Wealth continues to skyrocket in communities fueled by tech, finance and oil riches. But in 2023, according to new federal data, the biggest gains have been in resort communities in the Rockies.
Five mountain counties ranked in the top 12 nationwide on a list for highest average income. However, one place in the Cowboy State towers over them all.
Last year, the per capita income in Teton County, Wyoming, home to Jackson, was almost half a million dollars ($471,751). Next on the list was Summit County, Utah — home to Park City — where incomes were just about half of Teton’s ($259,993).
Jackson economist and town councilor Jonathan Schechter said this gap has a lot to do with Wyoming’s laws, which make it easy to shelter wealth.
“So you've got the tremendous attraction of the life and living in a resort-oriented community combined with the most favorable tax and trust laws in the United States,” said Schechter, who writes about these trends in his newsletter, CoThrive.
Investment income fueled Teton County’s rise to the top. The county has been No. 1 on the list for two decades, when it leapfrogged New York City.
Meanwhile, in all the other counties in Wyoming, the average yearly income was under $100,000. And the gap between Teton County and the rest of the state has only grown in recent years as remote workers flock to resort towns.
“So that umbilical cord, if you will, between where you live and where you work is getting stretched and frayed and cut,” Schechter said. “As people find it easier and easier to live where they want to live, rather than where they have to live, they're moving to super desirable places.”
That includes the counties that are home to Aspen (#3) and Telluride, Colorado (#12) and Sun Valley, Idaho (#6), which also solidified places at the top of the list.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
