Troy 6th Wealthiest City in Midwest in New Study

TROY, MI – Wealth in the Midwest is centered around Chicago, where five of its suburbs made the region’s top 10, but Troy slipped in as the sixth wealthiest city in the region, according to a new analysis.

Two other Michigan communities made the top 20, Ann Arbor at No. 10 and Livonia at No. 17, according to the personal finance website NerdWallet.

NerdWallet analyzed 475 American cities with at least 65,000 people, looking at median household incomes and the percentage of homes without a mortgage; monthly median home values, and the average credit limit of cardholders. The study pulled the latest data available from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey, Zillow Research and the credit bureau Experian.

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The analysis revealed the following characteristics about Troy:

• High incomes: The median household income in Troy is $83,921.
• Home values: The median home value in Troy is $269,100, and 31 percent of homes have no mortgage.
• Access to credit: The average credit limit for credit card holders in Troy is $48,941.

The top 10 cities all have modest home values, with the median ranging from $197,000 to $365,000.

The $365,000 median home value there “may not sound ‘modest’ to everyone,” NerdWallet said, but it’s less than half the median home value of Carlsbad, CA, “the city with the lowest median home value in the West’s top 10.”

Income in all of the Midwest’s top 10 cities was competitive with the top cities in other regions of the country, according to the analysis.

Image credit: This home in Troy lists for $267,900, slightly below the median home valu of $269,100 in Troy, according to Zillow Research. Photo via Zillow