Naperville Is The Richest City In The Midwest, Study Says
By Mae Rice in News on May 23, 2016 7:38PM
Naperville, Illinois, is the richest city in the Midwest, according to an analysis financial website Nerdwallet released Monday. Chicago—another Midwestern city you might have heard of—didn't make the list of the region's top 20 wealthiest cities, but Chicagoland was well represented. Suburbs galore made appearances; not only was Naperville number one, but Arlington Heights (#3), Evanston (#4), Palatine (#7) and Bolingbrook (#9) all made the list.
The analysis the NerdWallet's rankings were based on relied on four key factors: a city's median household income; its median home value as of February; the percent of homes citywide without a mortgage; and the average credit limit for credit card holders in the area.
Based on those metrics, Naperville not only stands out as the wealthiest place in the region—the Midwest as a whole also stands out as pretty affordable. Naperville was only the 19th richest city nationwide, and the city's median home value—$364K—was roughly a seventh of the median home value in the nation's wealthiest city, Palo Alto: $2.5 million.
Still, you should never ever worry that Chicago proper doesn't have its fair share of freakishly rich people. Illinois' richest man, Ken Griffin, lives in Chicago, according to Forbes (and he made $1.7 billion last year alone). We're also planning, as a city, to somehow rent out these hella expensive apartments. Chicago definitely has rich people; they're just not the only people here. And thank goodness, or we'd have nothing to eat but foam from Alinea.
[H/T Tribune]