Wealthy Millennials Are on the Move

Wealthy Millennials Are on the Move

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Facebook, may have been on the forefront of a migration trend when he relocated to California from Massachusetts.

According to research from SmartAsset, wealthy millennials are seeking sunny locales. A recent analysis listed New York as the top state rich millennials are leaving, with a net outflow of 4,867 wealthy people under the age of 35 from 2015 to 2016. SmartAsset defined millennials as people under the age of 35 and looked specifically at millennials with adjusted gross incomes of at least $100,000. Researchers used IRS data from the 2015 to 2016 tax year. Data was compiled by calculating the difference between numbers of affluent millennials leaving a state from the numbers of those moving in.

One of the key takeaways? Rich millennials are moving to the coasts. “Seven of the states in SmartAsset’s top 10 were either on the East Coast or the West Coast,” according to the report. “With Texas on the Gulf Coast, that makes Colorado and Tennessee the only landlocked states in the top 10.”

California topped the list, with an influx of just over 17,000 wealthy millennials moving in from 2015-2016. The Golden State was followed by Washington State.

Save for New Jersey, the Northeast wasn’t popular with wealthy millennials.  Five of the bottom 10 states (Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York), plus the District of Columbia, were located in the Northeastern region of the U.S.