Solicitations and traffic are usually limited to residents and guests. However, these gates and walls do not seem to create a sense of community within, or neighborliness, and clearly tend to separate residents from the wider community. The gates are denoted as protective barriers of status to residents of prestige communities. Most people of all economic classes value status. It is, of course achievable only by the means available to status seekers.
Household income is a basis for neighborhood choice.
With the higher income, a family can broaden its choice of more exclusive residential precincts. Personal safety and protected property value are also significant factors in selecting gated communities. There are very early gated developments in the United States for the very rich. Other such developments were found along the coasts of Florida and California. People do seek communities of uniform economic, cultural and ethnic characteristics.