The most expensive ZIP codes of 2005

By Sara Clemence

updated 4:18 p.m. ET April 27, 2005

What's in a ZIP? In this case, some of the priciest real estate in the country.

From Beverly Hills to TriBeCa, from notorious enclaves of mansions and lush lawns to little-known niches of wealth, we looked at ZIP codes around the country to find the ones where home prices were the highest last year.

Many of these neighborhoods are rarified places, of course. They are close to beaches and golf courses and prime yacht moorings — or at least within spitting distance of the power centers that are the sources of great wealth. Thanks to their high tax bases, these areas also usually offer better schools, health care and public services — not to mention such amenities as better exotic car mechanics, caterers and gardeners. The homes are often proof of the good life, if not always good design. Penthouses and mansions abound, filled with the most expensive fittings, such as antique marble mantles, gunite pools and hand-painted hallways.

But there were some surprises. The list is testament to the costs of living in California, with half of our top ten ZIPs in that state, and nearly two-thirds of our top 25. It's not such a shock when you consider that California home prices increased nearly 100 percent between 1999 and 2000, according to the U.S. Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). But the real estate market in some locations has made a u-turn since the dot-com bust — several of the most expensive places are in or very close to San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Meanwhile, the best known ZIP code in California, 90210, also known as Beverly Hills, ranked only No. 15.

Then there were the places that indirectly fed off of West Coast money. Two of our top 25 ZIPs were in tax-free Nevada, but not in Las Vegas, where home prices shot up more than 40 percent between 2003 and 2004, according to OFHEO research. Instead, they were old-money resort bastions around Lake Tahoe.

And while more diverse than postal areas such as the Upper East Side of Manhattan or Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, have more than their fair share of high-priced properties, urban areas usually ended up lower on our list. That's because those ZIP codes are more diverse than those that encompass exclusive and relatively homogenous suburbs where home prices don't dip below $1 million.

For example, a townhouse might easily sell for $15 million in Manhattan, a far higher price per square foot than a Montecito mansion, but a sliver of a studio on the next block may ring up at $300,000, bringing down the median home price. An exception is TriBeCa, a trendy neighborhood in downtown Manhattan, where commercial spaces have been turned into large, luxurious lofts for the hip and well-heeled. Here, in 10013, last year's median home price was more than $1.6 million.

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