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    The Priciest Small Town in America

    With a median home value of about $3.49 million, Long Island's tony Sagaponack retains its No. 1 spot for expensive small towns

    By Venessa Wong | BusinessWeek – Wed, Feb 22, 2012 3:08 PM EST
    Fantasy Finance

    What’s it worth to live in a place with peace and quiet? Consider the small town of Duck, N.C., a growing, upscale resort area in the Outer Banks region that was voted one of “America’s Best Little Beach Towns” by Travel + Leisure. Four-bedroom homes in Duck are listed for about $449,900, according to Zillow.com, the real estate website. Then, head 530 miles north to Sagaponack, N.Y., one of the country’s most exclusive beach towns, and the median list price for a four-bedroom home jumps nearly tenfold to about $4.25 million.

    In dollar terms, Sagaponack overshadows not just Duck but all its peers. With a median home value of about $3.49 million, this community, home to lavish estates and a 55-acre vineyard, is the country’s most expensive small town, according to a new ranking by Zillow (Z) for Bloomberg Businessweek.

    [Also see: Living large in a new Disney home]

    To compile this list, Zillow compared the median home values in December 2011, the most recent data available, in places nationwide with populations smaller than 10,000. In total, 4,972 places were considered. As the ranking considers only small towns, famous luxury communities including those in Beverly Hills, New York City, and Honolulu were not included due to the size of their populations.

    Following Sagaponack—the No. 1 town for the third year in a row—are Jupiter Island, Fla. (with a median home value of $2.61 million), Los Altos Hills, Calif. ($2.16 million), Water Mill, N.Y. ($2.08 million), and Belvedere, Calif. ($1.92 million).

    Multimillion-dollar abodes make living in Sagaponack a luxury, especially considering that it’s mostly a second home market: The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 71.3 percent of homes in the village are for seasonal or occasional use. (Water Mill and Jupiter Island have a notable portion of seasonal homes as well, 60.5 percent and 35.8 percent, respectively.) Sagaponack’s wealth is not unusual in the area, which has long been a destination for affluent New Yorkers. Long Island might even be considered the country’s hub for posh communities, with nine of the 20 most expensive small towns in the ranking located in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

    [Also see: Where The 'One Percent' Live]

    Luxury home markets have performed better than average in the housing slump, but even they have dipped slightly. The median home value in the 20 most expensive small towns saw an average drop of 3 percent in December from a year earlier, according to Zillow’s data.

    The median home value in Sagaponack in December dropped by 10.2 percent from $3.87 million a year earlier. The discount won’t make Sagaponack any less exclusive, but it’s almost enough to buy a decent beach home in Duck.

