Guess Which Boston Zip Code Is One of the Most Expensive in the U.S.

View from the Top of the Hub | Photo by Sean Davis via Flickr/Creative Commons

Populated with retailers like Canada Goose and Tesla, we don’t go to the Prudential looking for a cheap buy—and we don’t scour the surrounding area expecting to find an affordable condo, either. But a new study by real estate site PropertyShark has uncovered a fact that might make even the most zealous shoppers clutch their purses: The 02199 zip code encompassing the Prudential Center is the sixth most expensive spot to buy a home in the entire country.

That’s right: Homebuyers are likely to find a better deal in almost any other part of the U.S. To come to this unsettling conclusion, and to determine the truest snapshot of housing markets across the nation, PropertyShark looked at the median sale prices of everything from single-families and condos to co-ops and two-families, rather than considering average home values or list prices. The median method of averaging also helped ensure an accurate midpoint, as it doesn’t give extra weight to any outliers. After eliminating zips with fewer than three transactions between January 1 to November 5, 2019, analysts shaved off the top and took a closer look at the most expensive markets. Because there were multiple ties in median sale prices, the priciest 100 actually include 125 total zip codes.

Image via PropertyShark

Above the Prudential-centered zip code, neighborhoods in California and New York took the first five slots on the list. Unsurprisingly, those two states dominated much of the top 100, with guest appearances from Washington, Florida, New Jersey, Nevada, Maryland, and, for the first time, Arizona. Fellow New England states New Hampshire and Connecticut each contributed one and three zones to the list, respectively. In addition to our own 02199, Massachusetts also secured two more spots toward (thankfully) the bottom of the list, with Wellesley Hills (with a median of $1,474,000) coming in 90th and Weston ranking at 98 ($1,437,000).

While the 02199 Back Bay zip scored a median sale price of $3,669,000 in 2019, that’s actually an improvement from last year, when we won the bronze with home sales averaging out at $4,772,500. Both of these numbers might sound adorably low to house hunters shopping around the area right now, though. According to listing site Zillow, the two listings on the market in that zip right now are a $12.5-million-dollar corner unit at the Mandarin Oriental, and a double penthouse in the same building asking for $28 million. If only there were a Black Friday for the real estate market.