By Peter Lawrence Kane
Ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNW) have more than $30 million in cash and stuff. SF Business Times’ news that California has more of them than any other state isn’t terribly surprising, because California has more humans than any other state. (Or Canada, for that matter.)
But it’s really something that San Francisco has even more super-rich people than Los Angeles does (5,460 versus 5,135), because LA is almost five times the size as SF. So says Wealth-X’s Special Report on America’s Ultra Wealthy Population, anyway.
San Francisco may be exceeding New York’s cost of living by some measures, but NYC has around 8500 ultra-high-net-worthers — which, again, is way out of proportion for a city with almost ten times our population. They should have more than 50,000 if they want to keep up with us, although at some point pinning these people down gets tricky, considering the report states 79 percent of them have more than one home.
Digging into the report a bit, and glossing over the part about how superyachts aren’t really a luxury for public figures for whom “the privacy of a family holiday on a yacht is a very special treat,” it becomes apparent that San Francisco is set to become richer. Many of our more prominent UHNWs are much younger than their counterparts from elsewhere in North American (whose median age is 61, meaning they’re moving out of the “wealth accumulation” phase).
But their vast wealth is itself going to change, too. As the report states, “Over a quarter of San Francisco’s UNHW population is involved in the tech industry, but as wealth in this sector accumulates and spreads, other sectors such as real estate and finance grow in importance as well.” You can bet these people are doing everything possible to insulate themselves against a tech crash. It’s another indication that SF’s trajectory is permanent.
And they’re our neighbors. Out of every 300 San Franciscans, at least a few dozen might be freaking out nonstop about money, but two have at least $30 million.
[Via SF Business Times]
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