Wealthiest Areas in the Nation

Well this will rattle a few wine glasses and BMW windows in and around several of the affluent Atlanta areas…the numbers are out and according to On Numbers, there’s a new hot spot for concentrated wealth in Georgia…Berkeley Lake. It is at the top of the state in terms of overall wealth and median household income.

Nationwide, it’s the rare family in Hidden Hills, Calif., that doesn’t have an annual income of more than $150,000. Nearly four-fifths of all households in the elite Los Angeles suburb — 78.5 percent — are above that threshold, giving Hidden Hills the strongest concentration of upper-end incomes in America. Chevy Chase Village, Md., a suburb of Washington, is the runner-up at 76.6 percent. The only other places where more than 70 percent of all households have incomes above $150,000 are a pair of New York City suburbs: Oyster Bay Cove and Munsey Park.

Looking at median household income, levels in six communities are so high that they are literally off the charts. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the median household income (MHI) is $250,001 in Brookville, Muttontown and Oyster Bay Cove, N.Y.; Chevy Chase Village, Md.; Hidden Hills, Calif.; and Hunters Creek Village, Texas. The actual figures are probably bigger, but $250,001 is as high as the bureau’s American Community Survey goes. MHI is defined as the annual income of a typical household in a given community, with half of all households earning more and half earning less.

Berkeley Lake has the highest concentration of wealthy people in Georgia, according analysis by On Numbers. The Atlanta Business Chronicle analyzed statistics for 14,214 cities, towns and villages with populations of 1,000 or more to find the highest concentrations of households with incomes above $150,000 in 2009.

Here are the top 10 wealthiest Georgia cities/areas followed by the percentage of households with incomes above $150,000:

1. Berkeley Lake — 41.23 percent
2. Milton — 36.94 percent
3. Johns Creek — 30.64 percent
4. Skidaway Island — 27.26 percent
5. Dunwoody — 26.58 percent
6. Druid Hills — 26.51 percent
7. Sandy Springs — 25.23 percent
8. Alpharetta — 23.75 percent
9. Roswell — 22.84 percent
10. Peachtree City — 21.98 percent

For the record, about 15 percent of Atlanta households were worth $150,000 or more. Click here for the nationwide annual income list  and here for the median household income list.