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Lavigne found that Collin County, a suburb of Dallas, had one of the highest median income rates in the nation, and also one of the lowest median net worth rates among wealthy counties. Upon looking deeper, she found that bankruptcies had doubled in a five-year period, and there had been 3,300 foreclosures on homes, most of them in high income neighborhoods. She interviewed dozens of families, clergy, business people, finance experts and other residents of Collin county for her series, as well as accessing federal, state and local data. She found that many people were living beyond their means to keep up with their neighbors.