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1 In 20 US Households Has Over A Million In Assets: This Is Where They Are

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Bernanke may be printing the wealth effect to the benefit of the richest 1%, but that only serves to make the already wealthiest even wealthier. When it comes to the creation of new millionaire households, the epicenter of new wealth creation is about as far from Wall Street, West Putnam Avenue or Rodeo Drive as can be. In fact, the state that saw the fastest climb up in millionaire rankings in 2013 doesn't have a single Tiffany or Saks Fifth Avenue, and the closest BMW dealership is a six-hour drive from the capital (stats which are guaranteed to change by the end of the year). Presenting North Dakota: the state which jumped 14 spots in the latest ranking of millionaire households.

Per the WSJ, which crunched the the numbers released by Phoenix Marketing International, there were 53,000 more millionaire households in 2013 compared to the year before. "About 6.15 million millionaire households are spread across the U.S., according to the report. That means 1 in every 20 households in the U.S. has more than $1 million in investable assets. Those figures don’t include the value of real estate."

As expected, the top of the overall millionaire households per capita rankings didn’t change much. Maryland was No. 1 for the third consecutive year, with 7.7% of households holding more than $1 million in assets. New Jersey, Connecticut and Hawaii followed. Those four states, in various orders, have led the rankings every year since 2006. The complete breakdown is shown on the map below.

 

It was the middle and bottom of the ranking that saw most changes, at times quite violent. Judging by the collapse in household wealth, it seems the second Nevada housing bubble has indeed popped.

Maine climbed 11 spots over a single year to No. 25 in 2013. Louisiana jumped 10 to No. 32. Meanwhile, Nevada fell 20 spots to No. 39. Arizona, Florida, Idaho and Michigan all fell by more than 10 positions. From 2011 to 2012, no state changed its rank by more than two positions.

 

The big swings may suggest economic recovery may have become more uneven last year, said David Thompson, a managing director at Phoenix. “Maine and Louisiana are two states that have seen big turnarounds in their economies,” he said. “In Nevada, the data suggests the state is still feeling the effects of the downturn.”

Nobody was a bigger winner in 2013 than the center of the shale boom: North Dakota.

In 2012, North Dakota ranked 43rd, one spot behind Alabama. Last year, it moved up to 29th, one ahead of Florida. North Dakota’s energy boom, especially in the Bakken shale region, is driving the state’s wealth gains.

 

Mr. Hullet said the energy, health care and technology sectors are all growing in the state — pushing up paychecks of both the working class and affluent. The state’s unemployment rate was 2.6% in November, according to the Labor Department. That was the lowest in the nation by a percentage point.

 

The result has been a rapid expansion of retailers, restaurants and housing, Mr. Hullet said. But Bismarck hasn’t turned into West Egg. “I’ve seen the occasional Bentley,” he said. “But mostly, North Dakota is the type of place where someone can be very wealthy and you’d never know it.”

The main difference, however, between North Dakota and other states: 'its people in the oil patch aren’t about to flaunt it. “The only way you know a Bakken millionaire is he’ll be driving a
new truck and might have taken his wife on vacation,” said Kelvin
Hullet, president of the chamber of commerce in Bismarck, the state
capital."

The results sorted: by highest number of millionaires per capita:

And the states where the creation of new millionaire households was fastest in 2013:

 

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Sun, 01/19/2014 - 03:05 | 4345449 Seer
Seer's picture

Crap!  I was in such a hurry to post this very same thing that I skipped reading all the comments and posted it.  Anway... great catch!

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 03:50 | 4345497 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Its OK. I need to go to bed anyways

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 02:52 | 4345426 the0ther
the0ther's picture

So we gotta move two thirds of our troops to the east coast one third takes Cali. We sweep the east coast north to south. After we pound Virginia and DC into the first we meet the Cali forces in Minnesota! Sky blue water baby! 

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 03:03 | 4345444 Seer
Seer's picture

Assets = liabilities + owners' equity

Telling only half of the equation is meaningless, unless, that is, you're in banking (where you can "off-sheet" your liabilities).

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 03:16 | 4345467 satoshi101
satoshi101's picture

When I was a kid 'millionaire' meant something,

Now if your not a billionaire, your trailer trash,

Who fucking cares if someone is a paper-millionaire, ... it just means that he lives in a house that the bank owns.

***

Maybe what they're trying to say is that 19 out 20 people are too poor to get into housing debt?

There are still a lot of places that a house costs million bucks for a shack.

The taxman loves this shit, calling DEBTOR's 'rich' means you can tax the shit out of them.

Any way millionire don't mean crap anymore.

 

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 07:38 | 4345597 samcontrol
samcontrol's picture

half the time i find a dumb comment i look up and it,s you.

I am quite happy with my meaningless crap here in Argentina.And I own my house(s) .thankyou.

paper is paper until you convert it dipshit.

that million dollar shack (12 million here in Argentina or Mexico) represents a five bedroom sea/lake shore property. The only thing that worries me are hurricanes , earthquakes/volcanoes and the likes.

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 08:14 | 4345622 negative rates
negative rates's picture

Yea, you own your house today, and not tomorrow. But you don't know why.

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 07:18 | 4345584 bill1102inf
bill1102inf's picture

God Grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change (other people)

The courage to change the things I can (myself)

And the wisdom to know the difference. (Between assetts and liabilities and equity).

 

One can be a multi million dollar 'loaner' with houses and cars and land and boats and atv's and all that crap, but none of it is an asset unless it throws off $$$ consistently.

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 07:52 | 4345606 Catullus
Catullus's picture

Maryland. Tops on the list. Yet only one Fortune 500 company headquartered in the state: Lockheed Martin. Interesting. It's not like its a tax shelter state for retirement or income.

