A Look at the Richest U.S. ZIP Codes

What’s the difference between 11962 and 28741?

About $2,125,000, according to MSN Real Estate and Forbes.

Those ZIP codes are at the top and bottom of the list of the priciest areas in the country. This year, Forbes collected the top 500 most expensive ZIP codes in the U.S., a list that includes the most famous ZIP in the country, 90210 (Beverly Hills, CA), along with places well-known for their ritzy residents (the Hamptons, right) and some neighborhoods that few have ever heard of other than the people who reside there.

These areas have a lot in common. The most expensive ZIP codes in America are, for the most part, the kinds of places you would expect them to be. Oceanfront California and South Florida housing market locales, in lush valleys, with mountain backdrops, on hillsides with postcard panoramic views. To say nothing of the houses themselves. They’re nice. We could explain in a lot much detail, but you get the idea.

As usual, the list was dominated by California real estate. The state took up over half the space on the list, with one South Florida housing market entry making the top 10 (Miami Beach, with a median price just shy of $2M — that’s a hefty Florida home loan). According to the National Association of Realtors, the median price of an existing home in California was just under $600,000 at the end of 2005, by far the highest in the country.

The national median, for comparison’s sake, was a bit more than $200,000. New York was also big in the list, along with Connecticut, Arizona, Maryland and others. Upscale suburbs close to urban power centers, along with places where the wealthy vacation, come in atop the list. Sagaponack, NY, located in the posh Hamptons area of eastern Long Island, tops the list, with a median price of nearly $2.8 million last year.

THE TOP 10 MOST EXPENSIVE U.S. ZIP CODES

11962 Sagaponack, NY — $2,787,500
92067 Rancho Santa Fe, CA — $2,445,000
92662 Newport Beach, CA — $2,397,500
94528 Diablo, CA — $2,266,000
94957 Ross, CA — $2,247,500
11976 Water Mill, NY — $2,150,000
93108 Santa Barbara, CA — $2,050,000
90402 Santa Monica, CA — $2,005,000
92661 Newport Beach, CA — $1,996,500
33109 Miami Beach, FL — $1,942,500