Winchester Mystery House

This morning I ended up taking a trip through the Forbes “100 Most Expensive Zip Codes”. Why not? A woman can dream, can’t she? It’s kind of like a long-time client of mine that wanted me to show her million dollar houses every year as her birthday present. We would make a list, visit the home, make fun of the decorating and how much it probably cost, and move onto the next house. Of course, that was several years ago when a million dollar house was a million dollar house, usually custom, in an exclusive area, and definitely not a track home.

I have to say it didn’t surprise me that California zip codes comprised just under 50% of the list, down from 83% the year before. What did surprise me was where some of these zip codes are. In our area of Northern California it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Los Gatos, Saratoga, and Los Altos Hills made the list, with Atherton, California coming in at the second most expensive zip code, right behind a zip code in New York. Many of the zip codes I have never heard of before, and I’ve lived from Pamona in Southern California, to Santa Maria in Central California, to Silicon Valley in Northern California for the last 48 years. Yeah, I know, I’m dating myself, but I really feel like I have a pretty good handle on most of the towns and cities throughout the state.

Coming in at the #4 spot, ahead  of Beverly Hills 90210 is Duarte, California. Where the heck is Duarte? Where ever it is home prices have actually gone up 18% over the last year versus how the rest of the market has been doing. Then there’s Hidden Hills, California which comes in at number 17. This whole article just fascinated me. As I was reading through some of the descriptions, you can still see where you would get the most bang for your buck if location and money were no object.

According to the Forbes Luxury Housing Index, the biggest gainer over the last year were Menlo Park, California, up 23% over last year. The biggest loser was Blackhawk, California with a 32% decline. These are the figures as of 9/22/2009.

So if I’m going to buy a luxury home in an expensive zip code, I should be looking in Blackhawk if I want to stay in the area. If you’re more interested in an area where “everyone knows it’s name” you may want to go to Aspen, Colorado where they had a 47% decline since last year. What, did all the stars move away?