Billionaires who have called Atherton home include Google’s Eric Schmidt and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg. : Atherton, California, is America’s richest place for the third year in a row. Its residents made an average of $450,696 in 2017, a $7,293 increase from the prior year, according to the annual Bloomberg Richest Places index. Billionaires who have called Atherton home include Google’s Eric Schmidt and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg.