Palm Beach has been called a lot of things over the years — from “Queen of the Florida Gold Coast” to “The Winter Playground of the American Rich.”
But one thing the town is almost never called is a “suburb.”
“A suburb of what?” asked one local real estate wag this week, when told that Palm Beach ranked No. 11 on a new list of “America’s Wealthiest Suburbs” compiled by the financial website GOBankingRates.com.
Turns out that the website considers Palm Beach to be suburb of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area, a designation used by U.S Census officials. The geographical comparison may seem a little odd to Palm Beach residents, because Broward County — home to Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach — is about 57 miles south of Palm Beach.
In any case, Palm Beach just missed earning a spot in the list’s Top 10 ranking, with its average household income of $365,991, based on data from 2022 American Community Survey. Palm Beach was among 50 towns and cities ranked by income.
The “typical home value” in Palm Beach — $11.57 million — was also included, based on data from the real estate website Zillow.
Even though the town has a reputation as one of the wealthiest enclaves in the country, Palm Beach often ranks lower than might be expected on lists of this sort.
Blame, in part, the wide diversity of housing in the town, which helps dilute the concentration of individual household wealth.
The town, after…
