I've got some money, but they have no idea how much.  How does someone determine "net worths" of families or neighborhoods?
This would rely on figures form the census and/or the tax department. These figures are available as part of government making their statistics more public. They would not have names attached, and to protect privacy they would only be available in large enough chunks that individuals can not be identified.


But how do they know my net worth?  They know my income from my tax statements.  That's all they know.

I got the most intrusive and obnoxious version of the census in 2010.  I didn't answer any of the questions except for the number of people who live here (because that is all the US government needs to know according to the Constitution), but I don't think even that ridiculous thing asked my net worth (though I believe it did ask how many toilets I have- because, you know, the Federal government has a compelling need to know how many options I have when I need to take a dump).

I made an honest attempt to report my income, assets, NW, etc correctly on the census.  I bet there's a lot of other folks out there that don't mind sharing data anonymously.  The census does sampling, so over the hundreds of respondents to the long form from a given census tract or BG, they are getting decent info in the aggregate.

The "confidential" information you send to the IRS is confidential until it isn't. 

I don't trust them, and in my opinion, neither should you.

60+ years after the fact, the US Census Bureau finally admitted that they used "confidential" census information to help the US government roundup American citizens of Japanese ancestry.

Confidential census information has been used for similar (and worse) atrocities in other nations- including "civilized" Republics like ours.

Don't think it can't happen again.

When the Census packet comes here, whether the short form, or the extraordinarily intrusive long form, I just give them the number of bodies living here, then paste Article !, Section 2 of the US Constitution over the rest.  Article 1, Section 2, makes it clear that the Census is to COUNT BODIES for the purpose determining Congressional districts.

They don't need to know your race, net worth, religion, or toilet habits to apportion Congressional districts.

Jon_Snow

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #68 on: June 03, 2014, 06:05:38 PM »
Need this in Canada, ASAP. I love s&% like this.

I suspect that Canadian net worth is a fair bit higher on average - we never had a housing correction, though many pundits are predicting one at any moment.

2527

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #69 on: June 06, 2014, 07:00:26 PM »
My next door neighbor donate a million dollars to the YMCA.

RelaxedGal

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #70 on: August 12, 2014, 10:33:06 AM »
Thanks for the link Mister Fancypants!

I discovered that I live in the lowest net worth section of my town.  Like RootofGood I have a spike in the lowest category and then a pretty even row of ~ 50 in each of the other categories, and a smaller peak of 79 in the $500K+ category.  Our median is $46,000.  It was an interesting fact check.


Rika Non

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #71 on: August 12, 2014, 12:20:46 PM »
My area:
The median net worth of households in this block group in 2012 was $500,001, or 754% of the national average.
Apparently that is the highest bracket, I cannot find anything over that number on the map.

I guess it's good it be in an area with oil and agriculture.

Helvegen

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #72 on: August 14, 2014, 05:55:08 PM »
There is no way my immediate neighbors's net worth is anywhere north of $100k. It is all rentals and I am still getting all kinds of collection/court notices for the last THREE going back tenants who lived in the home. No address forwarding because they obviously did NOT want to be found. :p

Now some neighbors further out from me, maybe, but I suspect a lot of the net worth is tied up in real estate values.


RWD

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #73 on: August 15, 2014, 09:20:47 AM »
Most of my neighbors are driving cars worth more than the median net worth...

NoraLenderbee

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #74 on: August 15, 2014, 12:06:18 PM »
My neighborhood is 15K or less. In one of the wealthiest counties in the country . . .

MoneyCat

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #75 on: August 15, 2014, 12:09:06 PM »
$361,912 in my neighborhood or 547% of the national average.  That sounds about right.  In New Jersey, that's considered decently middle class.

Lian

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #76 on: August 15, 2014, 07:55:13 PM »
Median net worth of my block group is $11,770 - not surprising, as the majority of residences are apartments. People are young and/or transient. There are 17 people with a net worth of over $500,000. I figure they live in the fancy new highrise with luxury penthouses over on the next street. I'm going back to the map to explore a little more.

Datastache

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #77 on: August 15, 2014, 08:54:12 PM »
The results for my area are interesting but not especially surprising. Average net worth is listed as about $11,000, which is a little ways under my current net worth.

Middlesbrough

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Re: Compare your Net Worth to your neighbors
« Reply #78 on: August 17, 2014, 10:37:52 AM »
My neighborhood median is under 10k, with less than 100 people above 35K. Looks like I am the rich neighbor!

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!