West Palm and Palm Beach rank in top 5 as cities with fastest growth in millionaires
A swell of affluence in South Florida kept West Palm Beach and Palm Beach in a "Top 5" list of the fastest-growing cities nationwide for accumulating millionaire residents over the past decade, according to a wealth-tracking report released this month.
The two Palm Beach County cities experienced a 93% increase in millionaires between 2013 and 2023, ranking it 3rd in this year’s Henley & Partners USA Wealth Report.
That’s a dip from the cities’ second-place finishes in the 2022 and 2023 reports but maintains a benchmark that some business experts said began a quick ascent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What we have seen since COVID is an increased surge in financial services firms moving to Palm Beach County who are escaping states that are not as business-friendly,” said Business Development Board of Palm Beach County President and CEO Kelly Smallridge. “After COVID, the vast majority of new business tenants were from out of state, which was a very new trend for us.”
The new wealth report ranked Austin, Texas, in the top spot for growing its millionaire residents with an increase of 110% since 2013. It was followed by runner up Scottsdale, Arizona, which experienced a 102% increase in millionaires.
In sheer numbers, West Palm Beach and Palm Beach have 10,200 millionaires, 69 centi-millionaires (people with $100 million-plus) and nine billionaires.
Countywide, Smallridge estimates there are 47 billionaires.
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Falling out of the Top 5 ranking was Miami, which had placed 4th and 5th in the previous two years’ reports. Instead, the Connecticut towns of Greenwich and Darien came in 4th in the 2024 report with the California Bay Area ranking 5th.
Smallridge said after heavy-hitter financial companies such as Goldman Sachs, Millennium Management, Point 72 Asset Management and Citadel opened offices in West Palm Beach, the city’s nascent reputation as “Wall Street South” was bolstered, attracting more firms.
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“West Palm Beach was kind of a sleepy tertiary town before,” said billionaire real estate investor Jeff Greene, who lives in Palm Beach.
He said a fervor to leave restrictive urban areas in the northeast during the pandemic, coupled with low interest rates, led many people who were already planning a move to South Florida to speed up the timeline.
Parents of children at his private Greene School in West Palm Beach have multiple Ivy League degrees and are settling in areas such as the popular south of Southern Boulevard, or SoSo, neighborhood, where he said they find a sense of community amid families with similar backgrounds and interests.
“Some of them are going to build some very successful big businesses here that will employ a lot of people,” Greene said.
Florida Atlantic University housing economist Ken H. Johnson said the growth of millionaire residents has been a trend for several years and is less convinced that the pandemic was the main driver of the increase in millionaire residents.
Regardless of the reasons, he said a growth in wealth “bodes well for the county.”
“This is a good thing, there is nothing negative about it,” Johnson said. “Now it’s just a matter of how we are going to spend it and invest it in society.”
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While donations to philanthropic organizations will increase as newcomers seek to establish themselves in the community, a focus on buttressing schools and building affordable housing should also be a priority, he said.
Smallridge said the Business Development Board is shifting its efforts from pure recruitment of companies to making sure the ones that have already relocated want to stay long term. That includes increasing transportation options and building more housing, she said.
William Luther, an associate professor of economics at FAU, cautioned against attaching too much meaning to the increase in millionaires when the hurdle to become a millionaire is lower than it has been in the past.
Adjusting for inflation, he said $1 million 25 years ago would be about $1.7 million today.
“What that means is more retirees are going to have $1 million and places where retirees relocate are going to have a bigger growth in millionaires,” Luther said.
An analysis in the Henley & Partners report notes that millionaire retirees, especially from New York and California, are contributing to the growth in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. But the report also attributes the increase to transplants coming from the fund management and entertainment sectors.
Hollywood icon Sylvester Stallone said earlier this year in an episode of "The Family Stallone" that he and his wife Jennifer Flavin Stallone were leaving California "permanently" to live in their waterfront Palm Beach estate.
Luther said he is more inclined to attribute an increase in centi-millionaires and billionaires to the pandemic.
“I think we have so much momentum, the number of millionaires here is going to grow,” Johnson said. “Money attracts other money.”
Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to [email protected]. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: USA Wealth: Fastest growth in millionaires is in West Palm, Palm Beach
