When it comes to glamourous cities in the U.S., New York tops the list — well ahead of Miami, Las Vegas and Dallas, according to a study done by LawnStarter, the online landscape booking platform.
Researchers at the company looked at 39 metrics to determine which city is the most glamorous. This included factors such as the number of upper-income households, annual county gross domestic product, share of million-dollar homes, number of private heliports, number of platinum country and athletic clubs, number of beauty and luxury spas, and number of luxury fashion and watch shops.
New York had the highest score, followed by Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and Chicago. New York’s score was 30 points ahead of the others. And while it is important to note that New York is the largest city in the U.S. by population, the rankings reveal where wealth is concentrated.
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For example, digging into the data sets used to compile the rankings showed Sunnyvale, California, with the highest share of upper-income households, followed by Fremont, California, and Bellevue, Washington. And the top city with the most plastic surgeons per 100,000 upper-income households was Miami, followed by Savannah, Georgia, and Dayton, Ohio.
The top cities with the most fine-dining restaurants were New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, followed by Chicago and San Francisco. New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco were also tops when it comes to cities with the most luxury jewelry shops.
The report’s authors said while affluence “doesn’t necessarily equate with glamour, the finer things in life tend to follow (and require) money. That’s partly why New York, the world’s richest city, is our 2023 Glamour Capital.” Media reports indicate that the total private wealth held by New York residents is more than $3 trillion.
“Unsurprisingly, the Big Apple aced our ‘Status and Wealth’ test — and dominated another four of the six categories in our ranking,” the report noted.
Scrolling down the complete list of rankings revealed some surprises. St. Louis came in at number 18, beating out Honolulu and Denver at 23 and 24, respectively. Pittsburgh ranked 32, beating out Boston and Phoenix.
At the bottom of the list, Texas cities dominated. “Unlike Houston, Dallas and Austin — Texas’ most well-heeled cities — Laredo, Brownsville, and Waco make up three of our 10 least glamorous cities, the most from any state,” the report noted. “None of the other seven bottom cities are from the same state.”
The report’s authors said in these more “well-booted Texas cities, there’s relatively little wealth, outward beauty isn’t a big priority, and exclusive cultural amenities are lacking. That’s not to say there’s zero sparkle here. Among the three, Laredo has the highest share of upper-income households at number 84 overall. Waco has transformed into a shiplap-clad travel destination for fans of Chip and Joanna Gaines’ ‘Fixer Upper’ on the Magnolia Network.”
