The answer might surprise you…
Website GOBankingRates.com ranked 50 cities and towns among America’s wealthiest. Here’s the rundown.
Palm Beach has been called a lot of things over the years — from “Queen of the Florida Gold Coast” to “The Winter Playground of the American Rich.”
But one thing the town is almost never called is a “suburb.”
“A suburb of what?” asked one local real estate wag this week, when told that Palm Beach ranked No. 11 on a new list of “America’s Wealthiest Suburbs” compiled by the financial website GOBankingRates.com.
Turns out that the website considers Palm Beach to be suburb of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area, a designation used by U.S Census officials. The geographical comparison may seem a little odd to Palm Beach residents, because Broward County — home to Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach — is about 57 miles south of Palm Beach.
![The wealthy island town of Palm Beach is bordered on the west by the Intracoastal Waterway, foreground, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean.](https://i0.wp.com/www.palmbeachdailynews.com/gcdn/presto/2021/08/11/NPBD/03c26ea5-3a03-4ab3-a478-51128e9c873e-073021_season_preview_24.jpg?ssl=1)
In any case, Palm Beach just missed earning a spot in the list’s Top 10 ranking, with its average household income of $365,991, based on data from 2022 American Community Survey. Palm Beach was among 50 towns and cities ranked by income.
The “typical home value” in Palm Beach — $11.57 million — was also included, based on data from the real estate website Zillow.
Even though the town has a reputation as one of the wealthiest enclaves in the country, Palm Beach often ranks lower than might be expected on lists of this sort.
Blame, in part, the wide diversity of housing in the town, which helps dilute the concentration of individual household wealth.
The town, after all, has 2,278 single-family homes, 5,279 condominium units and 946 cooperative apartments, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office. Housing in Palm Beach ranges from oceanfront mansions that can sell for more than $100 million to studio condos worth a tiny fraction of that amount.
At least 61 billionaires own property in Palm Beach, according to the latest analysis of Forbes data by the Palm Beach Daily News. But plenty of residents have a much lower net worth. In all, the town’s population numbered 9,245 in the 2020 Census.
The only other Florida town to make the new GOBankingRates list was Pinecrest, near Miami. Like Palm Beach, Pinecrest was identified as a suburb of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach area and was ranked No. 20, with a household income of $304,416 and a typical home value of $2.24 million.
The wealthiest suburb on the list was Scarsdale, New York, where the average household income is $568,942 and the typical home value is $1.4 million.
GOBankingRates looked at all cities with 5,000 or more households and then isolated the 50 “suburbs” with the highest average household incomes.
In all, the country’s East Coast had 23 suburbs on the list, including five in New York and five in New Jersey. In second place was the West Coast with 19 suburbs. California had the most ranked suburbs at 16.
Here the complete rankings.
1. Scarsdale, New York
- Suburb of: New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
- Average household income: $568,942
- Typical home value: $1,413,514
2. Rye, New York
- Suburb of: New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
- Average household income: $405,074
- Typical home value: $2,119,482
3. West University Place, Texas
- Suburb of: Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX
- Average household income: $403,845
- Typical home value: $1,605,049
4. Los Altos, California
- Suburb of: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
- Average household income: $400,817
- Typical home value: $4,451,059
5. Paradise Valley, Arizona
- Suburb of: Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ
- Average household income: $385,643
- Typical home value: $3,449,905
6. University Park, Texas
- Suburb of: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
- Average household income: $381,235
- Typical home value: $2,305,281
7. Hinsdale, Illinois
- Suburb of: Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL
- Average household income: $380,479
- Typical home value: $1,088,871
8. Great Falls, Virginia
- Suburb of: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD
- Average household income: $373,735
- Typical home value: $1,564,775
9. Orinda, California
- Suburb of: San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
- Average household income: $370,203
- Typical home value: $2,078,615
10. Wellesley, Massachusetts
- Suburb of: Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA
- Average household income: $367,801
- Typical home value: $1,979,339
11. Palm Beach, Florida
- Suburb of: Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL
- Average household income: $365,991
- Typical home value: $11,571,608
12. McLean, Virginia
- Suburb of: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD
- Average household income: $364,093
- Typical home value: $1,541,929
13. Southlake, Texas
- Suburb of: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
- Average household income: $360,078
- Typical home value: $1,240,766
14. Palos Verdes Estates, California
- Suburb of: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
- Average household income: $342,463
- Typical home value: $2,890,788
15. Saratoga, California
- Suburb of: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
- Average household income: $329,142
