Belmont is known as the “Town of Homes.”
Well, you can add “and some Millionaires” to that motto.
Thanks to the good people at the Boston Business Journal (“The Massachusetts towns and cities with the most million-dollar earners (BBJ DataCenter)” Dec. 16, 2014) who spent a few minutes poking about in the state’s Department of Revenue database, we now know some interesting (to some) information on the “one-percenters” who occupy the 4.7 square miles known as Belmont.
The grand total of those residents who filed tax returns in 2011 (the latest data available) seven-figure income tax returns in Belmont is 178, up five percent from 2010 with 169. The average income of the 178? Just over $2.6 million.
That figure is well above the state average of 51 millionaires per community.
In a population of a little more than 25,000, that comes out to one millionaire for every 142 resident.
Think of it this way: At a fully-attended Town Meeting, only two of those sitting in the Belmont High School auditorium would be millionaires.
On an area basis, that would be 39 millionaires per square mile although it would be expected that the northwest section of Belmont would have more seven-figure income residents.
But before you come to believe the town is crawling with high rollers, you need only look at Belmont’s neighbors to see who have the big bucks. Lexington has 291 millionaires (1 in 110 residents), Cambridge 391 and Winchester (which Belmont is compared with in terms of town budget and school spending) has 230 or about 1 in 90 residents. Arlington has 49 mega earners (1 in 892) and Watertown has 20.
Then there is Weston where 1 in 25 residents (467 are millionaires) are makin’ the big bucks; the average seven-figure filer made $5.1 million.
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