New York City is home to nearly 1 million millionaires.
According to sources, the net worth of the 400 wealthiest Americans hit a record high of $2.9 trillion in 2018. Half of that belongs to just the 45 wealthiest people in the country. When it comes to High Net Worth, New York City is the leading city on the North American continent.
Even though New York’s HNW population shrunk by 0.6 percent to 978,810 in 2018, it remained “65 percent larger than the second biggest city, Tokyo,” say sources.
In 2018, New York was ranked first of the world’s top cities by The Knight Frank City Wealth Index. This ranking was based on four main factors: wealth, investment, lifestyle, and future.
The report, which said that New York was “dominating” other cities around the world, with over 1.1 million households earning more than $250,000 a year, measures the current and future populations of affluent residents, focusing mainly on the growth rate. New York had the “largest annual average private investment in property. Also, in the “future” category, the report said New York had the highest projected GDP growth of any city by the year 2022.
In New York, 71 residents made it to the club of the most elite. According to sources:
1. David Koch, net worth $53.5 billion (Koch Industries)
2. Michael Bloomberg, net worth $51.8 billion (Bloomberg LP)
3. Jim Simons, net worth $20 billion (hedge funds)
4. Rupert Murdoch and family, net worth $18 billion (newspapers, TV network)
5. Carl Icahn, net worth $16.3 billion (investments)
6. Stephen Schwarzman, net worth $13.8 billion (investments)
7. Leonard Lauder, net worth $13.4 billion (Estee Lauder)
8. Donald Newhouse, net worth $11 billion (media)
9. Ronald Perelman, net worth $9.4 billion (leveraged buyouts)
10. George Soros, net worth $8.3 billion (hedge funds)
New York is considered as the most appealing city in the world by High Net Worth.
However, what are the reasons?
According to Andrew Smith, a reporter, who lives on Long Island: ” First of all, New York is a protected deep-water port at the mouth of a river and canal system that reaches deep into the Midwest. This made it an attractive place for international trade almost from the moment of its founding. That same attribute made it attractive for immigrants for many years. It had work to offer them, and some of those families became entrepreneurs themselves. Secondly, thanks to Wall Street, it is the financial capital of the United States and, arguably, the world. An enormous amount of wealth is traded and invested in New York.”
New York City has been called the media capital of the world. The media of New York City are internationally influential and include some of the most important newspapers, largest publishing houses, biggest record companies, and most prolific television studios in the world.
The New York Times revenue from digital subscriptions rose to $99 million in the second quarter of 2018. Overall for the second quarter, total revenue increased 2 percent, to $415 million, and the company reported a profit of almost $24 million. The Times now has 2.9 million digital-only subscribers, out of 3.8 million in total.
There is also a significant portion of the movie, television production and music industries based in the city. Some of the city’s media conglomerates include CNN (WMN&S), the Hearst Corporation, NBCUniversal, CBS, The New York Times Company, the 21st Century Fox, Fox Corporation and News Corp, the Thomson Reuters Corporation, Warner Media, and Viacom.
The television industry developed in New York is also a significant employer in the city’s economy. The four major American broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC are all headquartered in New York. Many cable channels are based in the city as well, including MTV, Fox News, HBO, and Comedy Central.
From 2017 to 2108, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and CW gained 5.8% to $9.6 billion, while cable networks were 4.7% higher to $11.1 billion. A year ago, total 2017-2018 TV upfront advertising amounted to $19.7 billion — a 5.9% improvement versus the previous season.
Ed Papazian, president of Media Dynamics, said that there had been an increase in “the number of broadcast network GRPs available for sale in the upfront. Besides, an increased proportion of buys were made on the C7 metric, which credited sellers with 1% to 3% more viewers than the C3 audience definition.”
The American fashion industry is based in New York. The fashion industry in New York City is a $98 billion business that employs about 180,000 people, equalling six percent of the city’s workforce. From more than $10 billion in total wages, the city receives $2 billion in tax revenue.
New York Fashion Week, held in February and September of each year, is one of four major fashion weeks in the world, collectively known as the “Big 4,” along with those in Paris, London, and Milan. New York Fashion Week generates considerable employment and wealth. The massive economic impact of New York Fashion Week is estimated at $887 million.
“Fashion is so much more than style; it’s big business that creates a vast array of good-paying jobs. Fashion is one of the largest industries in the city, producing $887 million in economic activity. Approximately 180,000 people are employed in the fashion industry in primarily good middle-class jobs. Impeccable style not only epitomizes New York, but it also puts New Yorkers to work.” said Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney during an interview with azureazure.
New York is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. Travel and tourism are a substantial and growing component of the New York State economy. NYC & Company announced that in 2017, the city welcomed a record 62.8 million visitors- a 2.3 million increase over 2016’s visitor count- and 65 million in 2018.
