Life at the top of the totem pole in New York City keeps getting more lucrative.
The number of city taxpayers earning $1 million or more hit 21,764 in 2013, a 47 percent increase from 14,795 in 2009, according to new data from the Independent Budget Office. This shift has had a significant impact on luxury home prices.
Over the past five years, total income for this segment jumped 48.6 percent to $96 billion, according to IBO data cited by the Wall Street Journal.
Out of the group of top earners, 45 percent made $2 million or more, with 1,315 reporting income of $10 million and up, according to the IBO analysis, which is based on a sample of tax-return data provided by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.
The spurt in local wealth has helped spur the jump in Manhattan’s average residential price, which topped $2 million for the first time, up more than 18 percent from the first quarter of the year, according to Douglas Elliman’s latest quarterly market report.
“The importance of foreign buyers has been wildly overhyped,” Jonathan Miller, CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel and the author of the Elliman report, told the Journal. “The underlining driver of resales and new development has been domestic purchases, and largely from New York.” [WSJ] — Dusica Sue Malesevic