At the top, Orange County, California-based Donald Bren remains the wealthiest real estate billionaire in the country with an estimated $16.2 billion net worth, nearly $1 billion higher than last year.
The biggest gainer is Chicago-based gambling and real estate mogul Neil Bluhm, whose net worth grew by $2.4 billion to $6.4 billion—but that was largely thanks to his shares in publicly traded online gaming outfit Rush Street Interactive.
Billionaires with industrial real estate portfolios, such as Leonard Stern in New Jersey and the Southeast and H. Ross Perot, Jr. in Texas, have also boosted their fortunes in tandem with rising prices for industrial assets. One reason: A shift to more online shopping has pushed up the value of warehouses.
According to the Forbes, despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the delay in workers returning to offices in many cities across the country, America’s real estate barons have gotten wealthier as their prized assets and diversified portfolios recovered from 2020 lows.
Donald Bren, the founder of real estate colossus the Irvine Company retains his spot as the richest real estate billionaire in the U.S.
A former tax attorney, Stephen Ross founded Related Companies as a developer of affordable housing in 1972 and grew it to a giant that has developed or acquired more than $60 billion in real estate. Forbes estimates his net worth rose by $1.1 billion over the past year as Related expanded further into south Florida.
