Despite the Hamptons real estate market having a banner year with soaring home prices, Sagaponack dipped this year on the annual list of the most expensive zip codes in the country. A small defeat as the 11962 zip code went down just one rung to the number three slot on Property Shark’s 2021 edition of the 100 most expensive zip codes in the country, but a step down nonetheless.
Besting Sagaponack was Atherton, California, which has held the top spot for five consecutive years. The 94027 zip reached a new record median sale price at $7,475,000, a 7% rise year-over-year. Atherton comes in almost $2 million ahead of this year’s runner-up.
This year, Boston’s 02199 eked Sagaponack out of the number two spot it held for the previous three years. In 2020, the Prudential Center area of Back Bay was missing from the list entirely “due to depressed sales activity during the onset of the pandemic,” according to Property Shark, even though it usually had one of the highest median sale prices in the country. This year, it bounced back with a $5.5 million median sale price, its highest ever.
It led to the small step down for Sagaponack’s 11962, despite a 29% increase in its year-over-year median sale price from $3.875 million to $5 million.
Property Shark compiles the list by calculating median home sale prices, not listing prices, “to ensure an accurate picture of market conditions as opposed to selling prices that reflect sellers’ wishes,” the company says in a statement.
Behind Sagaponack was Ross, California’s 94957 with a $4,583,000 median sale price, resulting from a 27% increase. Miami Beach’s 33109 on exclusive Fisher Island was the number five most expensive zip code with a $4,475,000 median sale price, after a huge 66% bump.
While Sagaponack was the only New York State zip code in the top 10, the Hamptons overall had a good showing with six more South Fork hamlets making an appearance on the list. No North Fork hamlets made the list.
Two more Southampton Town hamlets followed Sagaponack. Water Mill’s 11976 came in 13th on the list, a big step up from the 29th slot in 2020. The median sale price increased from $2.47 million to $3.745 million this year.
Bridgehampton’s 11932, which held the seventh spot in 2020, also fell this year to the 31st spot. Unlike in Sagaponack, the median sale price fell from $3.325 million in 2020 to $2.963 million in 2021. Last year, Bridgehampton had seen a 30% increase. Perhaps some transactions, like the $31 million sale of Joe Farrell’s Sandcastle had not hit the books yet when the list was compiled.
The 11975 zip, which is the East Hampton Town hamlet of Wainscott, also fell, from number 17 to number 34. The median sale price only fell slightly from $2.8 million in 2020 to $2.75 million in 2021.
In the 37th spot was 11930 in Amagansett, also in the Town of East Hampton, a bit of a dip from the 32nd finish it had last year. However, the median sale price still rose — from $2.35 million in 2020 to $2.645 million this year.
Right behind Amagansett is 11959 in Quogue, the only zip code west-of-the-canal to make the list, at 38th with a median sale price of $2.593 million. Last year, Quogue held the 39th spot thanks to a $2.1 million median sale price.
New to the list this year was the 11963 zip code, which encompasses the greater Sag Harbor area. It hadn’t made the 2020 list but finished up in the 69th spot with a $1.9 million median sale price.
Meanwhile, Property Shark says New York City “lost further pricing ground, failing to rank a single zip among even the top 20.” The New York metro had 22 zip codes on the list. Only six were in New York City, while others were in Nassau County, Westchester, Connecticut’s Fairfield County and New Jersey’s Bergen and Monmouth counties.
Across the country, Arizona’s Paradise Valley — where Gurney’s Resorts, a hotel brand that all started in Montauk, recently purchased a high-end resort — claimed the number 50 spot, after a 41% year-over-year price jump. The median sale price in the 85253 zip increased to $2.175 million. The Maricopa County zip code, the most expensive in Arizona for many years, only broke into the country’s most expensive list in 2019.
But, it was the Golden State that yet again has the majority of the priciest zip codes — 70% of the zips on the list are in California to be exact, including six in the top 10. New York State was the runner-up with 17, which is three less than 2020. This shows, according to Property Shark, “California’s more vertical price trends, as well as the pricing slowdown in NYC’s top markets.”
Elsewhere on Long Island, the North Shore’s 11568 in Old Westbury climbed up to 62nd spot with a $1.95 million median sale price.
“The U.S. residential market’s vertical price trends were evident among the country’s top zip codes as well, with 92 zips registering price gains — including 23 where the median surged by more than 25%,” the report says. “Conversely, only 12 locations among the priciest registered drops in their medians this year – by comparison, 2020 brought median increases to 78 zips and drops to 23 locations.”
A record of 30 zip codes clocked in with a median sale price of $3 million and above, which is more than double those in 2020.
The sharpest price increase was in Maryland’s 21056, better known as Gibson Island, where median sale prices nearly doubled, rising to 97% year-to-year to $3,195,000.
Meanwhile, the sharpest price contraction was over on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where the 10069 zip fell to 39% year over year at $1,663,000. The zip dropped from 22nd in 2020 to 93rd in 2021.
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