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Beachfront neighborhoods in the Hamptons. An exclusive island off the coast of Miami. Palm tree-dotted communities with views of the Pacific Ocean.
These are some of the places we think of as the most affluent in the country, but how you define and measure that affluence matters. Some of the most thriving neighborhoods in the country are in places you might not expect.
To better understand how prosperity is distributed throughout the country, Business Insider examined four sets of income and housing data and a recent Economic Innovation Group study based on additional metrics.
High average incomes from Miami to Kentucky
For some, the right measure of affluence is relatively straightforward — how much the typical resident earns. To determine which areas top the list of highest incomes, Business Insider analyzed Census Bureau data on mean household incomes across all zip codes in the US that have at least 100 households.
Leading that list was the Miami Beach-Fisher Island area, an exclusive, ultrawealthy enclave in the Sunshine State. The mean household income there was just under $800,000 as of 2023. Other high-earning zip codes include various locales in downtown New York City and some of the tony suburbs surrounding it in the tri-state area. But ultra-wealthy enclaves in less expected locations like Kelly, Wyoming and Glenview, Kentucky, also topped the list.
Places where there are a lot of high earners
But that doesn’t mean wealth is evenly distributed in those high-earning spots. Another measure of affluence is how widespread higher earners are across a ZIP code. Looking at the areas with the highest share of total households earning $200,000 or more shows a slightly different mix. Six locales — Short Hills, NJ; Purchase, NY; Villanova, PA; Paeonian Springs, VA; Glenview, KY; and Kenilworth, IL — rank in the top 20 for both mean household income and the share of households earning $200,000 or more.
Where the highest average home prices are
Many Americans’ wealth is largely tied up in their homes, so looking at the value of real estate gives another insight into where the affluent live.
Once again, the high-earning Miami Beach-Fisher Island tops the list of most expensive listings compiled by Realtor.com. Los Altos Hills in California makes the list for both the share of its homes that are worth $1 million or more and having the priciest listings; meanwhile, the many residents earning $200,000 or more in New York City’s Tribeca might need to make even more money to afford a new home.
The New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami metro areas have long topped the list for priciest real estate, Realtor.com senior economist Anthony Smith told Business Insider. And many of their most coveted zip codes have something in common: proximity to water. Another similarity is that many of these communities severely restrict the number of new homes they can add, including through land-use regulations like large-lot zoning or high common fees.
“That exclusivity and that limited construction is definitely going to be one of the big factors that really bumps up those prices,” Smith said.
Every house in a handful of neighborhoods is worth at least $1 million
Looking at the share of owner-occupied homes worth $1,000,000 or more shows some wealth bifurcation: A handful of ZIP codes are in both the top 20 for mean household income and share of homes worth $1 million or more. However, there’s no crossover with the areas with the most households earning $200,000 or more.
Broad prosperity is moving west and south
Researchers at the Economic Innovation Group took a more holistic look at affluence and determined an area’s prosperity with seven data points covering education, job market strength, poverty, and housing.
Utah, Colorado, and Montana lead the country with the highest share of their populations living in prosperous zip codes, or those that scored in the top 20% of their seven metrics, according to the new report. The states have seen significant job growth and have attracted legions of mobile, high-earning workers in recent years.
Growth in cities like Denver and Salt Lake City “has been much slower and steadier, and they’re not really saddled with the legacies of segregation, of de-industrialization, of urban poverty that afflicts most cities east of the Mississippi River,” Kenan Fikri, a senior fellow at EIG, told Business Insider.
EIG found that in recent years, prosperity has moved westward and southward. While the South is still home to the most distressed counties in the country, pockets of prosperity are growing in major metro areas like Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, and Nashville, Fikri said. And despite coastal metro areas dominating lists of most expensive real estate and highest incomes, there are pockets of economic growth and well-being across the country.
“Prosperous communities are much more evenly spread across the map than distressed communities are, and in every state, you can find a good number of ZIP codes that land in the top tier of American economic well-being,” Fikri said, “which, in a country as big and diverse as ours, is no mean feat.”
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