AVALON — Homeowners here and in some of the county’s pricier communities should not feel slighted that their ZIP codes fell off the Forbes list of the country’s costliest. It seems that the magazine, known for its “richest” and “best” lists, was working with incomplete data.
From 2005 to 2008, several Cape May County ZIP codes made it onto Forbes list of the 500 most expensive in the country. For the past two years, however, none have made it.
On the 2005 list, Avalon’s 08202 ZIP code was ranked 77th. It had a median home sales price of $944,606. Stone Harbor (08247) was the only other county representative ranked at 146 in the country with the average house going for $804,832.
For the next three years, Sea Isle City (08243) and Cape May Point (08212) joined the Seven Mile Beach communities on the list.
The towns, their ranks, and average home sales were:
• In 2006, Stone Harbor, 47, $1,320,050; Avalon, 92, $1,055,000; Sea Isle City, 260, $790,000; and Cape May Point, 344, $745,000.
• In 2007, Avalon, 65, $1,200,050; Stone Harbor, 118, $985,000; Cape May Point, 158, $900,000; and Sea Isle City, 439, $712,506.
• In 2008, Avalon, 140, $985,000; Cape May Point, 325, $772,500; Stone Harbor, 387, $735,000; and Sea Isle City, 484, $688,250.
For the 2007 list, Forbes featured pictures of homes in the 100 most expensive ZIP codes. In Avalon, it featured a home with the following description:
“No house on skinny Seven Mile Island, along southern Jersey’s seashore, is more than a block or two from the waterfront, and this 4,336-square-foot property is no exception. Located on the island’s southern half, it offers unobstructed views of the Atlantic Ocean and comes with its own bayside swimming pool. Its interior is split into five bedrooms, five bathrooms, two powder rooms and a cavernous, vaulted great room.”
At the time, that home was listed at $4 million through Ferguson Dechert Real Estate, Inc.
So why have home prices in these local shore points fallen off the list?
A huge drop in sales prices is not likely.
According to Forbes, Altos Research a Mountain View, Calif., firm that tracks housing market data, gathered data on over 20,000 ZIP codes. Forbes asked them to use the postal Zone Improvement Plan codes to rank them all to find the 500 most expensive in the country.
The problem with the Forbes list is that there are over 40,000 ZIP Codes in the United States. Altos data, therefore, only covers half the country’s ZIP codes and apparently none of this county.
“We have pretty good coverage in New Jersey, but we don’t watch Cape May County right now,” said Scott Sambucci, a representative from Altos Research. According to a story in the Bergen Record, 11 ZIP codes in that county were among the 500 most expensive.
“We provide data to Forbes, who then combines with other data/research,” Sambucci said. He said that any information regarding this county would have to come from another company.
As far as the high-end real estate market in this Cape May County, it seems that the swankier towns are still getting big bucks. In the Herald’s most recent property transfer chart, an Avalon home fetched nearly $1.8 million and two Stone Harbor sales averaged $1.3 million.
The top ZIP code on the 2010 Forbes list was 91008 in Duarte, Ca. with a median price of $4,276,462. No. 500 on the list was 33154 in Miami Beach, Fl. at $455,580.
Home prices in the four county ZIP codes mentioned above likely fall somewhere in between.
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