If the First Family purchases that 100-year-old colonial home at 15 Old House Lane in Chappaqua, NY, you may not know what goes on inside the gated and Secret Service-guarded compound, but you can get a pretty good idea what's happening in the neighborhood.

Blue bloods, aged 45 to 64, hang out in health clubs, shop at Ann Taylor, travel to eastern Europe, listen to classical music, watch Wall Street Week and NYPD Blue on television and read Architectural Digest and epicurean magazines.

So says Arlington, VA-based Claritas Inc.'s "You Are Where You Live" search engine when you plug in the ZIP code, 10514, get a load of what goes on. That's the ZIP code of the neighborhood where the Clintons bid on the home near White Plains last week.

Thanks to the Internet, you can enjoy, or voice contempt for virtually vicarious voyeurism that allows you to "peer" into the neighbors' windows and get a "look" at their habits, lifestyles and behaviors.

Claritas' brand of electronic neighborhood "surveillance" relies upon demographically and behaviorally distinct types or "clusters," with name like "Blue Blood," "Winner's Circle," "New Empty Nests," "Young Influentials," and "Blue-Chip Blues," 62 of them in all. Used by marketers to target customers, Claritas' system is built with 1990 Census data, current-year demographics, and data from millions of consumer-purchase records.

Now you know what happens to your information on those warranty forms you complete often for warranties you'll never use.

Claritas' search results on ZIP code 10514 says other residents in Clinton's neighborhood go cross-country skiing, bank online, own a fax machine, watch Frasier and Meet the Press, read Forbes and Smithsonian magazines, buy jazz music, invest in bonds and belong to a veterans' club.

Realtor.com's listing for the Chappaqua home is no longer available, but it included a healthy chunk of demographics from MonsterDaata.com, Inc. and 2001 Beyond, just like similar data found on all its listings.

When it was available, Realtor.com listing #9913380 described Chappaqua as a quiet neighborhood with the best schools, the highest incomes and the least crime, compared to other neighborhoods.

The listing also described the neighborhood as "suburban upper deck," "very privileged 10.18 percent of U.S. households," "most elite suburban neighborhoods nationally," "is four times as likely to have a household income greater than $150,000," among other tags.

On the average, the neighborhood's homes cost $757,169, are 43 years old, have 3,132 square feet and sit on a 1.25 acre-lot, according to Realtor.com's listing.

The U.S. Census Bureau's U.S. Gazetteer offers more mundane Zip Code-based data, but it's no slouch on the sheer number of categories of data.

Generally, the U.S. Census described Chappaqua as virtually all white, with slightly more females than males. The vast majority of its residents have at least a bachelors's degree and work as executives, managers and other professionals. Few of them are retired.

TheCensus data does reveal one, somewhat surprising fact: Despite how well off Chappaqua's residents appear, only a small fraction of them own their home outright, according to the U.S. Census.

Published: September 7, 1999

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.