Where would you live if money were no object? Any place you (bleep) well pleased, right? That seems to be one key lesson we can take from the latest per capita personal income data released at the end of April by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis.

As a state, Washington residents had an average income of $38,212 in 2006. That was better than the national per-capita personal income of $36,714. Our trend lines were mixed: with Boeing and Microsoft on the rebound, per capita incomes rose 6.6 percent between 2005 and 2006, compared to a national figure of 5.6. But between 2001 to 2006, our incomes grew only 18.3 percent, compared to a national average of 20 percent - a reflection of how hard the post-September 11 aerospace recession hit the state's economy.

Not surprisingly, King County had the highest personal incomes, with an average of $52,655 per capita. That's not so interesting. What is interesting, however, are the next three counties on the list: San Juan ($51,457), Kitsap ($39,353) and Jefferson ($38,004).

There's something important to remember here: this is personal income. Unlike our recent report on average wages around the state, this federal data income comes from investments (specifically, "rents, dividends and interest.")

And as Mike Parks noted in a recent edition of Marple's Pacific Northwest Letter, when you've got the dough, there's no place you can't go. Going inside the numbers, we see that in San Juan County, investment income accounted for $406 million of the $779 million in personal income for island residents in 2006. That's 52 percent - or three times the national average. But then, if you can afford to live off your investments, why wouldn't you live in the San Juans? Especially if you didn't have to try to get by on the average San Juan paycheck, which was $517 a week in 2006. That's about $26,900 a year, meaning the average working islander lives on half the average income of his neighbors.

Similarly, Port Townsend is a pretty nice place. And while the trend isn't nearly as extreme as in the San Juans, we still see that investment income makes up 32 percent of the $1.1 billion in personal income that went to residents of Jefferson County in 2006.

The actual average salary was $557/week or just under $29,000 a year.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis lists some "micropolitan" areas - rural population centers - and here too we see it. The highest per-capita incomes among the micro cities were in Oak Harbor ($33,750) on scenic Whidbey Island, and Port Angeles ($30,915) - which includes nearby  Sequim. And in both places, we see higher-than-average incomes from investments: 23 percent in Island County, 26 percent in Clallam County.

This seems to be mostly a Coastal phenomenon. Places east of the mountains where you'd expect to see wealthy residents in semi-retirement - like Chelan or Walla Walla - have investment incomes more in line with national norms, around 17 or 18 percent. However, if Tri-Cities economist Dean Schau is right, and more retirees are moving east, I'd expect that more of the semi-retired, independently wealthy will follow them, especially once they figure out the ROI on $1 million invested in eastern Washington real estate is pretty amazing.