Atherton California Real Estate

Atherton, California currently houses the most expensive real estate in the country and it's only going to go higher with Google employees cashing in their stock options. Currently the average per capita income in Atherton is well over $110,000.

The town's allure is enhanced by its exclusivity. Atherton has 2,500 homes and no more than 160 home sales a year, says Tom LeMieux, a real-estate agent here. Houses are often snapped up without going on the market at all. Bidding wars quickly escalate. Older homes can sell for $3.5 million, often as "tear-downs" to be razed to make room for new construction.

Across the country, new tales of real-estate froth are bubbling up every day. But Atherton is in a particular lather. The 4.6-square-mile enclave in the heart of Silicon Valley has the most expensive ZIP Code, 94027, in the nation, with a median home price of nearly $2.5 million in 2004, according to a recent survey by Forbes.com. Among the newly arrived Googlers' neighbors is the boss: Google CEO Eric Schmidt is an Atherton homeowner.