Ever wonder what’s the wealthiest city in Minnesota?
I hadn’t.
At least not until I found myself driving through a suburb of Minneapolis. I was on a meandering road, twisting and turning through beautiful rolling hills. Glimpses of lake views dotted the landscape. Several houses backed up to waterfront property.
“Hey, this place sure is nice!” I thought.
“I wonder if I could afford to live here?”
So, I did what I always do whenever I find an interesting place that I find myself interested in calling home. I pulled out my Zillow app, honed the GPS beacon on my current location, and got to peeping on the nearby real estate for sale.
And… I was shocked.
The houses were crazy expensive!
Expensive as in – I won’t be able to afford these in any current or future lifetime – kind of expensive.
Because, as it turns out, I’d just stumbled onto the wealthiest city in Minnesota.
So, what is the wealthiest city in Minnesota?
Dellwood, Minnesota is the wealthiest city in Minnesota. Dellwood has a median household income of $171,000, according to a study from 24/7 Wallstreet.
Dellwood has a population of just 1,063 and is located in Washington County, Minnesota. Washington County also happens to be the wealthiest county in the state of Minnesota. According to Wikipedia, its median family income of $92,087 makes it nearly 14% richer then the second richest county in the state.
And where exactly is the richest town in Minnesota?
Dellwood sits right next to White Bear Lake, about 20 minutes northeast of St. Paul and less than 30 minutes from Minneapolis.
For this reason, I’ve got to imagine the majority of the town’s residents are highly paid professionals that make the commute into the cities on a regular basis, then escape to the comfort of their quiet and sprawling suburban lake homes.
Does that make Dellwood the richest suburb of Minneapolis?
It sure does.
Color me shocked.
If you would have asked me to name the richest town in Minnesota, I’d have come up with a million names before Dellwood.
Edina. Minnetonka. Eden Praire. I might have even thrown Rochester in there, considering all the doctors from the Mayo Clinic.
But Dellwood?
You learn something new everyday.*
*Fun fact. When I was researching rich towns and searched for Dellwood, the first google result was “Dellwood Country Club.” Case strengthened.
How does Minnesota’s wealthiest city stack up with the rest of the United States?
According to the same survey, being the wealthiest town in Minnesota makes you the 25th wealthiest town in the United States.
When it comes to being wealthy, Dellwood just eeks out “Town and Country, Maryland” but falls short to “Chevy Chase, Maryland.”
(Seriously, those are real town names… the entertainment in this article just writes itself!)
In fact, this actually makes Dellwood, Minnesota the second wealthiest town in the Midwest. The only Midwestern town ranking higher is Winnetka, Illinois – which comes in at #5 overall.
The rest of the list is mostly dominated by Virginia, Texas, California, and New York
More fun stats about Dellwood, MN
- Median household income: $171,750
- Median home value: $585,500
- Adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 73.7%
- Poverty rate: 1.2%
How the study was calculated
To find the richest towns in the state, 24/7 Wall Street reviewed houshold income data from the U.S. Census Bureau. They specifically focused on the Census’s survey of every American town with a population between 1,000 to 25,000.
Any other contenders?
Bloomberg ran a similar study. Their study found the two richest towns in Minnesota to be Orono, MN and Medina, MN.
Details of how this was calculated remains one of the Internet’s greatest mysteries, since Bloomberg chooses to leave their study behind a paywall.
