Wealth Concentration
More than half of the top 100 richest places in America were either in the tri-state area -- New York, New Jersey and Connecticut -- or California. Still, a number of Midwest and Southwest areas made the cut and a handful even are in the top 20.
The bar to make it among the top 100 places was raised to $209,000 in annual income from $198,000 a year earlier. Four places made their top 100 debut this year including two in California: Tamalpais-Homestead Valley in Marin county and beach city Del Mar; Jericho in New York’s Long Island and Medina, Minnesota.
Wealth is further concentrated specifically in six counties: Westchester, Bergen and Fairfield counties outside of Manhattan, Cook county of Chicago, Los Angeles County and Montgomery county in Maryland, bordering Washington D.C..
Rounding out the top ten are Los Altos Hills and Hillsborough in California, Short Hills, New Jersey, Highland Park in Texas, Darien in Connecticut, Bronxville in New York and Glencoe, Illinois. Glencoe, a suburb seven miles north of Northwestern University, climbed five spots to land the last spot in the top 10 for the first time.
Big Movers
Rumson, a wealthy corner of Monmouth County, New Jersey, ascended 19 spots into the top 20. It’s residents who commute to NYC can choose from two different ferry services that are within a 15 minute drive. Bernardsville, another New Jersey town, jumped 31 spots and the average income increased $30,000 to $231,336.
Florida moved down the exclusivity list. The same four places in Florida made the top 100 list but three of them ranked lower this year versus last. Indian River Shores, near Vero Beach, dropped out of the top 50 as the average annual income decreased by $20,000.
Methodology
Bloomberg evaluated inflation-adjusted household data for all U.S. "places", as defined by the Census, with a minimum of 2,000 households and ranked them based on average household income. Nearly 6,250 met the criteria.