1. 94027 - Atherton Also known as the home of the $6.4 million dollar teardown, Atherton is a favorite of developers, who like the town's developer-friendly building code. The median household income is $236,845.
2. 94028 - Portola Valley. My hometown. When I was a kid this was a relatively modest burg with ranch style custom homes on big lots, with horse pastures in the front yard. Now many of those ranch homes have been torn down and replaced with massive showcase properties and the pastures have been replaced with vineyards.
7. 94065 - Redwood City. This zip code's neighborhood is adjacent to the more expensive Menlo Park and has some gracious single family homes on large lots. Redwood City's downtown has also undergone a renaissance in the past 20 years and is now cute as a button.
8. 94920 - Belvedere/Tiburon. How these towns come in behind Redwood City and San Ramon escapes me, unless many residents there are long-time homeowners who moved in before the big bucks came to town.
9. 94563 - Orinda. I love this little town. Great movie theater, super weather.
10. 94552- Castro Valley. Castro Valley's explosive growth has made it a commuters nightmare for anyone that needs to drive to work, but its hillside homes are generally good quality construction and boast nice views. Relative to income, it also has one of the most reasonable average home prices at $844,682.
11. 94301- Palo Alto I think of Palo Alto as my second home town because it's where my father practiced law and my parents moved there right after I graduated from college. It was best known as a university town until the 1980s hi-tech boom.
12. 94708- Berkeley Hills. Big houses with big views.
13. 94707- Berkeley's Kensington neighborhood. Homes here are charmers, on winding streets. Kensington is also known for its excellent public school system.
14. 94526 - another Danville neighborhood. Danville used to a be another horsey sort of town until the 80s. It still has a charming downtown that reminds me a bit of Walnut Creek.
15. 94062 - Redwood City again. This zip code is further up towards the 280 freeway, where you'll find homes with acreage and amazing views.
16. 94539 - Fremont. Young, hi-tech money in newer custom-built homes and high-end tract housing.
17. 94404 - San Mateo. It seems like most of the towns up and down the mid-Peninsula are on this list.
18. 94549 - Lafayette. I always think of Lafayette as being pretty tony. The average home price there is $1,045,864. The median income from here to #24 (Moss Beach) is all between $133,000 to $130,000.
19. 94556 -Moraga. Small, quiet, chic. Homes here are just a shade less expensive than Lafayette.
20. 94127. St. Francis Wood in San Francisco. This residential enclave is the closest thing the City has to a suburban neighborhood with gracious winding streets and elegant homes on extra big lots, dating back to the 1920s.
21. 94123. Marina District/Cow Hollow/Pacific Heights. Heights. Of the 25 most expensive homes sold in San Francisco, 20 were in this zip code.
22. 94517. Clayton. I know almost nothing about Clayton. anyone care to share?
23. 94074. San Gregorio. This beach town near Half Moon Bay has a population of 287. My suspicion is that you've got some very wealthy folk in waterfront homes skewing the average income upward.
24. 94038. Moss Beach. Another beach town. Population here is ew up there in the 60s and 70s, people had horses in the front yard, creeks and trails in the back and neighbors all living in the homes they built themselves. Today it's wineries in the front yards, caretakers in the back and scions of industry in impressive houses with vast square footage. Median income is $221,139.
3. 94506 -Danville's Blackhawk community. Back in the 80s, Blackhawk was the first really expensive housing community I'd ever heard of in Contra Costa. The median household income here is $205,894 and the average home value over $1.2M.
4. Alamo. There's a bit of drop in the median income as you hit Alamo to $179,506.
5. 94528 - Diablo
6. 94582 - San Ramon This one suprises me. I always thought of San Ramon as one big office park.) Median income is $163,910.
25. 94105. San Francisco's South Beach neighborhood. This one is a bit of a surprise, but can be accounted for by the 20- and 30-somethings working in hi-tech. The average home sales price at $726,262 is the list's lowest because virtually all the housing is condos.
In reviewing the list, I found some interesting statistics:
Except for Fremont, San Gregorio and Danville, the average household size in all these zip codes is under three, which indicates a sizeable number of empty-nester and child-free households.
South Beach's average household size is the lowest at 1.44, probably because of the large number of one-bedroom homes there. It's also a popular neighborhood for singles.
The average net worth of people living in the top nine zip codes is over $2M. Belvedere/Tiburon and Orinda also crack the $2M mark.
The average net worth of a Pacific Heights/Cow Hollow/Marina resident is the lowest on the list at $1,286,305. One theory on why is that these neighborhoods' relatively high number of younger renters (especially in the Marina) have yet to build substantial wealth. The younger South Beach demographic has a comparable average net worth, at $1,354,186.
Relative to income, South Beach is the most affordable zip code, where the average home price is 5.64 times the median income. The least affordable is Pacific Heights/Cow Hollow/Marina at 8.63. Other expensive neighborhoods relative to income are Palo Alto and Lafayette where homes run 7.8 times the median income.
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