Here is a surprising fact. Forbes Magazine looked at the 2004 US Census and came up with a list of cities with the highest median income. You would think that LA, New York City would definitely be on the list of the top 10. Not so.
Surprisingly our own VA Beach was ranked 4th on the list.
Median income is the level at which half of the households make more and half less.
San Francisco and Washington, D.C., are in the top 10 as well although New York, Boston and Miami are nowhere to be seen in the top ten. California cities make up 40% of the rankings, and the rest is made up by some surprising locales, including Anchorage, Raleigh, N.C., and Virginia Beach, Va. While pleasant places, they aren’t generally thought of as homes for the rich and famous.
What gives? A combination of local economic strength, geographical quirks and the limitations of the analysis, which measures the middle of the income distribution, rather than the extremes.
Newer cities also have higher median incomes than more established places, like Boston or Chicago, because they are growing and have people moving in rather than out. Look just outside the city of Philadelphia (which also did not make the top ten), for example, and you will see an abundance of wealthy suburbs.
Virginia Beach is also helped by its strong military economic base. Military areas tend to have less-extreme income distributions (a reason San Diego makes the list as well), and retirees in the area tend to have comfortable military pensions.
|
Rank |
City |
State |
Median Household Income |
Median Home Price |
|
1 |
San Jose |
California |
$71,765 |
$625,000 |
|
2 |
Anchorage |
Alaska |
$61,595 |
$294,374 |
|
3 |
San Francisco |
California |
$60,031 |
$726,900 |
|
4 |
Virginia Beach |
Virginia |
$55,781 |
$192,000 |
|
5 |
San Diego |
California |
$51,382 |
$605,600 |
|
6 |
Anaheim |
California |
$49,622 |
$696,100 |
|
7 |
Raleigh |
North Carolina |
$47,878 |
$185,200 |
|
8 |
Seattle |
Washington |
$46,650 |
$310,300 |
|
9 |
Washington |
District of Columbia |
$46,574 |
$429,900 |
|
10 |
Honolulu |
Hawaii |
$46,500 |
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