Donald Trump may have fallen off The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans this year, but his fellow real estate tycoons have boosted their wealth—both in hot markets (Palm Beach) and those still recovering (New York).
The group of real estate tycoons on this year’s Forbes 400 list of richest Americans is as notable for those who didn’t make the cut as for those who did: Donald Trump, with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion, fell short of the $2.9 billion cutoff to make it into the 400 richest Americans. The former president isn’t the only one to have fallen from the ranks in 2021. Five fellow New York real estate billionaires as well as Silicon Valley developers Richard Peery and John Arrillaga also dropped off The Forbes 400 list. Collectively, the 24 real estate tycoons on this year’s list are worth $122 billion, nearly $4 billion less than the 32 in real estate were worth in 2020.
Despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the delay in workers returning to offices in many cities across the country, America’s real estate barons have gotten wealthier as their prized assets and diversified portfolios recovered from 2020 lows. Outside of Washington, D.C.—where the sole real estate billionaire residing in the capital, Washington Nationals owner Ted Lerner, is $100 million poorer this year—real estate magnates based in cities ranging from New York and Chicago to Los Angeles and Palm Beach have seen their fortunes grow since the 2020 Forbes400list.
At the top, Orange County, California-based Donald Bren remains the wealthiest real estate billionaire in the country with an estimated $16.2 billion net worth, nearly $1 billion higher than last year. The biggest gainer is Chicago-based gambling and real estate mogul Neil Bluhm, whose net worth grew by $2.4 billion to $6.4 billion—but that was largely thanks to his shares in publicly traded online gaming outfit Rush Street Interactive. (His luxury retail real assets in Chicago have also done well despite the pandemic.) Billionaires with industrial real estate portfolios, such as Leonard Stern in New Jersey and the Southeast and H. Ross Perot, Jr. in Texas, have also boosted their fortunes in tandem with rising prices for industrial assets. One reason: A shift to more online shopping has pushed up the value of warehouses.
Even in New York, most of Manhattan’s real estate billionaires saw their fortunes recover from the depths of 2020. In Los Angeles, retail king Rick Caruso is $400 million richer partly due to growing foot traffic to his (mostly outdoor) malls; in Silicon Valley, developers for the tech industry like John Sobrato and Jay Paul—who didn’t suffer as much of a drop in 2020 due to the resilience of their clients—saw their fortunes stay relatively flat.
That’s not the case in red-hot south Florida, where real estate investors with large footprints in Palm Beach and Miami have benefited from a rise in property prices across the region: Palm Beach-based Jeff Greene, for one, is $1.2 billion richer this year thanks to his holdings in the Sunshine State. And the only returnee to this year’s list is 71-year-old Donald Horton, founder of the eponymous Dallas-based homebuilder D.R. Horton, whose shares have risen by nearly 50% over the past year on the back of growing demand for homes across the United States. Horton fell off The Forbes 400 in 2005, his only previous appearance.
Here are the 24 real estate billionaires on The Forbes 400:
(Net worths are as of September 3, 2021)
Donald Bren
Net Worth: $16.2 billion (Up from $15.3 billion in 2020)
Residence: Newport Beach, California
The founder of real estate colossus the Irvine Company retains his spot as the richest real estate billionaire in the U.S. As the owner of Irvine, Bren oversees an empire with more than 126 million square feet of real estate across southern California, much of it in Orange County, as well as more than 560 office buildings—including a 97% stake in Manhattan's MetLife Building—and 125 apartment complexes.
Stephen Ross
Net Worth: $8.3 billion (Up from $7.2 billion)
Residence: New York, NY
A former tax attorney, Ross founded Related Companies as a developer of affordable housing in 1972 and grew it to a giant that has developed or acquired more than $60 billion in real estate. Forbes estimates his net worth rose by $1.1 billion over the past year as Related expanded further into south Florida. Outside of Related, Ross also sealed a deal to hold a Formula 1 grand prix race in Miami—starting in 2022—at a circuit being built beside the Hard Rock Stadium, home to the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, a team that is majority-owned by Ross.
