According to Forbes, on this narrow, empty plot of land in Manhattan, New York, one developer is planning on building a six-level townhouse that will start at $40 million. Appropriately, it's located in the nation's most expensive zip code, 10065. (Screenshot via Google Maps)
If your zip code is 10065, that means you live in New York City. Manhattan, to be more specific.
And, according to Forbes, it also means you live in the country's most expensive zip code.
With the help of Altos Research, Forbes looked at information for more than 22,000 zip codes nationwide to find the 500 most expensive, ranking them by median asking price for single-family homes and condos.
In No. 1-ranking 10065 in Manhattan, that median asking price is above $6.53 million.
Alpine, N.J.'s 07620 came in a fairly distant second, with its single-family homes generally going for somewhere around $5.75 million. Rounding out the top three was Atherton, Calif.'s 94027, where homes have a median price of nearly $4.9 million.
Los Angeles didn't even break the top five, finally making an appearance on the list's ninth slot: 90274 in Rolling Hills, known as the Palos Verde Peninsula, has homes with a median price above $3.97 million.
(And yes, the famous 90210 of Beverly Hills came in at No. 12 with a median price of about $3.63 million. Hidden Hills, a neighborhood in the Santa Monica Mountains, was the only other L.A. enclave to break the top 20.)
What does any of this have to do with South Los Angeles? Nothing, really, except to illustrate a starker-than-stark disparity between the cost – and, it logically follows, quality – of housing in low- and high-income areas.
Zip Atlas had the following information about these South L.A. zip codes:
– In Florence (roughly the zip code 90003): About 51 percent of folks live in property worth somewhere between $100,000 and $149,999. That's way more than the state average, where the biggest proportion of people live in property worth between $200,000 and $299,999.
– In University Park (roughly 90007): About 38 percent of residents live in property worth between $150,000 and $199,999. More than 10 percent of residents live in property that's worth less than $100,000.
– In Historic South-Central (roughly 90011): Nearly 62 percent of residents live in homes that are worth less than $150,000. About 3 percent live on property worth less than $50,000.
– In Vermont Square (roughly 90037): Almost 91 percent of residents live in places worth less than $200,000.
– In Westmont (roughly 90044): Nearly 14 percent of people live on property worth less than $100,000.
The names of the neighborhoods corresponding to the zip codes were arrived at by entering the zip codes in the Los Angeles Times' Mapping L.A. project – but note that it's only a rough approximation. Additionally, Forbes noted that their research was limited to zip codes where 15 or more residences were for sale.
