Call Palm Beach a beacon of Florida‘s gold coast.
Call the sun-splashed destination a winter playground for America’s rich.
Just don’t dare call it a ‘suburb.’
Residents of the long, beach-lined strip off Florida’s southeast coast were left fuming after the ritzy locale was lauded as one of the richest spots in America on a list that also – gasps – labeled it a suburb.
Financial website GoBanking.com ranked the 50 wealthiest suburbs in the country based on average household incomes and property prices.
Palm Beach – not to be confused with the mainland’s West Palm Beach – came in at No. 11 on the list. But the idea that the wealthy enclave is a suburb has sparked outrage among locals.
A Palm Beach resident has reacted to the town being labeled a suburb by financial website GOBankingRates.com
‘A suburb of what?’ one unnamed real estate expert griped to the Palm Beach Daily News, disputing the neighborhood’s connection to a major city rather than standing on its own.
Indeed, the firm deemed Palm Beach a suburb of the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area – a designation also used by the US Census.
But despite the much bigger West Palm Beach being right across the bay from the island and linked by three bridges, many think it’s a misnomer.
The unnamed real estate expert spoke to the Palm Beach Daily News – attempting to cast doubt over the description
On Reddit, a user compared the several cities packed from Miami-Dade County to Palm Beach County being comparable to ‘like 10 cities.’
‘And it’s almost seven million people. A hundred cities, one metropolitan area/continuous urban agglomeration,’ another added of the sprawling 100-mile stretch of suburbs, many of which far away from its hub.
The distinction of a suburb also implies that it is more affordable than its city counterpart.
‘In the 10 largest metro areas, suburban homes are an average 24.2 percent less expensive than homes in the urban core,’ Realtor.com’s economic analyst Hannah Jones said.
‘On a price-per-square-foot basis, suburban homes are an average 23.2 percent less expensive in these large metro areas.’
This is not the case for Palm Beach.
The study found the ‘typical’ household income in Palm Beach is $365,991, leaving it just shy of the top ten.
The average home value, meanwhile, was pegged at $11.57 million – based on data from real estate site Zillow.
The town has 2,278 single-family homes for just under 10,000 residents – as well as 5,279 condos and 946 coops.
Housing costs there can skyrocket into the nine-figures – while most remain well into the eights for a mere four to seven bedrooms, listings show.
These include oceanfront mansions complete with pools and private compounds, in contrast to the still-costly studio condominiums commonly priced over $1 million.
The island – separated from the mainland by the series of bridges over the Intracoastal Waterway – has thus earned a reputation as being a hive for the ultra wealthy.
There is even a social media page ‘Class of Palm Beach’ now dedicated to documenting the town’s best dressed residents.
Housing costs there can skyrocket into the nine-figures – while most remain well into the eights for a mere four to seven bedrooms, listings show. Pictured, a seven-bedroom currently priced at just under $23 million
The city – located across the water from glitzy Palm Beach – has proven popular with newcomers who swarmed from New York and California during the Covid-19 lockdown
Despite its relatively small population, the town boasts some star-studded residents. In addition to Mar-a-Lago’s owner Donald Trump, Sylvester Stallone and his family also call the tightknit community home.
Other locals include Howard Stern, Jon Bon Jovi , Tiger Woods, Serena Williams and Tommy Hilfiger to name a few.
Palm Beach was beat out by suburbs of cities like Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco, along with two distinct ones centered around New York City, which has some of the most satellite commuter towns in the country.
Those two unsurprisingly claimed the top spots, with Scarsdale and Rye unmasked as numbers one and two, respectively.
In third was West University Place in Texas, located less than six miles south from Houston.
Los Altos, California, came in fourth, thanks to its proximity to San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara.
Fifth place was claimed by Paradise Valley, a town of less than 13,000 just outside Phoenix, Arizona.
Pictured: Donald Trump, Sylvester Stallone, Howard Stern and Jon Bon Jovie all call Palm Beach home
Texas made an appearance again in the six-spot, thanks to University Park near Dallas, which has seen a rush of new residents since the pandemic.
Hinsdale, Illinois, ranked seventh as a suburb of Chicago, while Great Falls in Virginia scored eighth due to it being an outpost of Washington, DC.
Orinda in The Bay Area took ninth, while Wellesley in Massachusetts rounded out the top ten.
Then came Palm Beach, the sole entry to be located in a full-fledged ocean.
Palm Beach remains mostly Republican, with influential supporters of Donald Trump out in full force. (Pictured: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Palm Beach estate)
This helped the island town rank No. 11 on a list of ‘America’s Wealthiest Suburbs’, spurring at least one to insist it is not a suburb of West Palm Beach. Feds running the US Census disagree
Compare that to West Palm, which is still on the Florida mainland, on the cusp of the Intracoastal Waterway.
The city boasts some 121,000 residents, and has an average household income of just under $100,000.
Palm Beach, meanwhile, is home to 61 billionaires – including Donald Trump and his Mar-a-Lago mansion.
