Once again, the Silicon Valley town of Atherton has been named the richest burg in the Bay Area.
The town of 7,200 residents in San Mateo County – long considered the wealthiest hamlet in the U.S. – holds its spot for the richest zip code in the region, the Silicon Valley Business reported.
The city’s 94027 zip code had an average household income in 2020 of $428,454, putting it on top of the Business Journal’s list of the region’s 25 wealthiest zip codes.
A Bloomberg index of the nation’s Richest Places puts Atherton’s household incomes even higher. In 2020, it became the first and only community in the country where average annual household income topped half a million dollars — at $525,000.
The real estate site PropertyShark marks Atherton as being the most expensive postal zip code in the nation.
The median value of owner-occupied homes in 2020 was $2 million, according to the Business Journal analysis. PropertyShark said the median sales price of a home in Atherton last year was nearly $7.5 million, $2 million more than No. 2 Boston.
Atherton’s soaring incomes and property values are a byproduct of the Bay Area tech boom. The home of the late Paul Allen of Microsoft, Sheryl Sandberg of Meta Platforms and Eric Schmidt of Google is full of moguls who made billions in technology industry stocks.
With restrictive zoning, the town generally allows one single family home per acre, while residents fight proposals to permit more housing.
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who trumpeted building homes in San Francisco, drew national attention for battling a plan to rezone Atherton for apartments.
The town of Atherton is surrounded by Menlo Park, Woodside, Redwood City and unincorporated San Mateo County.
After Atherton, the Bay Area’s wealthiest zip codes include 94021 in the Silicon Valley community of Loma Mar, where the average income in 2020 was $474,159. Others include 94022 in Los Altos at $359,982, 94028 in Portola Valley at $354,021 and 94024 in Los Altos at $347,690, according to the Business Journal.
— Dana Bartholomew