- Typical home value: $3,981,261
16. Menlo Park, California
- Suburb of: San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
- Average household income: $316,584
- Typical home value: $2,810,388
17. Lafayette, California
- Suburb of: San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
- Average household income: $312,233
- Typical home value: $2,001,408
18. La Cañada Flintridge, California
- Suburb of: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
- Average household income: $310,947
- Typical home value: $2,481,526
19. Los Gatos, California
- Suburb of: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
- Average household income: $305,653
- Typical home value: $2,740,764
20. Pinecrest, Florida
- Suburb of: Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL
- Average household income: $304,416
- Typical home value: $2,243,489
21. Mill Valley, California
- Suburb of: San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
- Average household income: $303,623
- Typical home value: $2,152,207
22. Wolf Trap, Virginia
- Suburb of: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD
- Average household income: $301,790
- Typical home value: $1,204,121
23. Palo Alto, California
- Suburb of: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
- Average household income: $301,226
- Typical home value: $3,654,765
24. San Carlos, California
- Suburb of: San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
- Average household income: $298,397
- Typical home value: $2,441,915
25. Bellaire, Texas
- Suburb of: Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX
- Average household income: $294,605
- Typical home value: $1,078,719
26. Summit, New Jersey
- Suburb of: New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
- Average household income: $291,509
- Typical home value: $1,244,244
27. Tenafly, New Jersey
- Suburb of: New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
- Average household income: $291,096
- Typical home value: $1,168,510
28. Mercer Island, Washington
- Suburb of: Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
- Average household income: $290,655
- Typical home value: $2,374,579
29. Potomac, Maryland
- Suburb of: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD
- Average household income: $287,918
- Typical home value: $1,328,491
30. Lake Forest, Illinois
- Suburb of: Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL
- Average household income: $284,784
- Typical home value: $1,097,029
31. Winchester, Massachusetts
- Suburb of: Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA
- Average household income: $283,632
- Typical home value: $1,639,942
32. Cupertino, California
- Suburb of: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
- Average household income: $283,063
- Typical home value: $3,145,958
33. Westfield, New Jersey
- Suburb of: New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
- Average household income: $281,738
- Typical home value: $1,138,497
34. Bethesda, Maryland
- Suburb of: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD
- Average household income: $281,586
- Typical home value: $1,286,315
35. Lexington, Massachusetts
- Suburb of: Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA
- Average household income: $281,187
- Typical home value: $1,641,388
36. Manhattan Beach, California
- Suburb of: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
- Average household income: $280,470
- Typical home value: $3,161,132
37. Garden City, New York
- Suburb of: New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
- Average household income: $279,539
- Typical home value: $1,196,407
38. Ridgewood, New Jersey
- Suburb of: New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
- Average household income: $277,428
- Typical home value: $1,055,405
39. Greenwich, Connecticut
- Suburb of: New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
- Average household income: $276,350
- Typical home value: $2,345,511
40. Wilmette, Illinois
- Suburb of: Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL
- Average household income: $273,718
- Typical home value: $896,128
41. Princeton, New Jersey
- Suburb of: New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
- Average household income: $269,420
- Typical home value: $967,165
42. Needham, Massachusetts
- Suburb of: Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA
- Average household income: $267,951
- Typical home value: $1,541,698
43. Mountain Brook, Alabama
- Suburb of: Birmingham-Hoover, AL
- Average household income: $267,337
- Typical home value: $832,745
44. Vienna, Virginia
- Suburb of: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD
- Average household income: $265,744
- Typical home value: $1,112,463
45. Danville, California
- Suburb of: San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
- Average household income: $264,134
- Typical home value: $2,014,964
46. Dix Hills, New York
- Suburb of: New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
- Average household income: $262,723
- Typical home value: $998,484
47. Sammamish, Washington
- Suburb of: Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
- Average household income: $261,753
- Typical home value: $1,657,550
48. Moraga, California
- Suburb of: San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
- Average household income: $259,468
- Typical home value: $1,897,230
49. Calabasas, California
- Suburb of: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
- Average household income: $257,894
- Typical home value: $1,922,163
50. Harrison, New York
- Suburb of: New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
- Average household income: $257,202
- Typical home value: $1,312,689