Millionaires Fleeing Chicago More Than Any Other U.S. City

Millionaires Fleeing Chicago More Than Any Other U.S. City
By Rick Moran

Note: As I have pointed out and I'm unaware of anyone else who has made this distinction about Chicago: Chicago proper is completely surrounded by water and is located on what might be called "Blue Island". It is an island city just like Manhattan.

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The rich have the means to vote with their feet, and Chicago's millionaires are apparently not shy about expressing their preferences.

Per a report by the research company New World Wealth, about 2% of Chicago residents with a million dollars or more (not including their primary residence) fled the city, citing racial tensions and the high crime rate. That's more than 3,000 individuals who decided to get while the going is good.

Chicago Tribune:

Chicago was among four cities worldwide with the biggest flight of millionaires. Paris saw the largest exodus.

The French city lost 7,000, or 6 percent, of its millionaires, followed by Rome, which lost 5,000, or 7 percent.

Chicago was next, followed by Athens.

Most of the millionaires who left Paris and Rome fled their countries, while Chicagoans moved elsewhere in the United States, said New World Wealth, whose data is used by luxury-goods companies, private banks and real estate professionals, among others.

Findings of the New World Wealth report are consistent with a Nielsen study released late last year that showed Chicago is losing large numbers of affluent African-Americans.

The Nielsen report found that the Chicago area has fallen out of the top echelon of U.S. cities when it comes to the percentage of black households earning more than $100,000. In 2000, Chicago ranked seventh among the cities with the largest percentage of black households with income at that level or higher, but in 2015, Chicago had dropped out of the top 10.

In the New World Wealth report, the country with the biggest net outflow of millionaires was France, with 10,000. It was followed by China, Italy, India and Greece.

The countries with the biggest net inflows of millionaires were Australia, the United States, Canada, Israel, United Arab Emirates and New Zealand.

Sources for the millionaire-migration study, the third done by New World Wealth, include: interviews with about 800 millionaires a year; interviews with migration experts, wealth managers and property agents; property sales records; and tracking of millionaire movements in the media.

The rich in France cited religious polarization and high taxes as reasons to leave the country. But alone among big cities worldwide, it is the danger due to out-of-control gang wars and murders that has the rich in Chicago heading for greener pastures.

The rich feel comfortable going to San Franscico and Seattle because they can afford the high taxes imposed by the liberal governments and get in return laws that protect the affluent. Plus both cities have dynamic cultures with world-renowned ballet, symphonies, and theater.

Chicago also has those cultural amenities, but it can get tiresome worrying about having to dodge bullets.

The life is being sucked out of the city by incompetent management. Chicago is looking more and more like Detroit all the time.

Related:
Millionaires Are Leaving Chicago, Report Says (Chicago Tribune)