Atherton Competes With the Hamptons for Priciest ZIP Code

This year has brought a “major shift” among the Bay Area’s most-expensive markets, according to Yardi subsidiary PropertyShark, which recently released its annual report revealing the country’s most expensive ZIP codes.

San Francisco is out and Palo Alto is in as the most expensive city in the Bay Area, according to PropertyShark’s “Top 100 Most Expensive U.S. Cities” list. The data put four of the Peninsula city’s ZIP codes among the country’s most expensive, including the $3.6-million median in 94301 near Stanford University, and three more that were above $2.5 million.

San Francisco had been the country’s most expensive city for five years, with a record 13 ZIPs in the top 100 back in 2019. But after the downturn that began in mid-2022 it now has just two: 94123 (Pacific Heights, Marina) and 94118 (Presidio Heights, Inner Richmond), both with median prices just over $2 million.

Instead, New York City was the most expensive city in the country on this year’s list, with six ZIPs in the top 100. TriBeCa (10013) was the most expensive in Manhattan with a median of $3.36 million.

Atherton’s 94027 remains the most expensive single ZIP in the country for the eighth consecutive year with a median sales price of $7.9 million, according to the survey. Three consecutive years of price gains pushed the home of many Silicon Valley billionaires past the $8-million mark in previous years, but Atherton’s median was actually down by $400,000 this year, essentially bringing the tony San Mateo County town back to 2022 prices. That downward trend was against the grain for ZIP codes in the survey; 67 percent saw prices rise and several locations set new records.

Compass data puts the Atherton median slightly higher, at $8.2 million from Jan. 1 to mid-August of this year. But that is for house sales only, while PropertyShark looked at transactions that closed between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, including condo, co-op and single- and two-family home sales, and excluding multi-parcel deals.

If the Hamptons village of Sagaponack (11962) had been able to hold onto last year’s median of $8.08 million, it would have surpassed Atherton for the first time since 2016, according to PropertyShark data. But a major slowdown in the market decreased its median price by more than $2 million. It still maintained its second-most-expensive ZIP code spot, followed by fellow Hamptons town Water Mill (11976), which overtook Miami Beach (33109) to nab the third-most-expensive spot. Both Water Mill and Miami Beach saw price increases this year, with Water Mill up 31 percent, but neither was enough to surpass Sagaponack’s nearly $6-million median.

Despite those East Coast leaders, overall California once again dominated the list, with 80 of the 121 postal codes on the top 100 list; there were more ZIPs than positions due to numerous ties. The Bay Area took 39 of those spots, making it the most-expensive metro market in the country, but Southern California was also well represented.

Newport Beach, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego took up the latter half of the top 10 ZIP codes nationwide, with median prices between $4.4 and just over $5 million. Newport Beach alone supplied three ZIP codes in the top 10 — a first for the list, according to Yardi.

“Newport Beach exemplified the overall trend of cautious price growth observed among the country’s 100 most expensive enclaves,” according to the report.