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According to , is rich. Not “a decent disposable income” type of rich. I mean Thurston Howell type of rich. I’m talking shopping on Rodeo Drive, vacationing in the South of France, and using Silver Oak as a cooking wine type of rich, at least according to Portfolio.com, which ranked Pleasanton as the third wealthiest city in America, behind only Newport Beach, CA and Newton, MA.
In a new survey from Portfolio.com, seven of the top ten “wealth centers” in the country are in the Golden State.
The survey combines several measurements from the Census Bureau, including per capital income, median income, the percentage of incomes over $200,000, and home prices.
Newport Beach, California, ranks #1, with a median income of $124,000. Twenty-nine percent of residents in this Orange County enclave haul in at least $200,000 a year, and the median home price is $1,000,001.
Coming in second is Newton, Massachusetts, outside Boston. Newton actually trails third-placed Pleasanton, California in all the big ticket categories except one: per capita income, which comes in at $56,000. Meantime, Newton’s median income is $104,000, and 22 percent of its residents earn more than $200,000.
Here are the top ten wealth centers along with the percentage of residents earning more than $200,000:
1. Newport Beach, CA–29 percent
2. Newton, MA–23 percent
3. Pleasanton, CA–24 percent
4. Arlington, VA–16 percent
5. Santa Monica, CA–14 percent
6. Mountain View, CA–14 percent
7. Thousand Oaks, CA (my town!) –14 percent
8. San Francisco, CA–14 percent
9. Sandy Springs, GA–18 percent10. Sunnyvale, CA–14 percent
Wow. That is heady company. What is more amazing is that some of the other well known cities such as , , Orinda, Carmel, Tiburon, Saratoga, and even Beverly Hills did not make the list. So…. do you feel rich? Just wondering.
UPDATE: Thanks to Carl for pointing out that the study only includes cities with populations over 75,000. That would explain the absence of some of the notable cities above.
Comment posted by Carl
on March 2, 2010 at 11:38 am
The study required that the city/area have a population over 75,000. All the cities/towns you list are well under 75K (Blackhawk ~ 7K, Carmel ~4K, Orinda ~19K) in population.
Comment posted by admin
on March 2, 2010 at 11:40 am
Good catch Carl. That would explain it.