Naperville Ranked Among America's 'Top Earning Cities'

Not only is Naperville the best place to live (Money magazine, 2012) or among the snootiest mid-sized cities (Movoto, 2014), the western suburb has now been ranked one of America’s highest earning cities.

Over 50 percent of Naperville residents boast annual incomes of $100,000 or more, according to a new study by NerdWallet.com.

A Pew Research Center study places the average U.S. median household income at $52,250.

NerdWallet crunched U.S. Census income data for 1,601 U.S. cities and found 57 where more than half of households have incomes at or above $100,000.

Many of the cities were clustered in suburban communities in Washington, California, Texas and Tennessee.

Of NerdWallet’s top 20 list of cities with the most high-earners were along the Pacific Coast, including California.

The city with the largest “$100K club” is Sammamish, WA, where over 73 percent of households earn annual incomes of $100,000 or more. Major employers in the area include Microsoft, Boeing and Amazon. The average salary for a software engineer at Microsoft is $104,000, NerdWallet reported.

The only Illinois city to break into the top ten is Lake Forest, where, according to NerdWallet, 51 percent of households earn over $150,000 per year and homes are valued at $832,500. Lake Forest is also considered one of the most affluent towns in America.

Naperville landed in the 39th spot, where 54 percent of households earn annual incomes of $100,000 or more.

Of that the elite earning group, NerdWallet also found that 34 percent of Naperville households earned salaries of $150,000-plus, with 18 percent reporting annual incomes of over $200,000.

See which U.S. cities made NerdWallet’s ”$100K Club” list:

Data from 100k-club.silk.co