But even the most financially stressed of Greenwich homeowners have generally been able to ward off actually losing their homes.

RealtyTrac data shows that owners of seven homes received notices of default last month, and another home is about to be auctioned in this town where the average single family home that sold this year went for $3.1 million. The owners of all of them had received notices of pending litigation but were still hoping to rescue their positions. In the last 30 days, none of the three Greenwich properties listed for auction were actually sold.

As millions across the nation face the threat of losing their homes, the few Greenwich owners in trouble are tapping into other resources that most people cannot call upon to help prevent the ultimate indignity.

In Greenwich, foreclosure filings were made against 100 homes last year, according to RealtyTrac. That translates into less than half of 1 percent of Greenwich’s 24,511 households, compared with a rate higher than 1 percent nationwide.

Already one of the richest cities in the country in 2000, when the Census Bureau recorded a median household income of $99,086  more than double the national average  the town has become far wealthier in recent years, with the exponential growth of many of the hedge funds that have set up business here. A new generation of wealthy Wall Street executives has moved in as well. By 2007, the Connecticut Economic Resources Center reported, the median household income had risen to $122,849, with many homeowners earning far more.

The tearing down of existing homes to make room for new ones has continued despite the mortgage crisis that began last summer. And while prices and sales volume are dropping, Greenwich is not suffering as badly as nearby towns.

Through April 23 this year, 160 co-ops, condos and single-family homes sold for $290,000 to $30 million. That compares with 240 sales, from $385,000 to $12 million, for the period in 2007, according to the Greenwich Multiple Listing Service.