Westport, which often can be found near the top of the nation’s most expensive places to live, comes in at No. 130 on Forbes’ new list of “America’s 500 Most Expensive ZIP Codes.”
The magazine said the economy has hit these exclusive enclaves hard, with home prices taking major hits.
“The ZIP codes on our list saw a 7 percent average drop in asking price, and in many places prices fell even more,” Forbes said. “Overall, only one-fifth of America’s Most Expensive ZIP Codes saw prices rise—and in a few of those places the data were skewed by a single high-priced listing.”
It said Westport (06880), at No. 130, had a median home asking price of $1.44 million and that home prices here had tumbled 17 percent over the past year. It said there were 444 properties on the market here with 144 average days on the market.
No. 1 on the Forbes list was Alpine, N.J. (07620) with a median asking price of $4.14 million. It said prices there fell 23 percent over the past year.
Atherton, Calif. (94027) is the nation’s second most expensive ZIP code with a median asking price of $3.85 million, but prices there also declined by 23, Forbes said.
“New York’s once-bohemian West Village neighborhood (10014) is by now fully gentrified, as demonstrated by its third-place finish and a $3.5 million median asking price,” Forbes said. “Still, over the past 12 months, prices in the West Village have fallen by 24 percent.”
But the magazine said a few upscale neighborhoods are seeing prices climb again. New York’s Upper West Side (10023) is one of them. Prices there have managed to inch up 4 percent in the past year, Forbes said.
The magazine said the major problem in the prime suburbs appeared to be that few potential buyers are biting. .
“Expect further declines before luxury home prices hit bottom,” Forbes said. “Buyers, spooked by the economy, are waiting for prices to fall even further. The problem is compounded by a lack of credit at the top end of the market.”
It said potential buyers increasingly fall into one of two categories: Those who have seen their net worths damaged by the financial crisis and those who realize they could probably get a better deal in a year’s time.
The magazine said its list comes from real estate statistics provided by Altos Research, a national real estate data collection and research firm that tracks more than 15,000 ZIP codes, amounting to about 90 percent of all real estate transactions.
Home prices are based on the asking price for combined single-family and multiple-family markets, Forbes said. ZIPs were ranked according to the median home price.
Altos based its numbers on homes on the market as of Aug. 14, 2009, using Zoning Improvement Plan codes as defined by the U.S. Postal Service, Forbes said.