Sun Hongbin
Net Worth: $6.9 billion (New)
Residence: Tianjin, China
The Tianjin-based real estate developer is the only real estate tycoon on The Forbes 400 who doesn’t live in the U.S. His Hong Kong-listed Sunac China Holdings owns nearly 150,000 acres of real estate and land across China, with the largest footprint in the southwestern city of Chongqing.
Bluhm pulled off one of the biggest wins of his career in December when he took his online casino and sports betting firm Rush Street Interactive public via a reverse merger with blank check firm dMY Technology Group. That deal alone boosted his net worth by more than $1 billion, but Bluhm's real estate assets in Los Angeles and Chicago—particularly luxury retail properties in Chicago’s wealthy Gold Coast neighborhood—have also contributed to Bluhm’s $2.4 billion gain over the past year.
Leonard Stern
Net Worth: $6.2 billion (Up from $4.2 billion)
Residence: New York, NY
Stern ischairman and CEO of Hartz Mountain, a commercial real estate giant based in New York with more than 250 properties throughout New Jersey and the East Coast, including Atlanta, Baltimore and Charlotte. Hartz Mountain’s largely industrial portfolio of warehouses, concentrated in suburban areas, has performed well amid the broader downturn in the real estate market.
Edward Roski, Jr.
Net Worth: $6.1 billion (Up from $5.5 billion)
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Roski heads Majestic Realty, a Los Angeles-based development firm with 87 million square feet of industrial, office, retail and residential real estate. Founded by Roski’s father in 1948, Majestic is focused on industrial properties in California but also owns assets in 11 other states including Texas, Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania and Colorado.
Net Worth: $6.1 billion (Up from $6 billion)
Residence: Atherton, California
Sobrato started selling homes in Palo Alto as a teenager while taking classes at Santa Clara University and eventually built the Sobrato Organization, a Silicon Valley real estate developer that's worked with clients ranging from Google to Netflix and now owns more than 7.5 million square feet of office space. In 2013, he passed day-to-day operations to the firm’s president of real estate Rob Hollister, and turned his attention to his family’s philanthropic activities.
Sam Zell
Net Worth: $6 billion (Up from $4.7 billion)
Residence: Chicago, Illinois
Known as the forefather of modern real estate investment trusts, Zell is a prolific investor with interests in real estate, energy, logistics, healthcare and more. His largest real estate assets are his stakes in Equity Lifestyle, a publicly traded owner and operator of manufactured home communities and RV resorts, and publicly traded apartment REIT Equity Residential. Outside of the U.S., Zell’s private equity firm Equity International owns stakes in Argentinian commercial real estate firm ARG Realty and Colombian hotel operator Decameron.
Jeff Greene
Net Worth: $5.1 billion (Up from $3.9 billion)
Residence: Palm Beach, Florida
The billionaire, who first got rich buying credit default swaps on subprime mortgage-backed bonds during the housing crash of 2007 and 2008, has now gotten richer during a crisis for the second time in a little more than a decade. Greene’s residential condos and apartments—as well as some retail, office and land under development—in south Florida soared in value as the region’s market attracted buyers throughout the pandemic, while his residential properties in housing-strapped Los Angeles also held up during 2020.
Net Worth: $4.7 billion (Down from $4.8 billion)
Residence: Chevy Chase, Maryland
One of only two real estate magnates on The Forbes 400 to see his net worth shrink since September 2020—the other being Jane Goldman, head of the Goldman clan of New York residential real estate billionaires, who isan estimated $100 million poorer—the 95-year-old Lerner is also the eldest of the real estate members of the list. (Real estate billionaires tend to be an aging bunch, with an average age of 76 among the 24 on The Forbes 400 this year.) Most of Lerner’s fortune comes from office buildings and apartments in Washington D.C., both of which have held up well—Lerner’s most valuable office towers are nearly fully occupied—but his retail properties in the area have suffered during the pandemic. Lerner got his start in real estate seven decades ago in 1952, when he borrowed $250 from his wife to start a company that sold homes to developers.
