Prices Are Down in all communities

Beverly Hills 90210 is getting raves as the famous zip code due to its TV series. But a San Diego community the La Jolla California, high above the Pacific Ocean is now America’s most expensive homes, according to Coldwell Banker’s Home Price Comparison for 2008.

A comparison among different places on an average home of 200-square-foot single-family homes with four bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a family room and a two-car garage was done on the survey. In La Jolla Calif, the average price for this home is $1.842 million, a 2% increase from last year. Second is Greenwich, Conn, where the price is $1.787 million. Despite its housing slump, California still dominates the list. Beverly Hills, last year’s most expensive is now No. 3. Eight out of the top 10 most expensive places are in California.

On the other hand, the Midwest accounted for 8 of the 10 most affordable places. Sioux City, Iowa is the most affordable with an average home priced at $133,000.

Coastal preference

"California has dominated the list as long as I can remember," says Jim Gillespie, president and CEO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate., which has been producing the home price comparison index for 21 years. "The coastlines are always going to be desirable."

Rick Goodwin, a publisher of Unique Homes, a magazine and site of luxury properties said, “It's not surprising that the most expensive places are also well known. In tough economic times, wealthy people tend to invest in established communities where home prices tend to remain strong over time

"If you're going to put $20 million in a house, you're going to want to make sure it's a good place," Goodwin says. "Just because you've got a lot of money, it doesn't mean you're less cautious."

This year home prices have fallen hard even in established communities. According to Coldwell index, Greenwich Conn dropped 11% and 18% in Beverly Hills.

Drew Peterson, a Realtor at Weichert Capital Properties & Estates in Greenwich, says few properties there sell for less than $500,000. One of his clients recently accepted an offer for one of the least expensive houses on the market, a 1,000-square-foot house on 0.14 acres listed for $495,000. Raw land in Greenwich goes for $1.2 million to $2.2 million an acre, so investors often buy small houses just to tear them down and put up larger ones, he says.