The 2010 Metro Wealth Index was realeased today. Highlights show New York City leads the nation in millionaires at 667,000 while Detroit edges out Houston in the number of millionaires. Click on the link for the article and more info:

http://www.us.capgemini.com/news/current_news.asp?ID=840

I'm not sure how they define the "10 largest MSAs", but the 10 largest MSAs as of 2009 are:

New York
Los Angeles
Chicago
Dallas (not included)
Philadelphia
Houston
Miami (not included)
Washington
Atlanta (not included)
Boston
(Detroit) #11
(San Francisco) #13
(San Jose) #31

My guess is that they didn't mean "10 largest MSAs", but rather the 10 MSAs with the highest number of millionaires.

If that's so, it's interesting that Dallas, Miami, and Atlanta didn't make the cut, especially considering that Detroit, a city that many people view as being near the bottom of the economic barrel did... Even then, on a per capita basis, Detroit actually has more millionaires than Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Houston and isn't all that far behind Boston and Chicago...

here's another list, although by county not MSA

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/pf/0704/gallery.Millionaire_Counties/index.html

la and orange county combined have 384k millionaire households according to that survey, a lot more than yours. i personally think both lists are useless tho.

New York* . . * Heavy benefactor of having almost all of its key industries bailed out in 2008 and early 2009. If left alone to fend for itself in a principled capitalist market, the number of HNWI's would be greatly eroded.

New York* . . * Heavy benefactor of having almost all of its key industries bailed out in 2008 and early 2009. If left alone to fend for itself in a principled capitalist market, the number of HNWI's would be greatly eroded.

Maybe but I think a huge percentage of their wealth is tied to real estate values.

Maybe but I think a huge percentage of their wealth is tied to real estate values.

I wonder what criteria they use to count millionaires. If all they use is people whos net worth is over $1mil (including real estate) then the number would be well over 600k since real estate prices are so high. And completely the opposite for Detroit where real estate prices are in the shitter.

I wonder what criteria they use to count millionaires. If all they use is people whos net worth is over $1mil (including real estate) then the number would be well over 600k since real estate prices are so high. And completely the opposite for Detroit where real estate prices are in the shitter.

Capgemini determines 'high net wealth' as having investable assets of over $1 million that "excludes primary residences, durables and collectibles." So in the case of New York, a landlord who owns a small building or an individual with a second home in the Hamptons would have an investible asset valued at over $1 million. That likely cannot be said of a similar holding by someone in Detroit or Houston so what drives their wealth may simply be active investments alone or in the case of older industrial metros, inherited wealth.

Michigan has a history of residents having a cabin "up north" or a condo "down south" and while most areas of Michigan aren't nearly as tony as the Hamptons there are plenty of areas where you'll find million dollar homes along the lakeshore. Even then, someone who has a secondary home on an inland lake worth $400,000 and a few profitable investments could easily see their "wealth" surpass $1 million.

Even though the city of Detroit has some of the nation's poorest neighborhoods, the reality is that suburban Detroit (and Oakland County in particular) has some extremely wealthy people.

yay ny

wOW. I did not realize how much richer NY is than the rest of the US.

wOW. I did not realize how much richer NY is than the rest of the US.

Seriously?

Yes. I expected a lot more rich people in LA, SF and Chicago.

Unlike NYC, I think many West Coasters took a bad hit in real estate but either way, the concentration of wealth in New York seems fairly predictable. ;)

A) This list doesn't include Howard or Anne Arundel County Maryland, which are less than a half hour from DC, but are part of Baltimore MSA. These counties have 750,000 people and they are top 20 nationally in terms of per capita income.

B) This list, as with nearly all others, does not include DC's massive population of Internationals who do not take up DC residency. So many people brought to DC for the embassies, NGOs or the city's huge segment of international business do not get reported in numbers like this. While you could say the same is true for all cities, DC has by far the highest number of these people (maybe NYC has more in real # terms, but definitely not by percentage).

Bottom line, as rich/educated as DC looks compared to everyone else on paper, it's even richer.