Richest U.S. counties are getting even richer
The billionaire playgrounds of Jackson Hole and Aspen are getting richer, according to new federal data, which show residents of these pricey ski resorts — along with Manhattan — commanding the highest personal income in the U.S.
Per-capita income in Teton County, Wyoming, tops the list at almost $252,000 on average. Home to the wealthy enclave of Jackson Hole — where Bill Gates purchased “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s former ranch -is the only county to exceed $250,000 in data going back to 1969.
Pitkin County, Colorado, which includes Aspen and surrounding cities, has long lured millionaires and billionaires to its slopes. Some of the luminaries who have had financial stakes in the region include Koch Industries’ Charles Koch and investor John Paulson.
Pitkin ranks third among
U.S. counties in per capita personal income, at $149,207, according to data from 2018 released earlier this month from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Some west Texas communities such as Midland and Glasscock counties, both part of the booming Permian Basin oil-and gasproducing region, also fared well. Per capita income rose about 43% in Midland in the decade through 2018, BEA data show.
In Pitkin County, high incomes aren’t shared equally among its nearly 18,000 residents, contributing to a shortage of affordable housing. About twothirds of the workers in Aspen and nearby Snowmass commute into the area, often from as far as 75 minutes away, said Karen Peirson, chairwoman of the Aspen Board of Realtors.
And it’s no wonder, as Aspen’s year-to-date median price for a single-family home hit $6 million, data from the Realtors group show.