Forget Space, it's Money City
Houston tops in the U.S. for millionaire growth: Nearly 100,000 millionaires inthe Bayou City
While California's Silicon Valley is well known for the presence of a multitude of high-profile billionaires, it looks like the good old oil and gas industry may be creating the next big boom of wealth.
Forbes magazine's Steven Bertoni points out that "over the last two years, Houston has enjoyed more growth in the number of High Net Worth Individuals — people with at least $1 million in investable assets (primary homes don’t count) — than any other U.S. city," mostly because of a 15-percent rise in oil prices in 2010.
According to a recent Capgemini study, Houston's millionaire population increased by 9.6 percent to a total of 96,700 from 2009 to 2010.
Los Angeles came in second, with an 8.8 percent growth of new millionaires in the same time period. LA was followed by typical power cities New York, Washington D.C., Boston and Chicago respectively.