Belvedere tops Bay Area list for segregated white wealth

Belvedere is the most segregated neighborhood of white wealth in the Bay Area, according to a new study in which researchers also say the existence of more than 100 low-income white households but the absence of any low-income Black, Asian or Latino households in the city “cast(s) doubt on explanations of purely income-based segregation.”

The study by Bay Area Equity Atlas — a partnership of the San Francisco Foundation, PolicyLink and the USC Equity Research Institute — analyzed all 1,572 U.S. Census tracts in the nine-county Bay Area by race and income for its report, released July 27. It found that more than one in 10 Bay Area neighborhoods is a segregated area of white wealth.

Topping that list is Belvedere, which is contained within a single tract and has nearly 500 white households earning more than $200,000 per year and 132 white households earning less than $35,000 per year, but no low-income households of the three studied minority groups. Further, there are nearly 650 white homeowner households, more than 200 white renter households and zero Black, Asian or Latino renter households in Belvedere, according to the study.

“A look at the demographics of these neighborhoods of concentrated white wealth reveals the extent to which low-income Black, Latinx and (Asian American and Pacific Islander) households are excluded from wealthy white enclaves compared with their white counterparts,” the study says.

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