From the money flow into Silicon Valley to the old fortunes in San Francisco, the Bay Area boasts some of the priciest neighborhoods in the nation.
The nine-county region contains 37 of the 100 most expensive ZIP Codes in the U.S., the San Jose Mercury News reported, citing a 2023 ranking by PropertyShark. The Bay Area has 11 of the country’s priciest 25 ZIP Codes.
“The two biggest reasons Bay Area housing stands above the rest of the country are high incomes and limited homes,” Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow, told the newspaper. “There have not been enough homes built in the Bay Area to keep up with demand.
“That dynamic where demand is greater than supply has led buyers to compete for what’s available,” he said. “And because there are a lot of high earners living in the Bay Area, there is extra heft behind those bidding wars.”
Santa Clara is the Bay Area’s priciest county, with 16 ZIP Codes in the top 100, followed by San Mateo (eight), Marin (six), Contra Costa (four) and San Francisco (three).
For the seventh year in a row, Atherton’s 94027 led the nation with a median home sales price of $8.3 million, a 5 percent increase from last year’s $7.9 million.
The five-square-mile San Mateo County town, with some of the highest per capita incomes in the U.S., is home to tech industry moguls and celebrities, including billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors.
Apart from the cachet, communities around Atherton on the Peninsula get top dollar because they’re close to top schools, both public and private.
“There’s just not a lot of dirt to build on, and everyone wants to be there,” Katy Thielke Straser, an agent for the Straser Silicon Valley Team with Compass, told the Mercury News. “Even with interest rates as high as they are, people are still trying to get into a house here, and that puts pressure on the market.”
Several Bay Area ZIP Codes have withered within the priciest rankings. Last year, the Bay Area had a record 46 ZIP Codes in the top 100. This year, the region dropped nine of those ZIP Codes; San Francisco, which held 13 ZIP Codes in the top 100 in 2019, fell to three.
Across the Bay Area, median home prices were $1.3 million in September, 6.6 percent higher than a year ago, according to the California Association of Realtors.
The Bay Area ZIP codes containing the nation’s top 25 most expensive neighborhoods include 94027 in Atherton at No. 1 ($8.3 million); 94970 in Stinson Beach at No. 6 ($4.5 million); 94024 in Los Altos at No. 12 ($4 million); 94022 in Los Altos Hills at No. 13 ($3.99 million); 94028 in Portola Valley at No. 15 ($3.8 million); and 95070 in Saratoga at No. 16 ($3.7 million).
They also include 94301 in Palo Alto at No. 19 ($3.5 million); 94957 in Ross at No. 21 ($3.4 million); 94920 in Belvedere Tiburon at No. 22 ($3.2 million); 94010 in Hillsborough at No. 22 ($3.2 million) and 95030 in Los Gatos at No. 23 ($3.13 million).
California has 79 of the nation’s 100 most expensive ZIP Codes, followed by New York at 22
Across the U.S., other top ZIP Codes include 11962 in Sagaponack, New York, in the Hamptons at No. 2 ($8.1 million); 33109 in Miami Beach, Florida, at No. 3 ($5.5 million). The ZIP Code 93108 in Santa Barbara was No. 4 ($5 million); 90210 in Beverly Hills came in at No. 5 ($4.8 million); 92661 in Newport Beach ($4.495 million) finished sixth, followed by 90402 in Santa Monica ($4.489 million).
— Dana Bartholomew
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