By Phillip Molnar
In a year of explosive home price growth, three San Diego County ZIP codes have made their way onto a list of the nation’s priciest.
Real estate tracker PropertyShark released its annual list of the 100 most expensive areas of the nation and Rancho Santa Fe (92067) comes in at No. 18 with a median sales price of $3.4 million. It is the first time a San Diego County ZIP code cracked the top 20.
The most expensive ZIP code in the nation was Atherton in San Mateo County for the fifth year with a median sales price of $7.47 million. The Bay Area community is a hub of Silicon Valley wealth. California made up 70 percent of the list’s most expensive ZIP codes.
The other San Diego County ZIPs to make the list were Coronado (92118) at No. 63 with a median sales price of $1.94 million and Del Mar (92014) at No. 74 with a median of $1.85 million.
PropertyShark has been doing the list for several years and 2021 represents a rise in the rankings for Rancho Santa Fe and Coronado. The exception is La Jolla, which has been on the list for several years but was bumped off in 2021. Del Mar dropped a few spots.
Rancho Santa Fe was No. 23 in 2020 with a median of $2.7 million, Coronado was No. 64 with a median of $1.72 million, Del Mar No. 69 with a median of $1.69 million and La Jolla was No. 94 with a median of $1.5 million.
San Diego appeared to be riding a wave of rapid price appreciation in California that saw it surpass many established East Coast markets. This year was the first time no New York City ZIP codes made the top 20.
Throughout the pandemic, affluent buyers seeking properties have sought out California as a place for more spread-out space and as a location with lower COVID-19 numbers (per capita) than much of the nation.
“I really think COVID changed everything,” said Linda Sansone, a luxury real estate agent in Rancho Santa Fe. “Everybody stopped and thought: I need more space.”
She said land is very limited in high-end markets and Rancho Santa Fe stands out for affluent buyers. While nearly half of all the buyers in Rancho Santa Fe are from San Diego County, she said she has had a lot of buyers from different places on the East Coast, Northern California, Los Angeles and Chicago.
“You can go outside here for dinner most of the year,” Sansone said. “You can’t back East.”
An exception to the density factor is Boston’s 02199 ZIP code, which was No. 2 on the list with a median of $5.5 million. The Back Bay area of Boston, which covers the area around the massive Prudential Center mall, has a small San Diego connection: It is home to many biotech firms that are in competition for workers in San Diego’s growing life sciences industry.
Outside of California, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey contributed the most ZIP codes to the list. Several states had only one or two ZIPs on the list: Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Maryland and Florida.
The biggest gain year-over-year was Maryland’s Gibson Island, which increased 97 percent to a median of $3.19 million. The ZIP code is a private island and a gated community. New York City’s Upper West Side had the biggest drop on the list, with the median sales price down $1 million, or 39 percent.
San Diego County’s rankings are noteworthy but expanded wealth in other parts of the state is evident in sales data. The San Francisco Bay Area contributed 47 ZIP codes to the list. Looking at only data on the county level, Los Angeles County had the most ZIPs on the list with 21. Beverly Hills (90210) ranked highest at No. 6 with a $4.12 million sales price.
PropertyShark’s 2021 ranking of Rancho Santa Fe — at No. 18 — marks the highest point for a San Diego County ZIP code in the list’s history. It was No. 26 in 2016, No. 32 in 2017, No. 29 in 2018, No. 29 in 2019 and No. 23 in 2020.
phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com
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Number of times a county ZIP code has placed in the top 20 list of most expensive home prices in U.S., according to PropertyShark.