Phila. bests Boston in millionaires

The number of millionaires in the Philadelphia area surged more than 20 percent last year, moving the region to sixth place in a ranking compiled by a wealth management firm.

The number of people with assets over $1 million - excluding their primary residences, durable goods and collectibles - grew in the region from 86,700 in 2008 to about 104,100 in 2009.

That knocked Boston down a peg. The moneyed class in the Beantown region grew from 89,400 to 102,300, an increase of about 14 percent, according to the 2010 Capgemini U.S. Metro Wealth Index released this week.

(Boston still has more millionaires per capita, however. In the Philadelphia region, 1.7 percent of the population has over a mil to play with, compared to Beantown's 2.2 percent.)

In explaining Philadelphia's bump up in the rankings, Capgemini said the city was among the "least impacted metros in terms of economic factors such as rise in unemployment, decline in real estate prices and per capita income."

Despite the gains, the number of millionaires in the Delaware Valley has not rebounded to 2007's pre-crisis levels, when there were 106,300.

New York topped the rankings with 667,200 millionaires, more than the next three metropolitan areas combined. Runner-up Los Angeles followed with 235,800; Chicago with 198,000; and Washington D.C. with 152,400.

San Francisco was fifth on the list.

Houston, ranked ninth, had an increase of nearly 29 percent, the greatest growth of any major metropolitan region.

New York also had the greatest concentration of millionaires at 3.5 percent.