Igor Olenicoff
Net Worth: $4.7 billion (Up from $4.3 billion)
Residence: Lighthouse Point, Florida
Rick Caruso
Net Worth: $4.3 billion (Up from $3.9 billion)
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Ty Warner
Net Worth: $4.3 billion (Up from $2.3 billion)
Residence: Oak Brook, Illinois
Net Worth: $3.9 billion (Up from $3.6 billion)
Residence: New York, NY
Donald Sterling
Net Worth: $3.9 billion (Up from $3.8 billion)
Residence: Beverly Hills, California
Charles Cohen
Net Worth: $3.6 billion (Up from $3.5 billion)
Residence: New York, NY
Jay Paul
Net Worth: $3.6 billion (Up from $3.4 billion)
Residence: San Francisco, California
Jerry Speyer
Net Worth: $3.6 billion (Up from $3.3 billion)
Residence: New York, NY
Herb Simon
Net Worth: $3.4 billion (Up from $2.6 billion)
Residence: Indianapolis, Indiana
H. Ross Perot, Jr.
Net Worth: $3.2 billion (Up from $2.5 billion)
Residence: Dallas, Texas
Jeff Sutton
Net Worth: $3.1 billion (Up from $3 billion)
Residence: New York, NY
Mortimer Zuckerman
Net Worth: $3 billion (Up from $2.6 billion)
Residence: New York, NY
Jane Goldman
Net Worth: $2.9 billion (Down from $3 billion)
Residence: New York, NY
Net Worth: $2.9 billion (Returnee)
Residence: Fort Worth, Texas
SEE THE FORBES 400 LIST OF 2021
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fter a roaring 2021, the 400 richest people in the U.S.—along with many Americans—have been hit by rising inflation and falling markets. As a group, this year's Forbes 400 is $500 billion poorer than they were a year ago. Their total net worth stands at $4 trillion, down 11% from last year.
fter a roaring 2021, the 400 richest people in the U.S.—along with many Americans—have been hit by rising inflation and falling markets. As a group, this year's Forbes 400 is $500 billion poorer than they were a year ago. Their total net worth stands at $4 trillion, down 11% from last year.
Here is how many members of The Forbes 400 got each self-made score. Only 28 members of this year's Forbes 400–7% of the list–scored a lowly 1, meaning they inherited a fortune and are not actively working to increase it in any way.
According to Credit Suisse, individuals with more than $1 million in wealth sit in the top 1 percent bracket. The billionaire class is $2.6 trillion richer than before the pandemic, even if billionaire fortunes slightly fell in 2022 after their record-smashing peak in 2021.
You might need $5 million to $10 million to qualify as having a very high net worth while it may take $30 million or more to be considered ultra-high net worth. That's how financial advisors typically view wealth.
American Jews made up as many as 30% of the richest 100, and (in 2009) 139 of the Forbes 400. In 2017, just two African Americans made the Forbes 400: media proprietor Oprah Winfrey and tech investor Robert Smith; only five of the Forbes 400 have Latino backgrounds.
Dave Ramsey, personal finance expert and founder of Ramsey Solutions, says this myth of primarily inherited riches is “flat wrong.” When Ramsey's National Study of Millionaires asked where the riches came from, they found that a whopping 79% didn't receive any inheritance from parents or other family members.
A 2019 study published by Wealth-X found that around 68% of those with a net worth of $30 million or more made it themselves. Further, a second study by Fidelity Investments found that 88% of all millionaires are self-made, meaning they did not inherit their wealth.
The Hurun Global Rich List 2023 showed that 70% of the billionaires are self-made and only 30% are legacy. Some of the self-made billionaires include Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Gautam Adani and others. As many as 247 self-made women made it to the list this year, down by 22 from last year.
