Sagaponack Named Priciest Small Town Three Years In A Row

For the third year in a row, Sagaponack has topped the list of the 20 priciest small towns in America, according to a recent ranking by Zillow for Bloomberg Businessweek.

In creating the list of the most expensive small towns nationwide, Zillow compared the median home values, using December 2011 housing data, in locales with populations with less than 10,000.

Sagaponack, with a home value of about $3.49 million, was ranked the number one small town on the list. Another East End small town also made the top five this year; the nearby hamlet of Water Mill was named the fourth priciest nationwide, with a median home value of $2.08 million.

The top five this year also included Jupiter Island, Florida, which came in at number two with a median home value of $2.61 million; Los Altos Hills, California was named number three, with a median home value of $2.16 million; and Belvedere, California rounded out the top five with a median home value of $1.92 million.

Comparing the data taken by Zillow from December 2011 with that taken in December 2010, the median home value dropped approximately 10 percent in Sagaponack over the past year, down from a median home value of $3.87 million in December 2010. According to United States Census data, Sagaponack has a population of 683.

According to the data collected by Zillow, the median home value in Water Mill was up a slight .1 percent in the past year. Water Mill has a population of 2,076.

East Hampton Village, which has a population of 1,091, came in at number 14 on the list. Median home values in East Hampton in December 2011 were $1.6 million, down 8.8 percent from December 2010.

Also making the list of the top 20, at number 16, was Quogue, which has a population of 285. The median home value in that village, just under $1.6 million, rose a slight .1 percent from December 2010.