Boston has seen its millionaire population explode in recent years, driven by a booming biotech industry and housing scarce enough in some neighborhoods to outprice all but the wealthiest buyers.
Data from polling firm Act 1 Lists shows Boston’s current millionaire tally at 35,792. That’s well over double the number in 2016, when their count stood at 13,000.
It’s also entirely possible that the number stands even higher than listed in some of the city’s most prosperous neighborhoods.
The downtown ZIP code that has the most millionaire households is 02116, an area encompassing the Back Bay, Bay Village and parts of the South End. It houses 4,113 millionaire households, boasting a median annual income of $93,605 according to geographic data site BestPlaces.
That’s almost double the national average. Kevin Ahearn, CEO of Douglas Elliman Real Estate’s Boston division, said he isn’t surprised to see that neighborhood topping the charts.
“Back Bay is the premier neighborhood in the city, with very expensive real estate,” he said. “The upward pressure on pricing is super apparent due to limited inventory and a ton of affluent people with liquid assets. They’re causing a strong upward push across downtown neighborhoods. Prices are way above prior records.”
Second place goes to 02118, a larger slice to the immediate south of 02116 that boasts the bulk of the South End. It’s got 2,525 millionaire households, with an average income of $62,208.
The rest of the city’s populated ZIP codes typically held around 700 millionaire households.
Ahearn said the overall growth of Boston’s millionaires doesn’t shock him either. Boston has an exceptionally robust biotech industry, complete with an education pipeline and impressive outside funding. Venture capital firms invested $5.8 billion in the last year.
“Boston is the world’s top biotech hub. There’s huge money here. That industry’s probably the number one factor driving this,” he said. “Five of the top six hospitals funded by the National Institute of Health are also here. You’ve got some real cream of the crop, talented people here and they stick around even after they’re done with our school system.”
These numbers could be even higher than. Charlestown and the Back Bay show similar numbers of millionaires, which was surprising enough to make Ahearn “skeptical” that every millionaire in the Back Bay had been counted.
All told, Boston’s millionaire boom shows no signs of slowing down. The city’s industries, especially in medical research and development, have seen so much investment that economic indicators like residential home prices barely even registered the pandemic recession.
“These record numbers all happened during the pandemic, during a recession. There’s so much affluence and demand, and from the data I see it slowing down. Our fundamentals are just too strong, Boston has too much economic activity and great-paying jobs,” he said.