The Modern Wealth Survey collected responses from 1,000 adults between the ages of 21 and 75. According to those surveyed, it would take an average net worth of approximately $2.2 million to be considered “wealthy” in 2022. In 2021, survey respondents indicated it would take a net worth of $1.9 million.
The average net worth needed to be considered wealthy and to be financially comfortable both rose from last year's survey. In 2021, Americans said they needed $624,000 in net assets to live comfortably, while it would take $1.9 million to be rich.
Being rich currently means having a net worth of about $2.2 million. However, this number fluctuates over time, and you can measure wealth according to your financial priorities.
Average net worth increased by 2% to $748,800 between 2016 and 2019, the bank reported in September 2020, the most recent year it published the data. Median net worth, however, rose 18% over that same time period to $121,760.
More than 76 percent of Americans get to experience the joys of a six-figure household income for at least one year, just more than half will make $150,000 or more at some point, and about 20 percent hit the $250,000 mark at least once, which these days would put them within the top 2 percent of earners.
Some experts say to have at least eight to 10 times your salary available to you once you enter retirement. Others say you need at least 65% to 80% of your pre-retirement income available to you each year. There are also general savings recommendations by age, and, finally, there's the 4% rule, too.
However, one measure that many overlook is net worth. Your net worth represents how much wealth you have, measured by assets like a house, cars, 401(k), jewelry or cash in the bank, minus the debt obligations you have, or what you owe.
The amount of money you need to make each month to be rich depends on which metric you're using. If you're going by the IRS standard, then you'd need to make approximately $45,000 a month to be rich. On the other hand, if you're aiming for the top 1% as measured by the EPI, you'd need a monthly income of $68,277.
1. Aliko Dangote. Aliko Dangote is not only the richest man in Africa in 2023 for the 12th year in a row, but he is also one of the Black billionaires in the world with an estimated net worth of US$14 billion.
According to a study from 2015, Christians hold the largest amount of wealth (55% of the total world wealth), followed by Muslims (5.8%), Hindus (3.3%), and Jews (1.1%).
Smith is America's richest Black person. He is the founder of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm that focuses exclusively on investing in software companies. Vista has $92 billion in assets and is one of the world's best-performing private equity firms.
According to a 2015 study by NerdWallet, the Atlanta area is home to about 2.1 million black owned businesses which is the highest in the nation. Established in 2005, the Atlanta Black Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to supporting and connecting black entrepreneurs in the Atlanta area.
We find that inheritance size is highly correlated with income, particularly at the top end of the income distribution; the bulk of inheritances are received between the ages of 46 and 75; and that most inheritances come from parents.
Recent studies have shown that the notion that most millionaires are born into wealth is a myth. In fact, over two-thirds of millionaires are self-made, according to a 2019 study by Wealth-X and a study by Fidelity Investments.
It found that 88% of millionaires graduated from college, compared to 38% of the general population. In addition, 52% of millionaires had a master's or doctoral degree, compared to 13% of the general population.
Toyotas, Hondas and Fords? According to a 2022 study by Experian Automotive, a lot of wealthy folks simply don't drive fancy cars. The study found that for people with household income of more than $250,000, 61% don't drive luxury brands. They drive Toyotas, Fords and Hondas like the rest of us.
Billionaires don't always come from moneyed backgrounds. In fact, many famous billionaires actually grew up poor. From George Soros to Larry Ellison to Oprah Winfrey, here's a look at how some of the wealthiest people on the planet came up from nothing. Billionaires aren't all born with silver spoons in their mouths.
On September 29, 1916, Rockefeller became the first person ever to reach a nominal personal fortune of $1 billion (equivalent to $17 billion in 2021). Rockefeller amassed his fortune from the Standard Oil company, of which he was a founder, chairman and major shareholder.
Russell, who owns about one-third, became a billionaire himself–in fact, the youngest self-made billionaire in the world. Luminar Technologies founder and CEO Austin Russell, now 26, spent his teens doing research at University of California at Irvine's Beckman Laser Institute.
Many have graduate degrees with educational attainment serving as the main distinguishing feature of this class. Household incomes commonly exceed $100,000, with some smaller one-income earners household having incomes in the high 5-figure range.
