How Many Millionaires in OKC?

[HVAC Instructor]

My wife and I were just discussing the large number of $1,000,000 + homes we walk and drive past in the OKC metro. Not to mention the $500,000 + homes we regularly see. All these expensive homes begs to question:

What kind of work do these people do? Are there that many high earning business people and professionals in OKC? Oil & gas money perhaps?

Or...are most of these people in debt up to their eyeballs? Where can we find statistics I wonder?


So, how much debt-to-income are folks typically carrying here in the metro?

[metro]

Most millionaires don't look like millionaires, most trying to look like millionaires are negative rich because they're "trying to look rich." OKC has plenty of high earning people but we could definitely use more. There is far more money in this town than "oil & gas" money.

http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/cms/mi...res_9555.htmlc

http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/cms/in...ContentID=5778

[Steve]

"Fake it 'til you make it."

[PennyQuilts]

Being a millionaire isn't what it used to be. A lot of older people have spent their lives saving, have equity in a house and are old enough to have inherited from their own parents - that can create a millionaire in short order.

[BDP]

Very true, East Coast. Also, I'm not so sure we have that many million dollar homes, relatively. Granted, many 500k homes in Oklahoma would be worth well over a million in a lot of markets, but even some very nice houses in Heritage and Nichols Hills are still under a million or right at it.

[gmwise]

Go to the Journal Record website of homes over $1 million, we have a few, whether or not they in debt to their eyesballs trying to keep with with the Bennetts, or the McClendons eh who cares.
I know a few folks who have worked hard,saved, and oh my GOD! sacrifice a few wants and sometimes a few needs to have million dollar homes if they wanted too.
But instead sent their kids to good colleges/universities and gave them a good head start,after they taught them hard work is important, birthrights is not part of the real world or not a measurement of potential.
Its what responsible parents do.
LIFE ISNT FAIR, BUT SOCIETY SHOULD BE in giving out a shot at reaching potential.

[stratosphere]

There is a really nice $4 million dollar house for sale on May avenue way out north of Edmond, probably around Sorghum Mill road or somewhere around there. Its on several acres and has its own pond and it looks like a castle.

I lost the lottery again last night, so i will have to pass on buying it for now.

[JOHNINSOKC]

I agree on the comment that there is more money here that is not oil and gas related! We have a much more diverse economy these days. The one thing we didn't have during the glory days of the late-seventies and early-eighties was medical research jobs and IT jobs. I constantly hear about bioscience being the next major economic engine in OKC. Imagine what the economic climate will be like in 10 years around here. We will have MANY more millionaires in the OKC metro. Those expensive homes aren't being built on speculation. I think there is a great deal of wealth around here.

[HVAC Instructor]

Obviously we have not counted the McMansions near us, which is the Lake Arcadia area and south, but there appears to be hundreds of $500,000+ homes in developments around us within, say, a 25 mile radius. Hey - prosperity is a good thing and we are not knocking it.

The point of the thread is: How much debt to income do you guys think the average OKC metro resident has? What about folks you all know? What about you folks? Just simple curiosity here, nothing more. I'll start with us. Our mortgage payment is 10% of our gross monthly income, and 16% of our take-home pay with 51% loan-to-value ratio. I hate owing anybody money and don't even like paying the mortgage company the percentage we are paying and we are slamming the principal every chance we get in order to pay it off ASAP.

But we have friends and relatives around the country who pay a far higher percentage of their income toward debt payments, with big mortgages and two new cars with payments. I just wonder if Okies are more conservative than other folk around the country?

[PennyQuilts]

Depends on the Okie, I 'spect.

[fromdust]

Obviously we have not counted the McMansions near us, which is the Lake Arcadia area and south, but there appears to be hundreds of $500,000+ homes in developments around us within, say, a 25 mile radius. Hey - prosperity is a good thing and we are not knocking it.

The point of the thread is: How much debt to income do you guys think the average OKC metro resident has? What about folks you all know? What about you folks? Just simple curiosity here, nothing more. I'll start with us. Our mortgage payment is 10% of our gross monthly income, and 16% of our take-home pay with 51% loan-to-value ratio. I hate owing anybody money and don't even like paying the mortgage company the percentage we are paying and we are slamming the principal every chance we get in order to pay it off ASAP.

But we have friends and relatives around the country who pay a far higher percentage of their income toward debt payments, with big mortgages and two new cars with payments. I just wonder if Okies are more conservative than other folk around the country?

well, i'll tell you that i have no debt. that means no credit cards, car payments or other loans. it took me a while to do it, but it feels great not worrying about those things.

[stlokc]

A few thoughts...
A $500,000 house seems like a lot of money, but give a little thought to how many doctors and lawyers are in OKC. Thousands of each. My parents live in Quail Creek and at least half, if not more of their neighbors are doctors and lawyers. What does a 40-year-old partner make at one of the 20 biggest OKC firms? $150,000? $200,000? More than that I think. Several big hospitals probably have hundreds of doctors each before you even get into all of the speciaty medical groups around town. The principal of a small business with 40 or 50 employees probably makes $150-$200K. And there are thousands of those businesses. It's not all oil and gas. And as the generations move along, there is more and more inheritance. A couple making $100-200K between them with a successful parent that dies can do a "McMansion."
I do think Oklahomans are very conservative and live below their means in many cases. A good thing.

