Net Worth: $4.6 B

LAST YEAR: $3.9 B
CHANGE: 18%
AGE: 72
RESIDENCE: Beverly Hills
SOURCE OF WEALTH: Real estate

THE MONEY: Developer Palmer has a substantial multifamily portfolio. He has built more than 15,000 units, a large number of which are downtown near the freeway. He has thousands of additional units under development or under construction. The increase in his net worth this year comes from his valuable multifamily portfolio in an era of rapidly rising rents.

THE BUZZ: Palmer is a native Angeleno. He founded his namesake firm, G.H. Palmer Associates, in 1978. In addition to developing real estate, he reportedly owns a handful of homes in Beverly Hills; Malibu; St. Tropez, France and Aspen, Colorado. Palmer is also a Republican donor and has donated millions of dollars to groups backing former president Donald Trump, as well as to other candidates. A class action lawsuit in 2019 claimed Palmer wrongly kept millions of dollars of security deposits from tenants. In June, he reportedly agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle that suit. Palmer attended the University of Colorado, Boulder and Pepperdine University School of Law.