The richest zip code in America depends on how you measure wealth, but by median home listing price, Newport Coast, California (92657) tops the list at $12.5 million. By actual sale prices, Atherton, California (94027) has recorded even higher figures, with a median home sale price of $15.7 million as of early 2026. These two zip codes consistently compete for the top spot, joined by a handful of ultra-wealthy enclaves in California, Florida, New York, and Arizona.
The 10 Most Expensive Zip Codes by Listing Price
Realtor.com ranks the priciest zip codes each year by looking at communities with at least 30 active listings and sorting them by median listing price. As of January 2026, the top 10 are:
- 92657, Newport Coast, CA: $12.5 million
- 33109, Fisher Island, FL: $11.98 million
- 90210, Beverly Hills, CA: $10.495 million
- 11932, Bridgehampton, NY: $8.8 million
- 90077, Bel-Air, Los Angeles, CA: $7.947 million
- 11976, Water Mill, NY: $6.995 million
- 93108, Montecito, Santa Barbara, CA: $6.495 million
- 92067, Rancho Santa Fe, CA: $5.995 million
- 92663, Newport Beach, CA: $5.995 million
- 85253, Paradise Valley, AZ: $5.5 million
California dominates, claiming six of the ten spots. The Hamptons on Long Island take two, and Florida and Arizona round out the list. Beverly Hills’ famous 90210 remains a perennial contender, though it hasn’t held the number one position in years.
Why Atherton Often Tops the List
Atherton (94027), a small town on the San Francisco Peninsula, doesn’t always appear on listing-price rankings because it has fewer active listings at any given time. But when you look at completed sales, Atherton regularly posts the highest numbers in the country. In March 2026, homes in the 94027 zip code sold for a median price of $15.7 million, up more than 64% from the prior year.
Atherton’s wealth comes largely from the tech industry. The town sits between San Francisco and San Jose, surrounded by the headquarters of major technology companies and venture capital firms. Properties there tend to be large estates on generous lots, and the community has resisted commercial development, keeping it almost entirely residential. The combination of extreme demand from tech executives, limited housing stock, and a culture of privacy pushes prices well above even Beverly Hills.
Home Prices vs. Household Income
Listing prices tell you where the most expensive real estate sits, but they don’t fully capture where the richest people live. Some residents in these zip codes bought their homes decades ago. Others inherited property. A zip code with sky-high home values might have retirees living on modest fixed incomes in homes they purchased for a fraction of today’s price.
Household income data, collected by the IRS through tax returns, offers a different lens. The IRS publishes zip-code-level data on adjusted gross income, which includes wages, investment income, dividends, and business profits. By that measure, zip codes in and around major financial centers, tech hubs, and hedge fund corridors often rank highest. Fisher Island (33109), the private island community accessible only by ferry off the coast of Miami, reports a median household income above $250,000, and even that figure understates the wealth there because much of residents’ net worth sits in assets that don’t show up as annual income.
The distinction matters. “Richest” can mean the highest property values, the highest incomes, or the highest net worth per household. These three measures often overlap but don’t always produce the same ranking.
What Makes a Zip Code Extremely Wealthy
The zip codes that consistently appear at the top share a few characteristics. First, they have severely limited housing supply. Places like Fisher Island, Atherton, and Montecito are geographically constrained or have zoning rules that prevent dense development. When only a few hundred or a few thousand homes exist in an area, prices climb fast.
Second, they tend to cluster near major wealth-generating industries. The California entries on the list sit near Silicon Valley, Hollywood, or both. The New York entries in the Hamptons serve as weekend retreats for Wall Street executives. Fisher Island draws international wealth to a tax-friendly state with no personal income tax.
Third, privacy and exclusivity act as self-reinforcing factors. Once a zip code earns a reputation as ultra-wealthy, it attracts more high-net-worth buyers, which drives prices higher, which keeps out everyone else. Gated communities, private roads, and minimum lot sizes all contribute to this cycle.
How These Numbers Are Calculated
Different publications produce different “richest zip code” rankings because they use different data. Realtor.com uses median listing prices from active real estate listings. Redfin and Zillow track median sale prices from closed transactions. Bloomberg and other financial outlets sometimes use IRS income data or Census Bureau surveys. Each approach captures something real, but they can yield different winners.
Median listing price reflects what sellers are asking, which can be aspirational. Median sale price reflects what buyers actually paid, which is a harder number. Income data from IRS filings captures earning power but misses wealth held in unrealized stock gains, real estate equity, or trust funds. No single metric tells the whole story, which is why Newport Coast, Atherton, Fisher Island, and Beverly Hills all take turns claiming the title depending on the source.
What It Costs to Live in These Zip Codes
Beyond the purchase price of a home, living in America’s wealthiest zip codes comes with substantial ongoing costs. Property taxes in these areas can easily run $100,000 to $300,000 or more per year, depending on the state and the assessed value. Homeowners insurance on multi-million-dollar properties, particularly in wildfire-prone parts of California or hurricane-exposed coastal Florida, adds tens of thousands more.
Many of these communities also have homeowners association fees, private security, landscaping requirements, and social expectations that push the cost of daily life well beyond what the home price alone suggests. In a place like Fisher Island, where residents rely on a private ferry, or Montecito, where estates require full-time staff, the annual cost of simply maintaining a property can rival the mortgage payment on an average American home.