[okcpulse]

Not to mention all of the independent contractors that live in OKC. My wife's eye doctor in NW OKC had a patient whose husband owned a roofing business. They did very well as they had a Gaillardia address. Also, many, many people in the OKC metro are self-employed. My grandparents are.

The bulk of OKC's wealthy make anywhere from $200K to $750K. There are stats to back this up, but it came from the 2000 census. I'll hunt it down.

[BG918]

Not to mention all of the independent contractors that live in OKC. My wife's eye doctor in NW OKC had a patient whose husband owned a roofing business. They did very well as they had a Gaillardia address. Also, many, many people in the OKC metro are self-employed. My grandparents are.

The bulk of OKC's wealthy make anywhere from $200K to $750K. There are stats to back this up, but it came from the 2000 census. I'll hunt it down.

Owning your own business, even a small one, can pay you big money. Also wisely investing your money is extremely important. It's the people who have mid-range salaries and no savings or investments that always complain about not having any money.

[metro]

A few thoughts...
A $500,000 house seems like a lot of money, but give a little thought to how many doctors and lawyers are in OKC. Thousands of each. My parents live in Quail Creek and at least half, if not more of their neighbors are doctors and lawyers. What does a 40-year-old partner make at one of the 20 biggest OKC firms? $150,000? $200,000? More than that I think. Several big hospitals probably have hundreds of doctors each before you even get into all of the speciaty medical groups around town. The principal of a small business with 40 or 50 employees probably makes $150-$200K. And there are thousands of those businesses. It's not all oil and gas. And as the generations move along, there is more and more inheritance. A couple making $100-200K between them with a successful parent that dies can do a "McMansion."
I do think Oklahomans are very conservative and live below their means in many cases. A good thing.

Spot on. And a true millionaire has most of their wealth tied up in investments, not multi-million dollar houses and 10 cars. As others have said, there are thousands of people with over $1million net worth in this town. Edmond has countless neighborhoods of $500K plus homes, Gaillardia has a handful as well as Nichols Hills and other places (downtown now has millionaires living here). I guarantee there are way more here than you think in this city.

[BDP]

How much debt to income do you guys think the average OKC metro resident has?

I remember seeing an analysis of housing markets that listed the median (not average) percentage of income spent on mortgages. It didn't say whether it was gross or net income, but for Oklahoma City it was right about where you are and for places like California it was close to THREE times that. That was very telling, imo, and kind of highlighted that debt tolerance was a big factor in the housing boom. You saw people willing to mortgage over a third of their income in some areas. The willingness to do that played a part in driving the price of modest 3 bedroom houses over a million dollars in large suburban markets. Of course, many felt it was the only way to buy a home and, for some reason, they felt they had to buy a home at that time.

[HVAC Instructor]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts guys! Maybe that's why you Okie folk are so nice....You're not all stressed out in debt!

I'm darned proud to be a citizen of your beautiful community!

[MikeLucky]

You want a $500,000 house? It's easy.....

Buy a $100,000 and pay it off in 10 years.... Sell it and take the $100,000 and put it down on a $250,000 and pay that one off in 10 years.... Sell that one and take the $250,000 and put it down on a $500,000.... Then you have a mortgage of a $250,000 house....

that's how you do it.

[stratosphere]

you only live once, and you can't take it with you. I guess the idea is to find a sort of balance between living frugal and living beyond your means.

[Plutonic Panda]

I bet that number is going to get a lot higher. GE scientists should make quite a bit as well.

[hoya]

[Teo9969]

$1,000,000 net worth and $1,000,000 in the bank are two very different things. If we mean millionaire net-worth, we've probably got quite a few (though fewer than many other major markets). If we're talking about money in the bank, not nearly so many.

1 in 20 American households have $1,000,000+ in assets.

Using conservative figures:

600,000 residents and 3.5 residents per households = 171.4k households
171.4k households * 1 in 30 households = 5,713 millionaire households

[loveOKC]

With a quick search in MLS with a filter of 1,000,000+ there are 60+ homes listed in the metro alone topping out at $7.5 million. That doesn't say how many millionaires Oklahoma has but those are a lot of million dollar plus homes.

[corwin1968]

An even bigger question for me and my friends revolves around all of these young families, sometimes in their 20's, where the husband works, mom stays home with 1-3 kids, they live in a $200,000 house, she drives a $50,000 SUV, he's got a $25,000 Harley, in addition to the gas guzzling truck he drives to work. As often as not, there is a boat or ski jet in the garage. How do people this young live like this? Me and my friends are all smart, all have college degrees and all have professional jobs, yet even in our 40's we can't live like that.

[ChrisHayes]

corwin, it all depends on your chosen field and company you work for. I'm going to school to be a diesel mechanic. I could stay local and start out at 15-17 an hour, or I could go work for the oil/gas industry and probably start out at 6 figures. One serious misnomer about millionaires is that they make a million a year or more. Look at Warren Buffet, he's one of the richest people in the world and only makes 100,000 a year salary from Berkshire Hathaway. It's not how much money you make, but what you do with the money. Do you spend it, or invest it? There's a big difference. I want to get into real estate investing and eventually own a self storage business. If I'm ever a millionaire and someone were to ask me what I went to school for I'd tell, them to be a diesel mechanic.