UP Makes List of Fast-Growing, Wealthy Suburbs

University Park has been named one of the 30 fastest-growing wealthy suburbs in America by GoBankingRates, a website often cited for its best banks ratings.

But the populations of some cities on the list aren’t growing very quickly. And two cities that made the top 30 actually shrank between 2018 and 2023, the time period that the rating considered.

University Park was ranked 28th on the list, between Southlake, which placed 27th, and Colleyville, which was ranked 29th.

The ranking listed University Park’s median income as $250,000 and its average home value as $2,334,151. According to the ranking, University Park’s population grew between 2018 and 2023, but just barely, rising only 0.60%.

University Park’s “Total Population has not changed dramatically since 1990, increasing by just over 3,000 people in the last 30 years, a 14% increase in population size,” the city’s 2022 Centennial Master Plan states.

The ranking was limited to cities with populations of between 25,000 and 100,000. Highland Park recorded 8,864 residents in the 2020 census, and was not included.

University Park also placed sixth on the GoBankingRates list of the country’s wealthiest suburbs.

That ranking, which was published 10 days after the fastest-growing wealthy suburb ranking, listed University Park’s average household income as $381,235, and its typical home value as $2,305,281.

The wealthiest suburb list was based on average household income and typical home value, as opposed to the median income and average home value measures used on the fastest-growing list.

It also apparently relied on slightly different data — the 2022 American Community Survey instead of data from the 2018 to 2023 Surveys, and Zillow instead of the Zillow Home Value Index for Nov. 2024.

The wealthiest suburb list considered all cities with at least 5,000 households. Highland Park recorded just over 3,200 households from 2019 to 2023, according to census data.

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