Perhaps it's because they're benefiting from the government spending representing a quarter of GDP. The contractors to win RFPs only to subcontract the job for less. The lobbyist class and corporate lawyers. The think tank blowhards.

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 10:16 | 4345659 muleskinner
muleskinner's picture

When land rises in value from approximately 1000 dollars per acre of productive farmland to, in some cases, 100,000 dollars and even 250,000 dollars per acre, you are rich over night when you are the land owner.

If you are a farmer in North Dakota and own 1000 acres of land in the Bakken area, the mineral rights are going to have a minimum value of 5000 dollars per acre, the lease value of the acreage is going to be at least 500 dollars, and possibly 1000 dollars, and even 1500.  You are not a paper millionaire, at 500 an acre you will receive a check in the amount of 500,000 dollars and 1/5 the of the oil.  At 1000 barrels per day, you, the land owner and mineral owner will possess 200 barrels of the oil, so your daily income will become 16,000 dollars per day at a price of 80 dollars per barrel.

I use the example of 1000 for ease of figuring the numbers so my brain doesn't hurt so much.  

If the farmer owns 1280 acres, not uncommon in western ND, and an oil company drills for oil to cover the 1280 acres, strikes oil at one thousand barrels per day, it is going to be a good day for the farmer.

Take that times 365.

One land owner and mineral owner had a check issued from an oil company for 10 million dollars.

Farmers who have lived there all of their lives now have money they never dreamed possible.

Divide 1.2 million in assets by 1200 usd for a oz of gold, your quotient is 1000.  1000 times 20 is 20,000 gold-backed dollars.

If you have 1.2 million in frn worth, your real worth is 20 thousand dollars.

 

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 09:51 | 4345678 AdvancingTime
AdvancingTime's picture

I'm having a difficult time thinking that it's one in twenty households instead of one in fifty. I do agree where this so called wealth resides in America. I must asume it is difficult to see their wealth because of the form it takes. Wealth that is invested in stocks, pension funds, and other intang1ble assets can change rapidly. Huge shifts in the value of these assets is possible at any time, more in the post below,

http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-is-something-worth.html

 

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 10:05 | 4345688 Duude
Duude's picture

1 in 20 shocks a lot of people because they don't realize

1) Not everyone flaunts it.

2) A million only means you have a middle class home paid for and a 401k plan that may or may not hold you over through your lifetime.

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 10:47 | 4345727 Wolfbay
Wolfbay's picture

These statistics only include people who honestly report and use American banks and mutual fund companies.
There might be a whole lot more millionaires if drug dealers,corrupt politicians, corrupt union leaders,corrupt CEOs etc where included
They tend to keep assets hidden in various ways.

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 13:54 | 4346113 JR
JR's picture

And only God and the Fed know the credibility of these statistics. The Fed is hiding the evidence and putting the rest of us at even more disadvantage by keeping from us the investment knowledge - such as M3 - known by the insiders.


Tim McMahon, editor of InflationData.com., asked the $6,000,000,000  question in 2006 - Goodbye M3 – What is the Government hiding?

Answer: “With all its efforts at ‘Tracking Inflation’ most everyone agrees that the last thing the Government really wants is for the general public to know how much it is stealing out of your pockets through inflation.”

Wrote McMahon in 2006:, “It is no coincidence that the M3 went up an annualized 9.4% in the last three months and an annualized 17.2% in December  (2006 ) alone and now the FED wants to stop tracking it!

Why bother tackling a problem of this magnitude when you can just bury the evidence? Who wants to leave a “smoking gun” lying around? A 9.4% increase in money supply should translate into a 9.4% inflation rate (if GDP produces exactly enough to counteract obsolescence).”

Wrote McMahon at the time:

I’m surprised we haven’t heard much in the news about this but as of March 23rd 2006 the government will no longer be publishing the M3 money supply data. Most people probably say “Who Cares?” Right?

But you should care! And here’s why:

“The Federal Reserve tracks and publishes the money supply measured three different ways– M1, M2, and M3. 

These three money supply measures track slightly different views of the money supply.

The most restrictive, M1, only measures the most liquid forms of money; it is limited to currency actually in the hands of the public. This includes travelers checks, demand deposits (checking accounts), and other deposits against which checks can be written.

M2 includes all of M1, plus savings accounts, time deposits of under $100,000, and balances in retail money market mutual funds.

But that is all small potatoes, M3 includes all of  M2 (which includes M1) plus large-denomination ($100,000 or more) time deposits, balances in institutional money funds, repurchase liabilities issued by depository institutions, and Eurodollars held by U.S. residents at foreign branches of U.S. banks and at all banks in the United Kingdom and Canada.”

In other words, M3 tracks what the big boys are doing with the money. This includes US dollars held in banks in Canada and the UK (called Eurodollars) not to be confused with the Euro which is the standard currency of Europe.

So the question immediately arises why would the FED stop tracking this?  

http://inflationdata.com/articles/2006/03/16/goodbye-m3-what-is-the-government-hiding

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 20:45 | 4347027 Gyoza Mimi
Gyoza Mimi's picture

Go Red States!!!

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 04:35 | 4347626 tvdog
tvdog's picture

America is full of millionaires, empty of compassion.

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 06:48 | 4347690 CitizenPete
CitizenPete's picture

I wonder how many millionares are actually "2 thousandaires".  How many Persian and Chinese wool carpets, cars, antique furniture, and houses help make up the balance sheet? Do they hold lead bullion in Annapolis, Bmore, Rockville, and Frederick? http://sdbullion.com/

 

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