     
    • Skeptic
      Skeptic  •  3 months ago
      Articles like this aren't relevent to me - I live in the real world.
      • P
        P 3 months ago
        We can all dream a little bit !
      • dfyujtfgyujdfy
        dfyujtfgyujdfy 3 months ago
        You don't need to read them then.
      • Sam Hain
        Sam Hain 3 months ago
        Hey X, not everyone is a loser like you. Some of us don't mind hearing that some people have it well that they can live where they want. I wish I had it like that too, so I could get away from a-holes like you.
    • Jay
      Jay  •  2 months ago
      I know someone will rant that there's another person on here turning another article into something political, I just want to say that I'm not a Democrat or a Republican. However, I love how the swarms of Republican haters on Yahoo always defend measures that make it easier for the multimillionaires to keep their abodes, yet they read an article like this and complain about how they shouldn't have these houses or how they should value homes filled with people who care about each other. Are you people hating no matter what the case is? Don't be mad that you own a little shack and didn't get a decent job because you wasted all of your time watching football. Don't be angry that others are more successful or choose to live their lives that are not in accordance with how you choose to live. Feel free to give me a thumbs down. I'll relish each one.
      • Dog77
        Dog77 2 months ago
        Jay....said it well. Cheers.
    • Sam
      Sam  •  3 months ago
      Best place to live? How about a home filled with people who care about each other.
      • Sharon
        Sharon 3 months ago
        Awesome post Sam, and so true!
      • errrk
        errrk 3 months ago
        true, but even better if it came with a man cave and a jacuzzi filled with playboy models.
      • luvakgal
        luvakgal 3 months ago
        Well said!!
    • Truthsayer
      Truthsayer  •  2 months ago
      All at our expense, folks! The Banksters stole your money, then spit in your face! But hey, I'm just glad they're still busy screwing us instead of being unemployed like everyone else.
    • 4202trader
      4202trader  •  Portland, Oregon  •  2 months ago
      Best place to live? A home in a pleasant safe neighborhood that is paid off. Especially if you are retired (me).
    • Witz
      Witz  •  Freeport, Illinois  •  2 months ago
      WHAT THE DUCK???
    • Jon
      Jon  •  2 months ago
      Who is the target audience for an article like this? No one I know.
    • Tabbs
      Tabbs  •  3 months ago
      Yahoo gets further out of touch with reality every day it seems...
      • BfromCT
        BfromCT 3 months ago
        It's a "Bloomberg Business Week" article. Why are you blaming Yahoo? You're stupid, right?
      • dfyujtfgyujdfy
        dfyujtfgyujdfy 3 months ago
        Did you only read one article ??
      • WIZ
        WIZ 3 months ago
        OP is not far off base although i never judge anything by one thing. Yahoo news articles are bleh, who cares, who cares, this one sounds good, bleh, and i don't care. Out of touch seems just about right. of 20 articles perhaps 1-2 is news others are just flim flam celebrity #$%$ "Today worlds largest potato gets a makeover"
    • Richard
      Richard  •  Los Angeles, California  •  3 months ago
      A good depression always makes the rich richer.
      • Louise
        Louise 3 months ago
        How refreshing - someone who sees through the hype and recognizes the rich are getting richer.....tax the upper 1%.
      • Richard
        Richard 3 months ago
        Some of them will fall too. But that just makes the circle smaller...
    • Mark
      Mark  •  3 months ago
      just when i thought i couldnt feel worse
    • GooseyLucy
      GooseyLucy  •  3 months ago
      Not to worry..The Chinese have Real Estate Vacation Packages where they come here and buy up our lost homes to foreclosures, sometimes whole blocks of American broken dreams. And also other foriengers are buying up our real estates and businesses. You can see it daily anywhere you go. Real Estate Agencies are like rat colony mentality, as long as they get their greedy filthy paws on MONEY (food), they don't care how they do it or where it comes from.Welcome to America home of the broken American Dreams and joblessness.
    • Star
      Star  •  Tampa, Florida  •  3 months ago
      Of course luxury homes haven't suffered much. The top 1% are not the ones looking for jobs.
    • jose
      jose  •  Statesville, North Carolina  •  3 months ago
      nice place. outer banks to nc is like key west to fl, sadly we live in the real world..
    • joejoe
      joejoe  •  Arlington, Virginia  •  3 months ago
      Coastal communities always cost more to live, plus you are also paying for the name and fame like places in CA and NY.
    • john
      john  •  3 months ago
      I wonder if there is any section 8 houseing there?
    • Grace
      Grace  •  Great Falls, Virginia  •  3 months ago
      Ridiculous! With the way this economy is, I would never buy a house of this price.. Today we have a job and tomorrow we don't know
    • right cross
      right cross  •  Commack, New York  •  3 months ago
      I live on long island and this place is over rated would never pay that kind of money their for a home
    • Gem
      Gem  •  Houston, Texas  •  3 months ago
      When a lot of our fellow Americans are barely making it, this article is so out of place and inappropriate.
    • Louise
      Louise  •  Prescott, Arizona  •  3 months ago
      Warren Buffitt is right. The upper 1% need to pay their fair share of taxes. The money they get from an unfair tax structure does not create "decent" jobs for the young, it's spent on bigger houses and more toys. The politicians need to get out of their bubble and see how the middle class lives.
    • Diogenes
      Diogenes  •  3 months ago
      So you can get blown away by a hurricane? The Outer Banks gets hit every few years.
     Post a comment

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