By Vincent Del Giudice and Wei Lu
(Bloomberg) -- Palm Beach, Florida -- home of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club and its $200,000 initiation fee -- tops the list of 29 places across the U.S. where income from investments exceeds the nation’s average household earnings.
Florida’s easternmost town, established with the help of railroad baron Henry Flagler, had an annual average of $176,173 in passive income in 2015. The Bloomberg ranking of earnings from interest, dividends, rents, and royalties, as well as distributions from estates and trusts, is based on Census Bureau data and includes places with at least 2,000 households.
The national average for all types household income, including wages, Social Security payments and pensions, was $75,558, based on the same five-year American Community Survey data set used by Bloomberg for the analysis.
Ten of the 29 cities and towns on the list were located in Florida, the most of any state. Indian River Shores, just north of Palm Beach, ranked third with passive income of more than $155,000 in 2015. Both are popular destinations for affluent retirees.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking the world’s 500 wealthiest individuals, 10 billionaires, with a combined estimated net worth of $118 billion, have a residence in Palm Beach.
It’s no surprise that the East and West Coasts have the highest concentrations of wealth. California, with eight cities listed, is led by Atherton with an average of $174,000 in passive income and No. 2 in the rankings. Montecito, California, was fourth overall at $150,000, followed by Cherry Hills Village in Colorado, a suburb of Denver, at $140,000.
(Note: the IRS classifies passive income differently than the Census department.)
--With assistance from Mark Glassman, Brandon Kochkodin, Pat Regnier and Anders Melin.To contact the reporters on this story: Vincent Del Giudice in Denver at [email protected] ;Wei Lu in New York at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Tanzi at [email protected] Vince Golle, Kristy Scheuble