There are 5.3 million millionaires and 770 billionaires living in the United States. Millionaires make up about 2% of the U.S. adult population. While an ultra-high net worth will be out of reach for most, you can amass $1 million by managing money well and investing regularly.
Using the 4% rule to estimate how much money you need to never work again involves knowing how much you plan on spending that first year or retirement. For example, if you want to spend $200,000, the math is $200,000/. 04 = $5,000,000. Another way to calculate this is that you would need 25x your annual spending rate.
Reasons Why You Should Aim to Save 15% for Retirement
Investment returns before retirement are 7% before taxes, and savings grow tax-deferred. The person retires at age 65 and begins withdrawing 4% of assets (a rate intended to support steady inflation-adjusted spending over a 30-year retirement).
In 2020, a two-adult, two-child household was considered poor if the total household income was less than $26,246 (U.S. Census Bureau 2021). The same household would be net worth poor if its net worth was less than $6,562.
Do you include a 401(k) in a net worth calculation? All of your retirement accounts are included as assets in your net worth calculation. That includes 401(k)s, IRAs and taxable savings accounts.
How many $4 or $5 millionaires are there in the US? Somewhere around 4,473,836 households have $4 million or more in wealth, while around 3,592,054 have at least $5 million. Respectively, that is 3.48% and 2.79% of all households in America.
What percentage of the U.S. population has $3 million dollars? According to The Kickass Entrepreneur, there are about 5,671,000 households in the U.S. that have a net worth of $3 million or more. This represents 4.41% of all U.S. households.
The Modern Wealth Survey collected responses from 1,000 adults between the ages of 21 and 75. According to those surveyed, it would take an average net worth of approximately $2.2 million to be considered “wealthy” in 2022. In 2021, survey respondents indicated it would take a net worth of $1.9 million.
According to an analysis of Survey of Consumer Finances data from 2019 by the People's Policy Project, 79% of the country's wealth is owned by millionaires and billionaires.
Somewhere around 4,473,836 households have $4 million or more in wealth, while around 3,592,054 have at least $5 million. Respectively, that is 3.48% and 2.79% of all households in America.
You might need $5 million to $10 million to qualify as having a very high net worth while it may take $30 million or more to be considered ultra-high net worth. That's how financial advisors typically view wealth.
Yes, for some people, $2 million should be more than enough to retire. For others, $2 million may not even scratch the surface. The answer depends on your personal situation and there are lot of challenges you'll face. As of 2023, it seems the number of obstacles to a successful retirement continues to grow.
The average net worth of someone younger than 35 years old is $76,300, as of 2019. From there, average net worth steadily rises within each age bracket. Between 35 to 44, the average net worth is $436,200, while between 45 to 54 that number increases to $833,200.
The pyramid shows that: half of the world's net wealth belongs to the top 1%, top 10% of adults hold 85%, while the bottom 90% hold the remaining 15% of the world's total wealth, top 30% of adults hold 97% of the total wealth.
Baby boomers have the highest household net worth of any US generation. Defined by the Federal Reserve as being born between 1946 and 1964 (currently in the ages between 59 and 77), baby boomers are in often in the sunset of their career or early into retirement.
Experts advice to have 10x of your annual salary saved by retirement age at 65. The average person aged 65-74 has $1,217,700 in net worth. The median net worth is $266,400.
Additionally, statistics show that the top 2% of the United States population has a net worth of about $2.4 million. On the other hand, the top 5% wealthiest Americans have a net worth of just over $1 million. Therefore, about 2% of the population possesses enough wealth to meet the current definition of being rich.
Many have graduate degrees with educational attainment serving as the main distinguishing feature of this class. Household incomes commonly exceed $100,000, with some smaller one-income earners household having incomes in the high 5-figure range.
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Introduction: My name is Amb. Frankie Simonis, I am a hilarious, enchanting, energetic, cooperative, innocent, cute, joyous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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