In 2016, New York State tourism generated $8.2 billion in state and local taxes in 2016, saving each NYS household an average of $1,133 in taxes. Over 780,000 jobs were sustained by tourism activity in 2016 with a total income of $34.6 billion.
Direct tourism employment has outpaced the overall NYS labour market consistently since 2010 surpassing the overall NYS economy with growth of 1.7%.
With over $65 billion in traveller spending, travellers increased their spending across all sectors except transportation. Travelers create direct economic value within a discreet group of industries (e.g., recreation, transportation). This supports a relative proportion of jobs, wages, taxes, and GDP within each sector. Each directly affected sector also purchases goods and services as inputs (e.g., food wholesalers, utilities) into production. These impacts are known as indirect impacts.
With ten professional sports teams based in New York City, the Big Apple is a mecca of sports entertainment, offering visitors a wide variety of different games to attend. So yes, they generate wealth.
New York Rangers is the top #1 on Forbes list of The Business of Hockey with a team value of $1.55B, revenue of $253M and operating income of $107M.
The New York Yankees, owned by the Steinbrenner Family and topping the charts of Major League Baseball (MLB) valuations, is valued at $4B with a revenue of $619M and operating income of $14M. The Yankees 2017 payroll ranks seventh among MLB teams. It is the lowest payroll rank since 1992. The reduced salary should allow the Yankees to reset their penalty clock for MLB’s luxury tax.
Also, finally, James Dolan, owner of The New York Knicks, did not rule out selling the Knicks, saying he “had gotten feelers” from potential buyers, but not yet a substantial offer that made sense. However, he valued the team at around $5B. If so, that would make the Knicks the most valuable team in any sport, tying them with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, whom Forbes values at $5B.
Real Estate. Economic Development. Transportation. Sustainability
Looking ahead into 2019, there is the continued decline of New York’s transit system, exacerbated by the pending L train shutdown. That means more emphasis on cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, withstanding a catastrophic natural event, as well as improving resilience to climate change and sea level rise.
“Opportunity Zone” (OZ) created as part of the December 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act, allows investors to defer taxes on capital gains reinvested into a qualified fund, and potentially circumvent taxes on profits from that reinvestment. With a surge of new development capital available in 2019, New York City developers will move quickly on projects in qualified OZs to capture equity in neighbourhoods such as Downtown Brooklyn, Washington Heights, Mott Haven, and of course, Long Island City.
Mobility is necessary to remain competitive in the long term. Andy Byford President of the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) laid out a $9 billion plan in new investment to improve service through the enhanced capacity for better transit service.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 100-day plan for 2019 and the MTA Sustainability Advisory Workgroup recently cited congestion pricing as a crucial piece of funding for transit improvements. All signs point to success.
There are further potential economic and electric micro-transit services such as The Free Ride, and last-mile electric scooters such as Bird and Jump Bike as the experimentation and investment in alternative modes of transportation.
New York is very active in introducing new sustainability and climate bills and policies, which offer realistic solutions to achieve meaningful reductions in GHG emissions. With an already well-developed energy efficiency programs, the process of implementing and enforcing new sustainability regulations will reveal new challenges and unexpected outcomes.
New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) introduced the ACCESSolar program in September 2018, which promises to install 25 megawatts of new solar on the Authority’s properties by 2025. The MTA has also begun a three-year electric bus pilot to guide their 2040 goal for an all-electric public bus fleet.
Also, one thing is sure for 2019. New York will not home Amazon Head Quarters. Although 70 percent of New Yorkers supported the plans and investment, some state and local politicians made it clear that they opposed due to envisioned projects in Long Island City. Even more so, after New York City and state had offered Amazon a performance-based incentive of nearly $3 billion. This opportunity would have provided 50,000 jobs and $27.5B in tax revenue.
1O Things You Should Know About New York
It can cost almost $300,000 for a 1-year hotdog stand lease in Central Park;
Hog Island, a one-mile-long island south of Rockaway Beach, was never seen again after the hurricane of 1893;
On Nov. 28, 2012, not a single murder, shooting, stabbing, or another incident of violent crime in NYC was reported for an entire day. The first time in basically ever;
The Waldorf Astoria has a secret train platform within it;
About 1 in every 38 people living in the United States resides in New York City;
UPS, FedEx, and other commercial delivery companies receive up to 7,000 parking tickets a DAY, contributing up to $120 million in revenue for the city of New York;
The Empire State building has its own zip code;
Times Square is named after the New York Times. It was originally called Longacre Square until 1904 when the NYT moved there;
In 1975, the city of New York sold a private island in the East River for $10;
Albert Einstein’s eyeballs are stored in an NYC safety deposit box.
