The rising tide of oil prices lifted not only corporate profits at Houston’s big oil and gas companies, but also the net worth of a host of executives and investors, pushing the number of millionaires in the metro area close to 100,000.
That was enough to place Houston fifth nationally, according to a new report, behind New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Of the 5.3 million people with wealth valued at a million dollars or more in the U.S., 98,500 live in Houston, the report estimates, making it the only city in the South in the millionaires' top five.
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Another Texas metropolis — Austin — also fared well, buoyed by an influx of tech jobs, seeing its millionaire count surge over the past decade to more than 30,000.
WEALTH IN HOUSTON:11 Houston billionaires make Forbes 400 richest Americans list
Wealth intelligence firm New World Wealth and investment firm Henley & Partners produce the estimates by tracking wealthy individuals who are CEOs, founders, company presidents, or board chairs or directors. Wealth, according to the report, is "investable assets" such as property, cash and listed company holdings.
New York has the largest number of millionaires, with more than 340,000, according to the report. The San Francisco Bay Area was second with 285,000; Los Angeles was third with 205,400; and Chicago was fourth with 124,000.
Austin, which has about one-third as many millionaires as Houston, saw its number more than double over the past decade. Houston's share increased 65 percent, and the Bayou City has seen particularly strong growth in the past two decades, according to the report.
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Miami and West Palm Beach, with 38,000 and 9,400 millionaires respectively, also are among the five cities the report identifies as having the fastest growing number of millionaires.
Houston has always been home to a large number of wealthy individuals because of the oil and gas industry, according to David Lummis, president and CEO of wealth management company Houston Trust Co.
Of the 11 Houstonians that cracked Forbes 400 richest Americans list in 2022, most saw their wealth grow over the past year as oil prices climbed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Houston's wealthiest resident as of 2022, Jeffery Hildebrand, is the co-founder of private oil and gas company Hilcorp and saw his net worth double to $11 billion this past year, according to Forbes. Other famous Houstonians on the Forbes list are Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, Rich Kinder, John Arnold and Janice McNair.
Houston has also seen more wealthy people move to the area in recent years as part of its overall population growth, Lummis said.
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"The business-friendly climate, low or reasonable cost of housing, cost of living and cultural amenities that we have here have made it attractive for people at all kinds of income levels to move here," he said.
The absence of a state income tax and relaxed lockdown policies during the pandemic motivated many wealthy people to move to Houston from cities like New York and Chicago, according to Lummis.
megan.munce@chron.com
|Updated
Megan Fan Munce is a reporter who joined the San Francisco Chronicle as part of the two-year Hearst Journalism Fellowship, spending her first year of the program at the Houston Chronicle.
Munce grew up in San Jose before attending Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, graduating with a B.S. and M.S. in journalism and a second major in political science.
She previously worked as an audience engagement fellow and a reporting fellow at the Texas Tribune, as well as an audience intelligence intern for KQED.
She can be reached at Megan.Munce@sfchronicle.com.
