Posted on 01/07/2006 7:32:16 PM PST by Torie
BOSTON (AP) -- If you live in the Boston area, you may already know that some of your neighbors are wealthy. But over the next five years, the number of millionaires in the region is expected to increase by 50 percent, according to two wealth management companies.
The Boston metropolitan area already has a high percentage of millionaires in its population -- 4.8 percent, or nearly one in 20 households -- a higher percentage than in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, each with 3.7 percent of its population as millionaires.
By 2009, the number of millionaire households in the Boston region is expected to jump to 88,000, up from 58,000 in 2004.
The projected increase in millionaires will be fueled by several factors, according to William Whitt, vice president of strategic marketing at Northern Trust, which obtained information on the growth in millionaires from Claritas Inc., a demographic data company.
In the Boston area, millionaires are found mostly in suburban towns, according to the Claritas data. In Lincoln and Weston, more than a quarter of the households are millionaires. The 02110 zip code of downtown Boston has 24 percent millionaires.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Boston wealth bump.
Ain't inflation wonderful?
Well, the socialist cradle seems to have the highest percent of millionaries on the fruited plain. Why would have imagined that?
I'm sure that's a big part of it. Not only have housing prices skyrocketed across the country, they've especially done so (and continue to rise) in strictly-zoned and already built-up neighborhoods. I wonder how many of those are in and around Boston?
That was my guess. Without clicking the link, I'm guessing real estate appreciation is the primary source of the increased wealth.
OTOH, if high taxes is so great, why does the northeast have such high emigration? Why are the number of net jobs stagnant for decades? Why are businesses moving west and south? Why are people moving there too?
Hardly. From the article itself: Some of Boston's principal industries, including technology companies, law firms and financial services companies, pay their executives high salaries. Also, a generation of baby boomers is entering peak earning years and saving for retirement in 401(k) plans, so that even middle managers can save more than $1 million.
What you are seeing here is two things. First, there are principle industries that tend to pay high salaries no matter where they are located. But in Boston and surrounding areas, the high cost of living and taxes will necessitate even higher salaries in order to compensate for the high costs of being there. They have to do this to attract talent. Second, much of the money is expected to be in 401K's, which means it hasn't been taxed yet. In fact, the high taxes are a tremendous incentive for them to do everything they can to shield their income from high taxes by contributing the max to their 401K's. The high taxes are driving the high savings rate to get OUT of paying the taxes. Odds are, when it is time to start withdrawals, they'll move out of Taxachusetts to somewhere warm with lower taxes, like Florida.
Many created, no doubt, by money funneled to them through projects like the Big Dig. Government work can be lucrative, especially when there's no accountability for the shoddy workmanship or missing funds. The same ghosts that vote for Ted Kennedy were on Big Dig payrolls. Hard not to make a profit when your help is that cheap.
Few people live there - this is the downtown/financial district etc ...
Cut the subsidized federal student loan program by 2 thirds and Bostons housing market will plummet, along with all its millionaires.
By the way, the price of farm land in Iowa keeps going up. I watch Madison County like a hawk. Catch the wave.
Senator Kennedy just reported his BAR bill!
Of course, but it is not so much the subsidized students, as the subsidized research. Students are chump change. In fact, Harvard and MIT would flouish without any federal student subsidies. That is why God created endowments, and favored Boston most of all with his generousity.
The aunt of President Bush lives in Lincoln I think.
Unless the Big Dig got massive federal funds though, it would just be moving the chairs around on the Titanic. In fact, NE exports money to the South and West via federal taxes.
Liberal scum, of the rich variety.
According to Scott Burns (financial writer for the Dallas Morning News) 4.7% is really not that far out of the ordinary.
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