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Community Corner

Washington, DC, Ranks in Top Five 'Richest Metros in America'

The top two areas may surprise you.

 

The Bureau of Economic Analysis recently released a report naming the Top 20 “Richest Metros in America” based on personal income data from 2011, according to an article on The Atlantic’s website.

The Washington, DC, metro area ranked No. 5 in the list, with a per capita income of just under $60,000, trailing San Jose and San Francisco, CA, at just over $60,000.

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The top two metropolitan areas on the list?

Bridgeport, CT, and Midland, TX.

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The article’s author, Derek Thompson, delves deeper into Bridgeport, describing the dichotomy of the “struggling industrial city,” Bridgeport and Greenwich “home for hedge fund billionaires." Thompson believes that using a median figure would give a more accurate representation of the area at a “typical household income figure closer to $30,000.”

Midland, TX, however, is in a petroleum-rich portion of western Texas and has an unemployment rate of only 3 percent.

Major cities that one might expect to place higher in the list – Boston and New York – placed seventh and eighth respectively.  

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