Fisher Island is America’s Richest Place according to Forbes

Well, we need to define what Forbes means by “America’s Richest place”, before we get excited, but personally, I didn’t find this to be a surprise.   To find out where this country’s most prosperous hang out, William Baldwin explains, in his America’s Millionaire Capitals article,

So I put a finer sieve on the database [IRS database of income tax statistics], zeroing in on communities where the average income within the 200K-and-up set is at least $1 million.

Result: a set of 130,400 tax returns from 64 hot spots of prosperity–suburbs, islands, parts of cities. The list of ritzy places ranges from Fisher Island, an enclave of yacht owners off Miami, to the Tribeca area of Manhattan, where wage slaves with seven-figure salaries have their chic loft apartments.

Here’s where it gets interesting, Baldwin not only calculates that Fisher Island has an average of $3.2 million per high-bracket taxpayer, but he also estimated net worths using figures on dividend, interest and business income as starting points.

In estimated net worth, the richest five communities are: Fisher Island, at $57 million per high-bracket return; Alpine, at $28 million; Medina, at $26 million; Palm Beach, Fla., at $23 million, and the King’s Point/Great Neck area on Long Island, at $22 million.

And in case you keep believing all the here say about the rich paying less taxes –

The federal tax take from this club is $41 billion, or a fourth of their $164 billion in income. That 25% rate is almost double the rate for the average American paying at least some federal income tax.

And when it comes to charity,

There’s a big range, too, in charitable impulses.  The big givers live in Medina, Longboat Key and the horse country around Charlottesville, Va. Wealthy families in these three places put aside 5% or more of their income for philanthropy.

Hats off to Fisher Island for keeping their reputation intact through the years, even in the midst of such a crazy and fluctuating economy.