People can get pretty defensive about where they live — just ask the residents of Palm Beach.
The snowbird haven and luxury enclave has a ritzy reputation, and residents have taken issue with the South Florida town being labeled a “suburb” of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Florida, metro area in a recent GoBanking.com roundup of the wealthiest suburbs in the U.S.
Jeff Lichtenstein | Echo Fine Properties
“Palm Beach is a category by itself,” Jeff Lichtenstein of Echo Fine Properties told Inman in an email, explaining why residents might respond with such an uproar. “Palm Beach is its own über-wealthy, own-world enclave.”
Dana Koch of Corcoran Group agreed that the categorization by GoBanking.com seemed off.
“If anything, Palm Beach is kind of the top of the food chain when it comes to towns and cities in Palm Beach County,” Koch told Inman.
“Palm Beach is seen as a gold standard,” Koch added, wondering how much “homework” GoBanking.com did on the city before compiling the ranking. “I mean, is Nantucket a suburb of Boston?”
The area is designated as part of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area by the U.S. Census Bureau. However, the island’s residents argue its exclusivity sets it apart.
It also has its own MLS, Lichtenstein noted. He conjectured that the somewhat bizarre designation might have something to do with the fact that many residents are transient or only spend part of the year in the luxurious city, and therefore, often have ties elsewhere.
Still, Reddit users likened the cities between Miami-Dade County to Palm Beach County to “like 10 cities” and called the 100-mile stretch between Miami and Palm Beach a “continuous urban agglomeration.”
Realtor.com economic analyst Hannah Jones also pointed out to The Daily Mail that suburbs are often more affordable than their respective cities — a fact that doesn’t hold true for Palm Beach.
“In the 10 largest metro areas, suburban homes are an average 24.2 percent less expensive than homes in the urban core,” Jones said. “On a price-per-square-foot basis, suburban homes are an average 23.2 percent less expensive in these large metro areas.”
The median household income in Palm Beach is $365,991, making it the 11th-most wealthy “suburb” in the nation, according to GoBanking.com. The average home value in the city is $11.57 million, according to Zillow data sourced by GoBanking.com in mid-June. The city is also reportedly home to roughly 60 billionaires, including Julia Koch, widow of David Koch, and Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, West Palm Beach’s average household income is just under $100,000. As of June, the typical home value in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach was $490,171, according to Zillow.
“When you think of Palm Beach, you think of quality of life,” Koch added. “You think of being civilized. You think of safety … It’s a one-of-a-kind place. You think of all those conveniences that you have at your fingertips. So to characterize it as a suburb, just doesn’t really make sense.”
Koch also pointed out that during the pandemic, as Palm Beach exploded in popularity, many younger professionals actually became priced out and were pushed into West Palm Beach because it was more affordable.
Other notable suburbs that made the top 10 of GoBanking.com’s list included Scarsdale and Rye, New York, both outside of the New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York-New Jersey metro area, as well as Los Altos, outside of San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, metro area. West University Place, Texas (outside Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metro area), and Paradise Valley, Arizona (outside Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale metro area), were also named in the top five wealthiest suburbs in the country.
