If you want to get to the richest neighborhood in America, you’re going to need a boat.
Atherton, California, home to many Google employees. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.
It stands to reason that, as the United States’ largest cities reside close to its east and west coasts, that the distribution of the country’s richest neighborhoods would follow a similar pattern. It’s still kind of surprising, however, to see that 9 of the 10 most affluent zip codes in America are in coastal states.
In fact, if it wasn’t for Kenilworth, Illinois, a planned community 17 miles north of Chicago, neighborhoods in non-coastal states would be altogether excluded from the list.
The rankings for the list were created by Bloomberg through the analysis of 2015 IRS data, and are heavily populated by areas in California, Florida, and the northeast:
1. Miami Beach, Florida 33109
2. Atherton, California 94027
3. Palm Beach, Florida 33480
4. Palo Alto, California 94301
5. Harrison, New York 10577
6. Gladwyne, Pennsylvania 19035
7. Los Angeles, California 90067
8. Kenilworth, Illinois 60043
9. Weston, Massachusetts 02493
10. San Francisco, California 94111
The first-place winner by a wide margin, Miami’s Fisher Island, is an exclusive 192-acre island that the uber-wealthy flock to, at least in part due to Florida’s lack of a state income tax. The average annual income for Fisher Island is a staggering $2.5 million, topping the second-most affluent locale, Atherton in Silicon Valley, by more than $1 million.
Another conspicuous resident on the list at number 14, Moose Wilson Road, Wyoming, can credit favorable taxes to its overachievement on the list, though it would certainly stand on its own merits lower on the list as the poshest area of Jackson Hole, an uber-wealthy mountain retreat.
Here’s a map of the top 10 zip codes in question that shows the distribution of these locales throughout the country (via Digg):
The complete list of neighborhoods, broken down by region, can be viewed here.
Share on Facebook
