15 Manhattan Zip Codes Are Among America's Most Expensive

Forbes released its ranking of the 500 most expensive zip codes this week. Despite recessionary price drops in even the richest neighborhoods, there are still 55 zip codes where median prices top $2 million. In New York, it's mostly the usual suspects (Hi, West Village!), with a few surprises thrown in.

Manhattan had a very strong showing in the list's top 100, but take it with a grain of salt. The borough (and to a slightly lesser extent the whole city) is an anomaly thanks to the enormous number of renters--roughly 2/3 of the island's housing units are rentals--that skew the median sales price. In other words, the people who can afford to buy Manhattan apartments often tend to be able to buy nice ones. In other other words, the East Village (#22) ain't more expensive than Scarsdale (#154).

That said, the big surprise is 10003 (East Village) landing at #22, ahead of 10021 (Upper East Side, including its "Gold Coast" along Fifth and Park Avenues in the 70s), which for decades was kind of the 90210 of the city, its poshest status zip code. That loss of prestige--and it's highly unlikely that the old guard who live in the "right" part of 10021 give a hoot about a Forbes ranking--can be attributed in part to the breaking up of the UES into three zip codes in 2007. One of those two new zips, 10065, ranked #7, while the other, 10075, languished at #103.

Anyway, rest assured Jay McInerney will pat himself on the back while perusing the list.

Onto New York's spots on the list:

5. West Village, 10014, $3,785,445 median home price

7. Upper East Side (b/w 60th and 69th Streets), 10065, $3,626,001

9. SoHo, 10012, $3,221,371

12. TriBeCa, 10013, $3,101,848

22. East Village, 10003, $2,825,587

25. Upper East Side (b/w 69th and 76th Streets), 10021, $2,671,667

26. Upper East Side (b/w 81st and 86th Streets), 10028, $2,601,550

32. Upper West Side 10024, $2,486,757

40. "Western Upper West Side" (aka Trump Place), 10069, $2,235,185

45. Financial District, 10007, $2,147,184

50. Greenwich Village, 10011, $2,110,581

55. Upper West Side (b/w 60th and 76th Streets), 10023, $2,012,101

67. Midtown East/Sutton Place, 10022, $1,811,405

68. Gramercy, 10010, $1,811,011

In other news: Duarte, California topped the list, with a median price of $4,276,462; Brooklyn peaked at #276 (with 11231, which includes Red Hook and the regrettable BoCoCa acro-hood); and Alpine, New Jersey's 07620 was the most expensive zip code in the metropolitan area with a median home price of $3,814,885