The Richest Cities In California Of 2023 (2024)

California is well-known for being home to some of the wealthiest cities in the United States. In fact, zip codes in California dominate the annual lists of the most expensive cities to live in. These cities are scattered throughout California, from the Bay Area to Orange County to Los Angeles, and each offers a unique blend of luxury, culture, and opportunity. From the stunning mansions of Beverly Hills to the tech hubs of Silicon Valley, the top 50 richest cities in California are a testament to the state's economic prowess and its ability to attract the best and brightest from around the world.

Read on to find out the richest cities in California of 2023.

The Richest Cities in California

Using data sourced from the Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (latest data available), including median household income, mean household income, median home value, and median property taxes paid, we analyzed and compiled a list of the top 50 richest cities in California. A few notes about Census data: The Census Bureau measures median household incomes up to $250,000, with households earning more being denoted as “$250,000+”. There’s a similar situation with median home value, which goes up to $2 million and anything above that is denoted as “$2,000,000+”. Lastly, this also goes for median property taxes paid, which go up to $10,000 and any amount above that is denoted as “$10,000+”.

This is where mean household income was particularly useful in our analysis. Unlike median household income, mean (or average) household income has exact values for every city in California. All four of these metrics were scored, added up, and then ranked by the cities’ combined scores.

Below you’ll find a table detailing the top 50 richest cities in California and their respective dollar figures for each metric:

Atherton is in San Mateo County, next door to some of the other richest cities in California, including Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and Emerald Hills, for example. Atherton is a perennial frontrunner as either the most expensive city or the wealthiest city, consistently posting the highest per capita income in the US for several years in a row. The median household income in Atherton is in excess of $250,000; the self-reported median home value is in excess of $2 million; and the median property taxes paid is in excess of $10,000 per year. More importantly, Atherton boasts the highest average household income at $539,944. This factor helped it edge out the city of Hillsborough as the No. 1 richest city in California.

No. 2 Hillsborough isn’t too far from Atherton, located farther north up the San Francisco Peninsula than Atherton. Hillsborough came in second place due mainly to its mean household income — $510,494 — being slightly lower than Atherton’s. Otherwise, Hillsborough also has a median household income in excess of $250,000, a median home value in excess of $2 million, and median property taxes paid in excess of $10,000.

The No. 3 richest city in California is Rolling Hills, which, unlike Atherton and Hillsborough, is located in southern California and situated on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County. The city’s average household income is $438,434, making Atherton and Hillsborough the only cities in California to have mean household incomes in excess of $500,000. Meanwhile, No. 4 Portola Valley, No. 5 Woodside, No. 6 Monte Sereno, No. 7 Los Altos Hills, and No. 8 Emerald Lake Hills are all located southeast of San Francisco, in the stretch of land between that city and San Jose. No. 9 Norris Canyon is also in the San Francisco Bay Area, but on the opposite side of the bay in Contra Costa County. Notably, Norris Canyon only has 282 total households. However, the No. 10 richest city in California — Hidden Hills — returns us to southern California, where it’s located in the northwest of Los Angeles County, near Thousand Oaks and Calabasas.

Trends in the Richest Cities in California

Taking into account all of the top 50 richest cities in California, the average number of households for these 50 places is approximately 3,985 households. The city with the fewest households is Bradbury, which ranked as the No. 32 richest city in California, with only 267 households; Bradbury is in the San Gabriel Valley region, a little over 10 miles east of Pasadena. The city with the greatest number of households is Palo Alto, with 26,007 households, which ranked as the No. 35 richest city in California. Seventeen out of the top 50 richest cities have fewer than one thousand households. Meanwhile, there are seven cities with more than 10,000 households.

A common theme with these top 50 richest cities in California is high rates of employment in well-paying occupations like “management, business, science, and arts occupations” (Census Bureau terminology) as well as industries that tend to pay higher-than-average wages, such as “Information”, “Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing”, and “Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services”. For instance, in Atherton, 76.9% of its civilian employed population aged 16 years and older work in “management, business, science, and arts occupations”; 20.7% work in the “Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing” industry; and 23.3% work in the “Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services” industry.

In geographic terms, the most readily apparent pattern is that the majority of California’s richest cities are located in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area, with 26 cities out of 50. Two other metro areas — the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area and the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area — are tied, each having seven of the richest cities in California. The Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura metro area is home to two of the richest cities and the San Diego-Carlsbad metro area is also home to two. Lastly, the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara metro area is home to one city — No. 30 Montecito.