Six of the nation’s 10 most expensive ZIP codes are in New York City, with two more super-pricey neighborhoods not far away in New Jersey and Long Island.
Forbes magazine, in its annual survey of local home prices, on Wednesday named 94207 in Atherton, Calif., as the nation’s most expensive ZIP code.
The median home price in that tony Silicon Valley town is a little more than $9 million. America’s richest computer geeks are flocking to Atherton, about midway between San Jose and San Francisco.
“Atherton is drawing a lot of young executives: CIOs, CFOs, and CEOs,” DeLeon Realty broker Ken DeLeon told Forbes.
The second-most-expensive ZIP code is 11962, in Sagaponack, LI, where homes cost an average of $6.4 million.
Six well-heeled Manhattan ZIP codes took up most of the remaining top 10.
Nos. 3 through 5 on the pricey ZIP-code list are all in Manhattan — 10013 in Soho, at $6 million; 10065 on the Upper East Side, at $5.9 million; and 10075, also on the Upper East Side, at $5.3 million.
Proximity to Central Park is still a huge factor in the Upper East Side’s sky-high housing prices.
“Central Park is the key to value,” said Paula Del Nunzio, a Brown Harris Stevens agent who sold the Harkness Mansion town house for a record $53 million in 2006.
“If an apartment overlooks Central Park, Fifth Avenue, Central Park West, Central Park South, it’s more valuable than if it does not.”
Money is no object to big-shot New Yorkers.
“When you have that much money, what you want is direct views of the park,” says Douglas Elliman Vice President Oren Alexander said.
“I have two clients right now who will spend $40 million, and all they want is 5,000 to 6,000 square feet facing the park, on Central Park West or Fifth Avenue. And there’s nothing.”
Alpine, NJ, and its 07629 ZIP code came in No. 6, at $5 million, followed by 81656 in Aspen, Colo., at $4.95 million.
The top 10 is rounded out by three Manhattan ZIPs — 10011 in Chelsea, at $4.9 million; 10014 in the West Village, at $4.8 million; and 10012 along Houston Street, at $4.7 million. Two of the high-priced Big Apple ZIPs, 10075 and 10014, were not in last year’s top 10.