California home to 91 of America's 100 most expensive zip codes
California is home to 91 of the most expensive zip codes in the US for home sales this year, with median sale prices in one Silicon Valley suburb topping $7m, according to an annual ranking by the real estate website PropertyShark.
Fifty-five of the priciest zip codes were in the Bay Area, in Silicon Valley and beyond, with median prices soaring up to $3.5m in some locations. Twenty-one of the priciest zip codes were in Los Angeles county, some with median prices of more than $4m. The ranking sought to consider the country’s top 100 zip codes, but because of ties ended up with 125 ranked.
San Francisco alone had 13 of the most expensive zip codes, earning the title of most expensive city. This is a substantial increase from previous years – in 2016, the city had seven of the priciest zip codes, and in 2018, it had nine. The city entered the rankings at No 38, with median sales prices ranging between $1.4m and $2m.
The rankings come as the state grapples with a housing crisis in which it has constructed less than half the new homes needed to keep up with population growth. Hundreds of thousands are unable to afford housing in job centers. In the Bay Area alone, more than 200,000 people a day are forced to commute up to hundreds of miles from locations where housing is more affordable, like the Central Valley and Sacramento. Some Uber and Lyft drivers are forced to sleep in their cars, while homelessness has reached crisis levels.
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The most expensive zip code in the country was in Atherton, California, about 30 miles south of San Francisco, where the median sale price was $7.05m – up 5% from the year before.
California had six of the top 10 most expensive zip codes. Nine California zip codes had median home-sale prices of more than $3m.
After California, New York has the most pricey zip codes, with 18.
