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Pleasanton came out near the top of a recent list of the wealthiest cities in America.
The city placed No. 3 in the nation, with San Ramon at the top. Danville didn’t make the list — not because it’s less wealthy, but because it’s too small to count, and neither Dublin nor Livermore made the cut.
Personal financial advice website Nerdwallet put together a list of the top 500 cities in the country, based on population. Nerdwallet looked at cities that had the highest percentage in the nation of households bringing in $100,000 or more a year.
As of 2013, the U.S. Census put Pleasanton’s population at 72,296, making it the 488th largest city in America.
Pleasanton came in third in the nation for wealth, according to Nerdwallet’s calculation of highest-earning households, with 59.8% earning $100,000 or more. The website showed 22.3% earned $200,000 or more; 14.7% made $150,000 to $199,999; and 22.8% made $100,000 to 149,999.
San Ramon’s population is 81,323, putting it at No. 420 in population; Danville had a population of 42,457 and was No. 967 on the list of the largest cities in the country.
San Ramon came out on top, according to Nerdwallet, with 63.5% of its population earning $100,000 or more. Census figures show 25% of San Ramon households brought in $200,000 or more; 16.4% brought in $150,000 to $199,999; and 22.1% brought in $100,000 to $149,999.
Danville — based on 2011 figures, the latest available for the town — was a close second, with 63.2% of households bringing in $100,000 or more. Danville had more high-income households: 28.2% brought in $200,000 or more. It had fewer households that took in $150,000 to $199,99 — 15.4% — but more households that brought in $100,000 to $149,999. Altogether, that put Danville slightly lower, using those figures.
A case could be made that household earnings is a slanted way of measuring numbers; some families in San Ramon, particularly in Dougherty Valley, have two or more generations earning wages.
Pleasanton placed second for average home prices, with an average of $767,900, and using home prices as an indicator put Danville on top at $917,500, and San Ramon third of the three, at $739,700.
Looking at the census numbers for median income put Danville on top at $133,888. San Ramon also scored high at $121,756 per household, and Pleasanton at $120,437 per household.
So, which of the measures should be used to determine the wealth of a city? All three, according to Tracey Grose, vice president at the Bay Area Economic Institute.
“I would say they all are equally valid. The economy is a complex base, and you can only explain it by looking through the economic prism, if you will,” Grose said. “You can portray a balance by looking at all three.”
Grose said there’s a fourth indicator, the “gini coefficient.” That, she said, represents the distance between the highest income earners in an area and the lowest earners.
But, she said, the coefficient may not work to see which of the three cities is wealthiest, because it looks at a broader picture and can be “inconclusive” when narrowed to a specific city or town.
Great…at least now I can make a plan.
5 years to attain median income in Pleasanton,
10 years to attain median income in Pleasanton,
…and 4 years to attain retirement age.
Plan B anybody?
What a bunch of irrelevant drivel. Lies, damn lies and statistics.
It would be a terrible tragedy if this wealthy little enclave of paradise were washed away by a tsunami, caused by city workers bilking the residents out of their hard-earned inheritances and investment earnings. But this is exactly what is going to happen unless people wake up. Look at Calpers and Calstrs in order to catch my drift, if you can stay on this wave long enough, which is pretty difficult what with the enormous swells that are occurring, preceding the imminent tsunami, the Big one. Look at the agreement reached the other night with city servants. Our money just swirls around and around, down into the vortex until the tsunami-like maelstrom takes everything away from us. Do the math. I did.
I’m getting sick and F-ing tired hearing all you people, especially Arnold complaining about city workers screwing you over. Reading the comments in here is a JOKE. Everything is compared to outragous stuff. I’m a city employee who doesn’t make those high salaries and can’t even afford to live in this town. How much are you making a year, maybe you’re screwing me over. Your thought is to keep cutting our benefits, right? Ever think what would happen if you keep screwing with people lives? What would your thought be when the city isn’t run like it used to be? Kept up like it used to be? Keep taking from employees and they just might take back.
San Ramon beat us??? Darn that evil oil company, Chevron. How dare they provide so many good, high paying middle class jobs!
Great…now I’ve attained median income of the city…but still stuck in a townhouse because I don’t want to spend $5000.00 in mortgage…Ugh!!! Love the City, but you get what you pay for.
Hey Ace, I think most taxpayers feel screwed by the employees who received a huge unsustainable increase to their retirement benefits based on faulty data by CalPERS that it would not cost us anything and now that we know it was based on bad data (or lying data), the employees say “screw you” to the taxpayers; you can’t take away anything given to us; even if it was built upon false assumptions.
As reported last year, the average salary FOR NON-MANAGEMENT and NON-PUBLIC SAFETY city works in Pleasanton is $85K plus a retirement plan mostly paid for by the taxpayers and retiree medical paid for by the taxpayers. Not too shabby. I think most non-city people have Social Security and a 401(k) plan they had to finance themselves, and no retiree medical. It is also very common for employees having to pay a larger share of medical insurance.
I agree with you 180 percent, TA. Calpers has been dishonest since it was first established; and Calstrs is just as bad. So are the union leaders. And so are the city politicians who insist there’s no need for a Giant dyke to stave off the inevitable Tsunami undertow that will leave no part of California undecimated. How do you like those apples? Well, I’m here to tell you that there isn’t an apple on earth that tastes palatable after its roots have been submerged beneath salt water. None of this is palatable. That salty taste in your mouth is just a sea-sprayed prelude to the great gusheroo when the Big tsunami hits and Pleasanton goes bankrupt, only to have to start again with a clean slate. Do the math like I have. It shows dishonesty in this city from top to bottom.
Hi Kathleen. I am the real Arnold, not the fake one. I think the fake one is a secretary or something who’s unable to come to grips with his/her own intellectual limitations. Sometimes I use tsunami in my references, because the tsunamicomingtocalifornia.com is the most informative site I’ve seen.
You mean i can’t cash in my 800 hours of unused sick pay?
Sorry Homer. Only Californians in a public employee union have that benefit. You are probably like me where we can never cash in on our sick time (which was intended to be for people who get sick so they do not loose their pay). For public employees this is a way to ‘bank’ hours which they receive at their current salary and cash them out at their highest annual salary, and have all those hours count towards their last year salary when calculating their pension. Can you say “SPIKE!”
For those public employees who say this is rare and not something they would do, then change the system to not allow it for anybody. Until then, you are part of the problem.
TA,
As of this new contract, we gave in and will be paying our share of 8% to our retirement, like the citizens wanted. For me that will be another $400.00 less a month that I will have and I don’t make anywhere near 85k a year. Also a lot of employees put into their own retirement a 457 (similar to a 401k) which I’ve been doing from day one. How am I screwing over anyone when I can’t even afford to live here? A city that I put so much pride and care into keeping it the way it is. Blame the overpaid 100k + a year people.
ACE, That is fake Arnold posting. You can tell because s/he uses tsunami in nearly every post.
Thanks for proving my point.