Man, it seems like just last month we were talking about where poor people live, and here we are today talking about where rich people live.
Well the report on the poor people is different the report on the rich people. It’s also studying different things and different trends. Though a little more basic, this study of where the wealthy live is just as interesting, once you digest the numbers.
In a bit more detail here’s the list of where the rich people live. The study, conducted by consulting company Capgemeni, calls itself the 2010 US Metro Wealth Index. It’s a look at where rich people live, whereas rich people are defined as:
…those having investable assets of $1 million or more, excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables, and consumer durables.The index counts how many millionaires there are in each of 10 metropolitan areas. The list, in order from most to least is: NY, LA, Chitown, DC, San Fran, Philly, Beantown, Motown, Space City, and Silicon Valley . If you can’t translate those, please learn geography.
It’s no surprise that NY is at the top of the list. Perhaps what may be surprising, as the report notes, is that NY has more millionaires than LA, Chicago, and DC combined. Also of interest is that each of these towns experienced double digit percentage declines and total millionaires from 2007 to 2008. But from 2008 to 2009 the all had double digit increases. Most notably, Houston (ranked #9) had an almost 30% increase in millionaires. I tried to analyze what that might mean but got bored. Feel free to provide your own analysis.
I got bored because I realized it doesn’t matter how many millionaires your town has. What matters is how many there are as a percentage of the population. So I did a little math and the order gets rearranged a bit: Silicon Valley, NY, San Fran, DC, Beantown, Chitown, Motown, LA, Philly, and Space City. These range from 5.9% of the population to 2.0%.
Analysis. Even though Houston has experienced the most growth, they are still lagging in rich people. Detroit has more rich people per capita than LA, which I found to be surprising. Perhaps it’s because the rich people didn’t move away and the poor people did? The migration from the poor people report may agree with that.
What this report doesn’t tell you is important too. It doesn’t tell you how these people got their money, and doesn’t make adjustments for cost of living. If it did, you might see more people show up in Houston because it’s a pretty cheap place to live compared to the names at the top.
 By The Weakonomist |
The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice. |
