Posted on 04/24/2017 1:00:56 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Where is the richest county in the nation in terms of average gross income? For a long time now if you’d have guessed one of the collar counties around the nation’s capitol you’d have been correct. You’d also likely be forgiven for suggesting one of the bedroom communities around the Big Apple in Connecticut and New York. They’re traditional magnets for money. But according to Time Magazine, the latest figures show that wealth has begun to aggregate somewhere new and it’s far, far to the west. One county in Texas is now at the top of the heap and it’s all thanks to a boom in domestic energy exploration.
Ten years ago, you probably could have predicted the richest counties in America, as measured by adjusted gross income. Fairfield County, Conn., topped the list in 2005, followed by Teton County in Wyoming (home of wealthy enclave Jackson Hole), and they were subsequently in the top 5 for the next few years, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), which collects data from the IRS.
But as of 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, only one of them is still in the top 5: Teton County, where the average adjusted gross income was $248,949. What’s most surprising is that a state that used to never figure in at the top now dominates the top 10 — including the overall #1 spot on the list.
According to TRAC, McMullen County, Texas, which lies in the heart of the Eagle Ford shale patch south of San Antonio, now has the highest average adjusted gross income in the U.S.: $303,717. At #4 is Texas’s Glasscock County ($181,375), which sits in the equally productive Barnett shale patch in West Texas.
That’s pretty remarkable. Two other Texas counties rich in shale oil are also near the top of the list. And as the report indicates, only ten years ago not a single county in Texas was in the top 30. Oh what a difference a few years of drill baby drill can produce.
When you look at locations such as McMullen County, this dominating average gross income isn’t just the result of a few large landowners cashing in on leasing deals. That’s great for those with the resources, but not enough to drive up the overall numbers that far. What we’re seeing here is the secondary benefits of this surge in productivity. More people in the area now have very lucrative jobs working in the industry, driving up their income. And in turn, they buy more houses and luxury goods, creating additional jobs in construction and other sectors. It’s the trickle down theory on steroids.
We’ve seen other such surges around the country. Pennsylvania has been a major benefactor of this type of development, seeing significant increases in average income in areas where fracking has been embraced while their neighbors a few miles to the north in New York continue to endure stagnant job numbers and declining population as people flee the area. But it’s not just the bulls working the oil rigs who are doing better. Just this month the Governor of Pennsylvania announced that the industry was stretching out even further, with new opportunities in petrochemical and plastics manufacturing arising as a direct result of all the resources being developed locally. Just as in Texas, this represents opportunities for greater wealth in a variety of occupations well beyond just the people leasing land to the energy companies.
We’re strengthening our hand in the international market as well. Bloomberg reported this weekend that OPEC’s efforts to counter the surge in American energy production have simply fallen flat, giving us the upper hand for the foreseeable future.
OPEC’s plan to balance the global oil market with production cuts has been derailed by a stronger-than-expected US shale revival, driven by rapid progress, technological advances and higher price expectations. Increased shale activity has caused US crude production to surge by 550,000 barrels per day since OPEC announced in November that it would cut supplies, with production seen rising by 860,000 barrels per day by the end of this year, according to the Energy Information Administration.
This is the type of surging economic activity which is the only real path to returned prosperity in America. It doesn’t come from some sort of short term sugar high produced by government intervention and “stimulation” via taxpayer funded giveaways. It’s sustainable growth which produces actual wealth and adds to the GDP. And it creates wealth for individuals as well, returning economic power to the rest of the country rather than concentrating it around the Beltway. It’s just a shame that you don’t hear the critics on CNN and MSNBC admitting it.
WTF is a “Bedroom Community”? Is it a town where people visit each other’s bedrooms?
An entity that exists solely for people to live in and commute to work elsewhere with support businesses, grocery, gas stations, etc.
A “Bedroom Community” is a suburban community where people “go home to sleep” after going to work everyday in a major Metropolis ( like New York City ).
Connecticut and Long Island have been called that.
It’s where you gotta drive a ways to get to work rather than just go up the block.
Some of ‘em drive 30 miles or so.
(me)
It’s a commuter town which is typically sparse anything other than houses and a few gas stations. The people who live there shop and eat out in the city on down the highway. They probably have a school, but not a pharmacy or a grocery store.
So the houses only have bedrooms?...Lol!
At 4:30 tomorrow morning, my alarm goes off and it starts all over again!
According to TRAC, McMullen County, Texas, which lies in the heart of the Eagle Ford shale patch south of San Antonio, now has the highest average adjusted gross income in the U.S.: $303,717. At #4 is Texas’s Glasscock County ($181,375), which sits in the equally productive Barnett shale patch in West Texas.
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McMullen County has a population of 764 people. I repeat.
764 people. In the whole dang county.
So to claim this is the richest county in America is no big deal. What.... maybe 10 families owning a butt-load of oil rich land does not mean wealth as we know it.
(Although I wish I owned land there. Yes I do.)
“The richest county in the country has moved far from Washington DC”
The county moved? How?
Glasscock County shows pop 1200 but I don’t see how unless the counted the migrant workers out at St. Lawrence.
Fracking has had a significant impact here in WV, the problem has been pipelines to get the gas out. Over the next few years as they come online it will pickup. Slow improvement now..
Sam, that’s a crazy schedule! You need to move into the City, or at least closer.
My father and all the others like him dI’d that for 30 years. My brother is presently doing it. It was pAR for the couse for most dads when I was going up her on LONG Island. (Forget what it would cost to go live in the city)
I’m up here in CT and feel sorry for those who have a 40 minute daily commute into GCT.
I remember my shock when I was in Sydney, Australia, a number of years ago and found out how many people had a two-hour drive each way getting in and out from their jobs in the city.
The town with the highest per capita ratio of millionaires used to be Ardmore, Oklahoma. These millionaires were the result of the oil exploration in Southern Oklahoma back in the first half of the 20th Century. There was one neighborhood in SE Ardmore whhere the paper route was sold at auction. It was not uncommon for these residents to give a $100 tip for Christmas. In the 1950’s, that was real money.
In Texas, it isn’t unusual for commuters to drive 70 miles (one way) every day. Never heard of “bedroom community.”.
It also isn’t unusual to drive 30 miles to the grocery store or Walmart.
This article made me smile today.
#drillbabydrill #strangleOpec #MAGA
Live it up now because those counties will go bust the next time the oil boom goes bust. Happens every time.
In the movie “Giant” Elizabeth Taylor is talking to a new neighbor in Texas who explains they have a little ol place and that they struck oil and were bringing in a million dollars.
She replies “That’s nice, a year?”
The neighbor replies “A month”
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