Winners outpaced losers by a wide margin among Southern California’s super-rich over the past year or so, buoyed by stock gains, a resurgent real estate market, and a generally improving economy.
The cumulative wealth of the richest people in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties now totals $184 billion, according to the latest rankings in each of the Business Journals for those three regions.
That’s roughly the market value of AT&T Inc., the 15th-largest public company in the U.S. as of last week.
The total is a 15% increase over a year ago, and it represents the highest-ever combined total for the three counties, according to data tracked across each of the sister publications.
The Los Angeles Business Journal’s Wealthiest Angelenos list has 50 entries, and San Diego has 20 entries on its list. Our list—the centerpiece of this week’s Special Report—has 38, three more than a year ago (see related stories, page 1; Special Report starts on page 41; list starts on page 54).
There are 108 unique entries (both L.A. and OC claim Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Co. cofounder John Tu as their own) on the three lists, with 56 billionaires, five more than a year ago.
Orange County once again lays claim to the region’s wealthiest resident, Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren ($14 billion). Los Angeles again has by far the most billionaires, with 40 entries cracking the 10-digit mark, compared with 15 in OC and just two in San Diego.
The average worth of a member of L.A.’s wealthiest list is $2.5 billion. That compares to an average of nearly $1.3 billion for entries on our list and about $390 million for San Diego, whose listing included only two billionaires, led by Qualcomm Inc. founder Irwin Jacobs ($1.5 billion).
Billion-Dollar Gains
The ranks of tech tycoons, media moguls, real estate owners, investment whizzes and other super-wealthy on the respective lists would likely disagree, but you could make the case that it was nearly as easy to make a billion dollars than lose a dime if you already had a fortune before 2012.
Only four entries on the three lists—and none in OC—saw declines in their estimated fortunes last year.
Just as many entries—real estate owners Bren and Ed Roski, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and Forever 21 owners Do Won and Jin Sook Chan—saw estimated gains of more than $1 billion over the same period.
Malibu resident Musk, who has a sizable stake in carmaker Tesla Motors Inc., and SolarCity Corp., a solar panel installer, was the biggest winner of the past year in terms of net worth.
His personal wealth nearly tripled over the past year, to $5.7 billion, thanks in large part to surging stock prices for his investments, according to the May ranking of the Los Angeles Business Journal.
Musk is now the third-wealthiest Angeleno, behind longtime L.A. area entrepreneur Eli Broad ($7.1 billion) and pharmaceutical executive Patrick Soon-Shiong, whose fortune increased an estimated 11% last year to $8.9 billion. Soon-Shiong has topped the L.A. Business Journal’s wealthiest list for five years running.
Musk’s gains were emblematic of the boosts many of the region’s wealthiest saw, thanks in large part to their improving stock portfolios, which have seen one of their best 12-month stretches ever.
The S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq are up more than 20% from a year ago, and the Dow Jones industrial average has gained nearly as much. That follows a tepid performance the prior year, which coincided with flat growth for the combined wealth of the entries on the three regional lists.
“In early 2011, (I) built a very substantial major corporate stock portfolio that has done well,” said one Orange County billionaire, who told the Business Journal his balance sheet is as good, if not better, than it was prior to the past downturn.
Real Estate Prices
Also helping the balance sheet: rising real estate prices. CoStar Group Inc.’s Commercial Repeat Sale Index is up more than 8% from a year ago.
While stocks and real estate prices have surged, the bond market has suffered. The Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond Index is down about 2% so far in 2013.
Bond king Bill Gross, cofounder of Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co., likely felt the brunt of that decline as much as anyone. The Business Journal estimates that Gross’ wealth remained even at $2.3 billion last year, according to our estimate.
Gross remains OC’s fifth-wealthiest resident by our estimate, but he’s the only billionaire on this week’s list to not see an increase in his wealth.
All told, 46 entries on the most recent OC, L.A. and San Diego lists of wealthiest residents, including 32 billionaires, saw increases of 10% or more to their estimated fortunes.
Only 17 people on the three lists, including 12 of the billionaires, saw gains of more than 10% to their estimated wealth last year.
