Luxury Home Hotspots

Wealthy buyers typically look to leisure-rich hotspots such as Hawaii and Florida for second homes, which they often buy into once they retire. But that’s changing, the report suggests that younger home buyers are not waiting until they retire to live where they want to. Instead, high-net-worth individuals are showing more mobility and flocking to areas once pegged as resort or second-home markets, at a time when advances in technology, transportation, and communication are enabling a “live anywhere” working-age population, the report says.

“People conduct their business digitally or on the Internet, and my clients are doing it more and more,” says Jan Kabbani, an independent sales associate with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Phoenix. “I’m seeing lots of wealthy families and couples moving here for the amenities of the area, many of them in their 40s and far from being retired, coming here from California, Seattle, the Midwest and even Canada.”

According to the report, the following ZIP codes had the highest number of closed sales of homes in the $1-million-plus range from January 2014 to December 2014:

1. 90266: Manhattan Beach, Calif. (425 sales)
2. 84060: Park City, Utah (397 sales)
3. 94010: Burlingame, Calif. (385 sales)
4. 92037: La Jolla, Calif. (371 sales)
5. 94025: Menlo Park, Calif. (359 sales)

What’s more, these ZIP codes boasted the highest number of closed luxury sales in the past year in the $5-million-plus category:

1. 90210: Beverly Hills, Calif. (104 sales)
2. 81611: Aspen, Colo. (68 sales)
3. 90265: Malibu, Calif. (48 sales)
4. 34102: Naples, Fla. (47 sales)
5. 94027 Atherton, Calif. (46 sales)

Sales in the ultra-luxury housing sector—the $10-million-plus category—more than doubled in four U.S. cities: Aspen, Colo.; Atherton, Calif.; Naples, Fla.; and Santa Barbara, Calif. Here are the top ZIP codes for closed luxury sales in the $10-million-plus range:

1. 90210: Beverly Hills, Calif. (35 sales)
2. 81611: Aspen, Colo. (25 sales)
3. 94027: Atherton, Calif. (14 sales)
4. 90265: Malibu, Calif. (14 sales)
5. 90077: Los Angeles, Calif. (12 sales)

Source: “Luxury Market Report: Spring 2015,”