Climbing the wealth ladder
Texas sees 10 percent spike in millionaire households in one year, study says
Texas is climbing the ranks of millionaire meccas in the U.S., adding more than 55,000 millionaire households in just one year, according to a new study.
Among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., the Lone Star State now ranks 19th for the share of millionaire households, based on 2018 data gathered by Phoenix Marketing International, a market research firm. That’s up from No. 23 the previous year.
In 2018, Texas had 622,065 households with at least $1 million in investable assets, or 6.14 percent of all households in the state, the study shows. The year before, in 2017, Texas had 566,578 millionaire households, or 5.66 percent of all households.
The gain of 55,487 millionaire households in 2018 resulted in a nearly 10 percent jump in the millionaire category versus 2017, the study shows. By comparison, the population of Texas increased just 1.3 percent during the same period. Nationwide, the number of millionaire households grew by 7 percent from 2017 to 2018.
“The 7 percent rise in millionaire households in 2018 is the strongest rate of growth in that market since the financial downturn 10 years ago,” David Thompson, managing director of the practice at Phoenix Marketing International that tracks affluence, says in a release. “The growth in capital markets in 2018 clearly lifted many more households into the millionaire ranks.”
Texas remained at No. 2 for the total number of millionaire households, with California holding the top spot in the study. That’s no surprise, given that California is the country’s most populous state, followed by Texas.
Also in the no-surprise category, Texas boasts the third-highest number of billionaires in the U.S. (38), preceded only by California (84) and New York (73), according to Forbes magazine.
Texas even has two of the country’s 20 small towns with the biggest millionaire populations: Andrews, in West Texas oil country, and Fredericksburg, a getaway spot in the Hill Country.
Based on 2018 data compiled by Phoenix Marketing International, New Jersey now has the largest share of millionaire households in the U.S. (8.95 percent), followed by the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Maryland, and Massachusetts. In the previous study, Maryland sat in the No. 1 spot.
In all, the U.S. has about 7.7 million millionaire households, according to the study.