Atherton, California's 94027 ZIP code just did something no community has ever done in the eleven-year history of PropertyShark's national rankings: it crossed the $10 million threshold for median home sale price, hitting $10.725 million in 2026, a 29% jump from the year before. At the same time, Boston vanished from the list entirely for the first time since the study began in 2016, after its Back Bay ZIP code failed to log enough sales to even qualify.
A Record Floor and a New Ceiling
The entry threshold to crack PropertyShark's top 100 most expensive ZIP codes nationally reached a record $2.22 million this year, a 9% increase over 2025 and a 69% jump since the study's 2016 launch, according to PropertyShark. Atherton's leap to the top spot, detailed by GloBest, marks the ninth time in eleven years the Silicon Valley enclave has finished first nationally. Hoodline previously reported that Steph Curry sold his Atherton home at a loss even as the broader market around him kept climbing.
Florida's Fisher Island, which held the national #1 spot in 2025 after a 65% surge driven by a cluster of ultra-high-end condo sales, tumbled to #3 in 2026 as its median sale price fell 24% year-over-year to $7.22 million, per PropertyShark's data. That kind of volatility isn't unusual in small, exclusive markets with few total transactions, where a handful of closed deals can swing a median wildly from one year to the next.
Boston Shut Out, New England's Islands Surge
For the first time since PropertyShark began compiling its annual top-100 list in 2016, Boston failed to place a single ZIP code in the rankings. Back Bay's 02199 ZIP code, which had ranked second nationally as recently as 2021, was disqualified this year after recording fewer than five qualifying sales, according to ROCK 929. PropertyShark requires a minimum of five completed residential sales during the study period for a ZIP code to qualify at all.
Massachusetts still claimed New England's two priciest ZIP codes, with Nantucket (02554) tying for 31st nationally at a $3.6 million median and Chilmark (02535) tying for 38th at $3.4 million, according to Daily Voice's review of the rankings. New Hampshire, meanwhile, set a state record by placing two ZIP codes in the national top 100 simultaneously — Rye Beach (03871) at #59 with a $2.834 million median, and New Castle (03854) tied for 72nd at $2.65 million — communities that had only sporadically cracked the rankings in prior years, per PropertyShark.
New Jersey and New York Post Records of Their Own
New Jersey set its own state record with seven ZIP codes landing in the national top 100, and six of those posted all-time highs. Alpine (07620) led the state at #15 nationally with a $4.375 million median, while Stone Harbor (08247) topped $3 million for the first time at $3.13 million, according to Daily Voice. Deal (07723) was the lone decliner among New Jersey's seven, with its median sale price falling nearly $1 million from 2025 to land at $2.65 million, tied for 72nd nationally alongside Rumson (07760) at #100 with a $2.408 million median.
The New York City metropolitan area claimed a record 25% of the national rankings with 31 ZIP codes, tying the San Francisco Bay Area for the most of any metro area in the country, Daily Voice reports. Sagaponack (11962) ranked second nationally at $7.35 million, a 24% increase from 2025, while Bridgehampton (11932) came in fourth at $6.15 million after its median more than doubled. Connecticut saw six of its seven ranked communities post record-high prices, with Riverside (06878) becoming the state's first ZIP code to surpass a $3 million median, landing at #51 with $3.035 million.
California Still Dominates, But Its Grip Is Loosening
Nationwide, 52 ZIP codes topped a $3 million median sale price in 2026, and nine crossed $5 million, according to GloBest's analysis of the PropertyShark figures. Coastal proximity remained the dominant pattern: 72 of the 122 ranked ZIP codes, including ties, sat within five miles of the ocean, and 39% were less than a mile from the coast, with only five ZIP codes nationwide located more than 25 miles inland.
California still accounts for the largest overall share of the national list at 57%, but that's a decade-low figure as the Bay Area contracted to 31 ZIP codes — down from as many as 55 ZIP codes placed on the list back in 2019, per GloBest. Hoodline has tracked this shifting landscape before, including when Medina's ZIP outpaced Mercer Island and Bellevue and when a tiny Kentucky suburb cracked the nation's second-richest ZIP spot.
The findings are based on PropertyShark's analysis of actual registered residential transactions — single-family, two-family, condo, and co-op sales — closed between January and September 2026, a methodology that excludes non-disclosure states such as Texas, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana, according to ThinkAdvisor. Because the study measures closed deed records rather than listing prices, it reflects what buyers actually paid rather than what sellers initially asked.
