America's 15 wealthiest metro areas, 6 in California (Los Angeles, San Jose: neighborhoods, income, live)

[18Montclair]

The U.S. Census Bureau has mapped the regions with the highest concentration of households in the nation's wealthiest 5 percent, meaning households that make at least $191,000 annually. Here are the top 15 on the list.

1. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn. (17.9 percent of households among top 5 percent of income-earners)
2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (15.9)
3. Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria, Va. (14.1)
4. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont (13)
5. Trenton-Ewing, N.J. (11.6)
6. New York City-Northern New Jersey-Long Island (10)
7. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura (9.7)
8. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass. (9.7)
9. Boulder, Colo. (9.4)
10. Napa (9.3)
11. Santa Cruz-Watsonville (9)
12. Naples-Marco Island, Fla. (8.8)
13. Baltimore-Towson, Md. (8)
14. Midland, Tex. (7.9)
15. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana (7.9)

Note: Census-defined metropolitan areas are named after their biggest cities.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2007-2011

America's 15 wealthiest metro areas: Four in San Francisco Bay Area - San Jose Mercury News

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

I am in Oxnard. We live a comfortable life in the area. Still most in Oxnard probably are far from that point in income. Many do hit the mark but are more than likely at the beach or in select neighborhoods. Thousand Oaks would have a higher percentage of people in the 6 figure and even 7 figure club. Where I work I know of maybe 30 people that make that kind of cash with their income alone. We have at least 20 employees that make more than $200,000 a year. Note: Doctors are not employees and I would guess that many of them make the mark for those within the $191,000 range or more.

[sourdough]

Interesting. Hard to believe the regions in California that are not on the list.

[wf7575]

I think the area breakups are a little odd. My guess is the percentage of wealthy people in San Francisco is diluted by it being arbitrarily lumped in with Oakland and Fremont (it could just as easily been lumped with Marin). Also, there are huge size differences in some of these areas. The entire New York City metro area (with more than twenty million inhabitants) and Midland, Texas (an mid-sized town of around 100,000 people in the panhandle oilfields) are not really appropriate to compare to one another.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by wf7575

I think the area breakups are a little odd. My guess is the percentage of wealthy people in San Francisco is diluted by it being arbitrarily lumped in with Oakland and Fremont (it could just as easily been lumped with Marin). Also, there are huge size differences in some of these areas. The entire New York City metro area (with more than twenty million inhabitants) and Midland, Texas (an mid-sized town of around 100,000 people in the panhandle oilfields) are not really appropriate to compare to one another.

That is what the MSA (Metrpolitan Statistical Area) is called and actually includes Marin. It includes SF, Marin, San Mateo, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties.

[CAVA1990]

Just to put this in perspective, seven of the top 10 counties in median household income are in the DC metro, including the top 3 here in Northern Virginia. The income in my NoVA county and those other top 2 is about 30% higher than the highest income counties in CA.

Also, wealth and income are not the same thing. Wealth is measured in net asset value.

[checkup]

Midland TX?

[Senno]

Originally Posted by checkup

Midland TX?

Big oil I'm guessing.

[bigdumbgod]

2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (15.9)

Funny, there are a lot of highly profitable companies in this area, but we residents know the real richy-rich people that run these live just outside of this area (the peninsula, i.e. Woodside, Hillsborough). Many of the rest of us have a bunch of salary/wage earners under each roof.

[aslowdodge]

I was surprised about Midland and the first thought in my head was Oil. You never here about Midland in any type of poll or stat.