It’s hundreds of miles from the AI boom and tech billionaire class of Silicon Valley.
It maintains an image, at least in some minds, as a beachside mecca for old money, big yachts and conspicuous consumption.
And now, a new Los Angeles Times analysis of the highest home values in California shows Newport Beach perched at the top. Among California’s most upscale neighborhoods, a subtle reshuffling has taken place in recent decades, with the highest home values migrating from Northern California to Southern California.
A Times analysis for 2026 shows three of the top 10 ZIP codes for highest home value were on Newport Beach. Only one other community showed up twice on the list: Los Altos in Silicon Valley.
Property values are just one way of assessing wealth and do not take into account such markers as income and tax base. But they do offer a window into the demographic patterns of the rich.
In 2001, seven of the 10 ZIP codes with the highest home prices were in Northern California: Atherton, Portola Valley, two in Los Altos, Ross, Palo Alto and Tiburon/Belvedere, which share the 94920 ZIP code. Three were in Southern California: Rancho Santa Fe, Newport Beach and Montecito, according to Zillow data.
By 2026, the dynamic had flipped. Seven of the state’s 10 richest zip codes are now in Southern California, and three are within Newport Beach — up from just one in 2001. Beverly Hills and Santa Monica zip codes also joined the list, replacing Portola Valley, Ross, Palo Alto and Tiburon/Belvedere.
The 92657 ZIP code, Newport’s most luxurious, covers the Newport Coast area. The median home value there was $5.42 million as of Jan. 31, according to Zillow data reviewed by the Times.
That could buy you almost 100 homes in Trona, San Bernardino County — ZIP code 93562 — where the median home value was $64,000, the lowest in California.
The 92661 and 92662 ZIP codes of Newport Beach, which cover the Balboa Peninsula and Balboa Island, respectively, and were also in California’s top 10 richest areas, had median home values near $4.25 million, also as of Jan. 31.
The median home in California was about $750,000, according to Zillow’s home value index.
The Zillow data do not necessarily align with local data in Marin County. The median house price in Tiburon was $5 million and $3.7 million in Belvedere in January, the Marin County assessor-recorder-clerk’s office reported. The Ross median was $4.9 million.
Newport Beach gained several spots on the list partly due to the migration of well-heeled home buyers and the appreciation of existing properties.
Fleeing Angelenos — whether running from COVID masking policies and school shutdowns or the flames that devoured Pacific Palisades — have contributed to Newport’s ascension, according to Annie Clougherty, a real estate agent who grew up in Newport Beach and works there now.
“We look like a deal compared to L.A. real estate,” she said. “We used to just compete for buyers in Orange County, and L.A. has definitely pushed that,” bringing prices up.
In the most selective of Newport Beach ZIP codes, the priciest houses have docks along the ocean or Newport Bay, but only a select few have room for a 70- to 100-foot boat, Clougherty said. “We’re not making more water.”
Many new buyers found Newport Beach attractive because of its similarity to Pacific Palisades — a tight-knit community with the beach nearby. “Many L.A. areas don’t have great schools and so that’s a huge draw,” she said.
“So many of these huge sales came from people relocating from Los Angeles either after the fires or after COVID,” Clougherty said, and many who left Los Angeles for Newport often preferred the area’s more conservative politics.
Newport Beach Mayor Lauren Kleiman pointed to her city’s location on the water, safe neighborhoods and quality schools as major factors driving housing prices up.
Since the pandemic, “we are seeing even more people gravitating towards Newport,” she said. Indeed, Newport’s wealthiest ZIP codes have shot up the list since 2019, when its highest-valued area ranked 8th in the state.
With the Palisades fire forcing many affluent Angelenos to look for a new place to live, demand has increased again, she said.
“The bottom line is: We only have so many homes here, and people want to be here, whether it’s to live and raise a family or to visit,” Kleiman said. “It’s a pretty special place.”
The ZIP codes with the highest median home values in 2001, according to Zillow:
Atherton (94027)
Portola Valley (94028)
Rancho Santa Fe (92067)
Los Altos (94022)
Newport Beach (92662)
Los Altos (94024)
Ross (94957)
Montecito (93108)
Palo Alto (94301)
Tiburon/Belvedere (94920)
The ZIP codes with the highest median home values in 2026, according to Zillow:
Atherton (94027)
Newport Beach (92657)
Beverly Hills (90210)
Los Altos (94022)
Montecito (93108)
Rancho Santa Fe (92067)
Santa Monica (90402)
Los Altos (94024)
Newport Beach (92661)
Newport Beach (92662)
Nationwide, six of the 10 ZIP codes with the highest-priced homes are in California. Atherton, in San Mateo County, long the country’s richest enclave, maintained its place at the top of the list with a median home value of $7.7 million, followed by Miami Beach, Sagaponack in New York, Woody Creek in Colorado and Newport Beach.
The Independent Journal contributed to this report. Distributed by Tribune News Service.
