Lakefront home with speedboat docked in Lake Minnetonka. Many of Minnesota’s wealthiest cities … [+]
Minnesota, the “land of 10,000 lakes”. Minnesota is a state filled with natural beauty, stunning lakes, and charming towns. We’ve been around lately with our studies, analyzing different US states and identifying the richest cities. Recently, we’ve covered several Midwestern states, including wealthier cities in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio. Here we will look at Minnesota.
We analyzed more than 900 cities across the state to identify the richest cities in Minnesota. How we evaluated and scored each city’s ranking is detailed below.
Read on to find out which is the richest city in Minnesota that is, plus the 50 wealthiest cities in the state as a whole.
What are the richest cities in Minnesota?
In order to generate our list of the richest cities in Minnesota, we obtained critical financial data from the Census Bureau 2022 American Community Survey. Equipped with these data sets, we built a four-factor scoring system to help identify Minnesota’s wealthiest cities:
- Median household income
- Average (average) household income
- Median home value
- Median property taxes paid
When it comes to census data, there are a few important points to note: For some factors, census numbers have upper bounds and, therefore, no exact numbers. For example, for median household income, the Census Bureau has an upper limit of “$250,000+.” For the median home value, the upper limit is “$2,000,000+”. For median property taxes paid, the upper limit is “$10,000 and above.” For this reason, the average household income data set (which is the same as average household income) is crucial because the Census Bureau has accurate numbers on it. These four metrics were scored, added, and then ranked based on the cities’ combined scores.
Below is a table detailing the 50 richest cities in Minnesota and their respective dollar figures for each measure:
The richest city in Minnesota
The wealthiest city in Minnesota in our rankings is Minnetonka Beach, a city with a total of 184 households. As the town’s name suggests, Minnetonka Beach sits on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. It is a remarkably beautiful place during the summer months. With a median household income of $246,250, Minnetonka Beach is tied with Sunfish Lake for having the highest median household income in Minnesota. The average household income in Minnetonka Beach is $351,598, the second highest in the state. With a reported median home value of $1.125 million, median property taxes paid in Minnetonka Beach exceed $10,000 per year. According to United States data, Management occupations make up the largest percentage of occupations for Minnetonka Beach residents, making up 27.6% of the workforce. Notably, commercial and financial professions represent 12% of the workforce. When it comes to the highest employing industries in Minnetonka Beach, they are professional, scientific and technical services (15.2% of the workforce), manufacturing (13.6% of the workforce ) and wholesale trade (11.6% of the workforce).
The second richest city in Minnesota is Sunfish Lake, an affluent suburb in south Minneapolis. Similar to Minnetonka Beach #1, Sunfish Lake’s median household income is $246,250. Meanwhile, Sunfish Lake’s average household income is lower than Minnetonka Beach’s, at $340,480, making it the fourth highest in Minnesota. In terms of reported home value, the median home value in Sunfish Lake is $986,400, which is the second highest in Minnesota. The employment distribution in Sunfish Lake generally makes sense for a high-income city. According to United States data, like Minnetonka Beach, management occupations make up the highest share of the workforce, at 26%. When it comes to the highest employing industries in Sunfish Lake, they are health care and social assistance (21.3% of the workforce), professional, scientific and technical services (12% of the workforce). workforce) and retail trade (8.91% of the workforce). Workforce).
Minnesota’s third richest city brings us back to Lake Minnetonka – the town of Woodland. This small community of 213 households sits across Lower Lake from Minnetonka Beach. The three largest professional categories, according to United States data, are sales and related operations occupations (29.5% of the workforce), management occupations (27.4% of the workforce), and business and related operations occupations. financial (13.7% of the workforce). Looking at Woodland’s top employers by industry, the breakdown is manufacturing (25.2% of the workforce), professional, scientific and technical services (15% of the workforce), and real estate and rental (12.4% of the workforce). Woodland has a median household income of $193,125, which is the fifth highest in Minnesota. However, its average household income of $363,129 makes it the highest in the state. At $965,300, its median home value is the fourth highest in the state. It’s no coincidence that median property taxes paid in Woodland exceed $10,000 per year.