Where you live may give the best idea of how much you weigh.

A University of Washington researcher said he found that neighborhood property values predict local obesity rates better than education or incomes.

For each additional $100,000 in the median price of homes, researchers found, obesity rates in a given ZIP code dropped by 2 percent.

In the Seattle area, where the study, based on information from 8,000 people, was conducted, obesity rates ranged from 30 percent in the most deprived areas to 5 percent in the highest-price ZIP codes.

"Obesity is an economic issue," said Dr. Adam Drewnowski, author of the study. "Knowing more about the geography of obesity will allow us to identify the most vulnerable neighborhoods."

He said property values were used to determine the status of neighborhood instead of income because a home is most people's chief asset.

The study also found that 26 percent of black people and 15 percent of white people were obese. Twenty percent of those with an annual income below $15,000 were obese; only 15 percent of those with incomes over $50,000 were. Researchers said that narrow gap shows that overall wealth is more predictive than just income.

The work will be published this week by the journal Social Science and Medicine.