A show of wealth

TRIGAUX E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published May 1, 2002

If home prices in some towns get any more stratospheric, they'll be issuing us peons special passports just to visit.

Worth magazine, that monthly chronicler of all things dripping with wealth, once again knighted Florida's Jupiter Island as the richest town in America. Jupiter Island's lofty title -- determined by its $3.9-million median home prices -- for the fourth straight year puts it at the top of Worth's annual survey of the top 250 richest towns in the country.

In a list dominated by 82 upscale communities in California (nearly a third of the list) and 52 in New York, Florida boasted 14 towns on the richest list.

Lest we mere mortals turn too green with envy, this year's list (which is based on home prices over the past two years) hints that even the richest U.S. town experienced some impact from the country's economic slowdown in 2001.

For example, in the survey published last year, Jupiter Island, about an hour north of Palm Beach, rated the No. 1 spot by registering an astonishing $2-million increase in median home prices to $3.9-million from $1.9-million in 2000. In this year's survey, the town's median home price, meaning half cost more, half cost less, stayed essentially unchanged.

That loss of price momentum could spell the end to Jupiter Island's four-year reign at No. 1. At No. 2, Atherton, Calif., is on a tear.

The Silicon Valley town saw its median home price soar 26 percent to $3.4-million this time around from $2.7-million in the 2001 survey. Small wonder. Atherton is home to Steve Jobs (Apple Computer co-founder), Larry Ellison (ranked No. 5 on the Forbes world's richest people list) and a long list of other tech magnates.

Nationwide, fewer homes changed hands, as the weaker stock market and the Sept. 11 aftershocks slowed appreciation and muted consumer confidence. Still, prices continued to edge up. The median home price in America's 250th richest town (Dana Point, Calif.) is $510,000, up 11 percent from the bottom-ranked town on last year's list ($485,500) and up about 50 percent from the year before that ($343,000).

Appreciation like that sure beats the recent performance of the stock markets.

For Jupiter Island, the Worth list is doubtless a source of private pride and public annoyance. After all, getting away from the riffraff -- that means you, gawking tourist -- is one point of buying a home in the most exclusive town in America.

Maybe that's why Jupiter Island last summer installed high-tech video cameras to monitor the only two entrances to the oceanfront town.

Jupiter Island deposed Aspen, Colo., in Worth's 1999 rankings as the nation's richest town. It continues to dominate the richest town list because it is small -- population 620, up a whopping 19 from last year -- and virtually surrounded by water. That insures exclusivity (no tract housing here) while the ample waterfront helps keep home prices escalating. Water, says Worth founder Randall Jones, "is the gold when it comes to looking at value of real estate."

And what of the 13 other Florida towns anointed to the Worth 250? Only Florida's Palm Beach eked into the nation's top 10 at No. 10 (median home price: $2-million).

To be fair, Palm Beach's rank is impressive given its larger size (population 10,468). And its density of wealthy, high-profile residents is untouched in Florida. They range from Tampa Bay Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer (his 14,000-square-foot beachfront home was for sale in 2000 for $19.95-million) to Henry Ford II widow Kathleen Ford (selling her house for $12-million to sugar baron Alfonso Fanjul in favor of a bigger property).

Then there is financier Nelson Peltz's 25,000-square-foot oceanfront estate (which at that size must have a French name, Montsorrel), which was on the market for a mere $75-million.

With those numbers, it's no wonder Palm Beach climbed from No. 32 two years ago to No. 17 last year, and now to No. 10.

After Palm Beach, the bulk of the remaining dozen Florida towns in this year's list are tiny (helping them to rank high) and mostly clustered anonymously on Florida's Atlantic coast. They range from Indian River Shores (ranked 99th; media home price: $812,500; population 3,448), just up the Florida coast from Jupiter Island, south to Key Biscayne (ranked 86th; median home price: $846,500; population 10,507).

Along Florida's Gulf Coast, three towns made the list: barrier island Captiva (ranked 20th; median home price: $1.5-million; population 812); Naples (171st; median home price: $642,905; population 20,976); and (closest to the Tampa Bay area) Longboat Key (209th; median home price: $577,500; population 7,603).

Don't look for St. Petersburg or Tampa or Clearwater or just about any other Tampa Bay area town (possible future exception: very tiny Belleair Shore in Pinellas County) to make the Worth 250 list any time soon. Not unless the magazine publishes the Worth 10,000.

Nor did the Southeastern states make much of a showing on this year's list of richest towns. Georgia boasted one -- and only one -- town: snazzy barrier isle Sea Island, at the very high rank of No. 6. Similarly, South Carolina's sole entry, coastal Sullivan's Island, ranked 195th.

No town, however small, made the top 250 list in North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi or Louisiana.

I don't know about you, but I'm applying for my visitor passport before next year's richest rankings are out.

-- Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8405.

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