DALLAS — Read this story and more North Texas business news from our partners at the Dallas Business Journal.
On a new ranking of the nation's 1,000 wealthiest places, 20 ZIP codes in Dallas-Fort Worth made the cut.
The 75225 ZIP, which covers part of University Park and extends into North Dallas, led the way for DFW — and was No.1 overall in the state. The area, roughly bounded by the Dallas North Tollway to the west, Lovers Lane to the south, U.S. 75 to the east and Walnut Lane Hill to the north came in at No. 82 out of 1000 U.S. ZIP codes, placing it in the top 10% wealthiest areas in the nation.
Just to the south, the 75205 ZIP code that covers much of Highland Park ranked No. 2 in North Texas and No. 220 nationwide. North Dallas' 75230 rounded out the top three locally and was No. 261 overall.
The Wealthy 1000 differs from previous Dallas Business Journal ZIP code rankings that were based on median household income. On the latest version of that list, Southlake's 76092 ZIP code ranked No. 1 in DFW.
The Business Journals calculated the Wealthy 1000 with a weighted formula that included income levels, home values, poverty rates and population density to identify areas with the greatest concentration of wealth. Data came from the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2022 American Community Survey and Zillow Group Inc.
The ranking also included a minimum threshold of $70,000 of per-capita income, to eliminate ZIP codes with high population density but otherwise lower income levels coupled with relatively high poverty rates.
The 20 DFW ZIPs on the Wealthy 1000 were:
• No. 82: 75225 (University Park, North Dallas)
• No. 220: 75205 (Highland Park, University Park)
• No. 261: 75230 (North Dallas)
• No. 312: 75209 (Greenway Parks, Bluffview)
• No. 325: 75219 (Turtle Creek, Perry Heights)
• No. 387: 75201 (Harwood District, downtown Dallas)
• No. 397: 75214 (Lakewood, Lakewood Hills, Northeast Dallas, Junius Heights)
• No. 443: 75204 (Uptown, Old East Dallas, Belmont Park, State Thomas)
• No. 462: 75093 (Willow Bend, Lakeside on Preston)
• No. 480: 76034 (Colleyville)
• No. 504: 75206 (Greenland Hills)
• No. 544: 75218 (Old Lake Highlands)
• No. 555: 76248 (Keller)
• No. 580 76092 (Southlake)
• No. 606: 75019 (Coppell)
• No. 613: 75244 (Far North Dallas)
• No. 653: 75202 (Downtown Dallas)
• No. 730: 75022 (Flower Mound)
• No. 748: 75039 (Irving, Las Colinas)
• No. 773: 76005 (Arlington, Viridian)
Top of the list
The top 25 ZIP codes from the Wealthy 1000 were clustered around the nation’s most populated metros, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami and Boston.
Not surprisingly, nine of the top 10 ZIP codes were in the New York City metro area, an area among the leaders in million-dollar earners.
California (190) had the most ZIP codes on the list, followed by New Jersey (111), New York (95), Massachusetts (79) and Florida (57).
Among California’s ZIP codes, 73 were in the San Francisco area. Los Angeles accounted for 20 ZIP codes, while San Jose (12) and San Diego (10) also exhibited high wealth density.
In large part because of the concentration-of-wealth focus, some states were not represented among the Wealthy 1000, including Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont.
Although some of those states have higher-than-average gross domestic product per capita, some also have a high concentration of vacation homes and ranches, which were not factored as official households for this analysis.
Poverty rates also tempered the weighted formula, resulting in the exclusion of all ZIP codes from Mississippi, Louisiana and West Virginia.
Conversely, education levels — as measured by the Census — were considered in the Business Journals' proprietary formula.
Among the top 10 ZIP codes, an average 78% of residents achieved a bachelor’s degree or higher. That tracks with a recent Georgetown University report that determined Americans with a bachelor’s degree can expect to earn an average of $1 million more over the course of a lifetime than those without.
Wealth migration favors less populated states
That said, American money is on the move.
IRS data found Louisiana, Montana and Vermont all saw the largest increase in million-dollar earners from 2020 to 2021.
Additionally, the Sun Belt has experienced a surge in migration over the past decade — a trend that accelerated during the pandemic.
"Many high-income people whose jobs were remote moved to less-expensive areas," said Scott Fulford, senior economist at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and author of "The Pandemic Paradox: How the Covid Crisis Made Americans More Financially Secure." "Top destinations included Montana and Idaho, as well as other states such as Vermont and West Virginia, which are close enough to big metropolitan areas to still make the occasional trip."
