What with all the excitement from our Black Friday and Beyond DEALS, you may not have noticed that our last zip code installment finished out the 301-400 level of Forbes’ Most Expensive Zip codes.  You know what that means!

Yes, this article, the Bottom 100 of the 500 Most Expensive, is The End of the Delivery Route.  Really.  Well, until 2012, when Forbes puts out a brand-new list, but there’s a good chance the world will end before then.  There’s an even better chance that Forbes will only have 5 places on that list instead of 500, with all the mistakes they made this year.  So you’re going to want to pay attention to every single zippy digit in this last entry for 2011!  But first… here’s your chance to catch up if you missed the earlier entries in this exciting, edge-of-your-seat-on-the-mail-truck, most beloved Burbed series of all time!  (Or was that most belittled?)

Previous Entries in the Most Expensive Zip Code Series:

• Top 50 Most Expensive Zip Codes, This is the RBA
• Next 50 Most Expensive Zip Codes, Welcome to the Second Tier of Not-Quite
• Third Tier Realty: Zips 101-200 or I have a feeling we’re not in the RBA Anymore
• Fourth Tier Cul de Sac: Submillion in Suburbia
• The Fifth Tier: Gateway to the Subdivisions of Sunnyvale

Hold onto your mailbags, folks!  We’re entering an area with all the median prices under $750,000!  Watch out, there may not be any sushi available.

#406: San Anselmo 94960

• Median Home Price: $749,000
• Median Price Change: -17.4% ⇓
• Average Days On Market: 200 129
• Inventory: 129 52
• 2010 Rank: 267 (-139 spots ⇓)
• Most Expensive Home: $20.5 Million

A $20.5 million dollar house in Marin makes sense, but in San Anselmo?  I can’t find anything for eight digits anywhere near San Pablo Bay, and this zip’s most expensive place at 178 W Oak Knoll Drive comes in at only $3.4 million.  That’s very different. This 6000 square foot hotel-like structure on almost 10 acres has been on the market for just about half a year, so you’d better hurry!

Now, we know plenty of high-end places get yanked at the end of warm weather season.  But I find the idea of a $20 million ask going without comment pretty unlikely.  This Marin real estate blog didn’t note it under San Anselmo.  Or anywhere else.  The most expensive sale logged in MLS this year was only $8.75 million, in nearby Ross (#30 last year and mysteriously absent this one).

Zowie!! More zip code inZanity after ze break!

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DEALS, DEALS, DEALS!  Aren’t you loving all these DEALS!?!  Remember, drive a little, save a lot!  So how much do you think you could save driving all the way to Sonoma County?  Remember, there was only one house under $200K in Marin County, so maybe we’ll find three here.  Plus, pick up an extra winery for the trip home.

But what would you say if I told you I found a property for under $100K that isn’t a hundred years old, isn’t a sub-750 foot cottage, and isn’t on a postage stamp-sized lot.  Would you believe me?

664 Acacia Ln, Santa Rosa, CA 95409
$39,000

BEDS: 3
BATHS: 2
SQ. FT.: 1,404
$/SQ. FT.: $28
LOT SIZE: 0.43 Acres
PROPERTY TYPE: Residential, Detached, Single Family
STYLE: Ranch
STORIES: 1
YEAR BUILT: 1964
COMMUNITY: Northeast Santa Rosa
COUNTY: Sonoma
MLS#: 21129043
SOURCE: BAREIS
STATUS: Active
ON REDFIN: 21 days

Listed price is Minumum bid. Single level home 3/2 with fireplace and central heat. Fenced rear yard with detached 2 car garage. Information on property gathered from public records.

The listed price is a minimum bid?  Sold for $635K in 2006, you get 94% instant equity!

Oh, dear, a quick trip over to Zillow has a very different story.  This house is on Auction.com and will be subject to a minimum $39K bid starting December 18th (per Zillow) or starting December 1st (if you believe Auction.com), ending on December 4th.  CASH ONLY!

This is the second house we’ve found where another site links to Auction.com and Redfin doesn’t know anything about it.   Just sayin’.

Poor Mr. Zip.  The United States Postal Service put him out to pasture in 1986, when they introduced the ZIP+4 postal codes.  But he was a familiar sight in the 1960s, urging everyone to include the new ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan) postal codes when sending mail.

Mr. Zip might not be around to nag you on addressing envelopes, because he’s in retirement.  Mr. Z writes to say he hopes this series will go on forever, because he can’t play Name That Code all the time.

Today we bring you yet another installment of all the Northern California cities on Forbes’ Most Expensive Zip Code list.  It features data crunched by local favorite Altos Research (and mangled by Forbes; you’d think after I’ve linked to them four different times and noted in each article that their data has a systematic error in every single entry, maybe somebody there would fix it, but NOOOOOOOO).  Anyway, here’s what you may have missed while writing code or hanging out on a sunny sidewalk waiting to collect a faceful of pepper spray.

Previous Entries in the Most Expensive Zip Code Series:

• Top 50 Most Expensive Zip Codes, RBA Edition
• Next 50 Most Expensive Zip Codes, Almost-RBA Edition
• Third Tier Realty: Zips 101-200 or I have a feeling we’re not in the RBA Anymore
• Fourth Tier Cul de Sac: Submillion in Suburbia

Now, we’ll take the Fifth!  Fifth Tier, that is; the Top Half of the Bottom 200!

Let’s see which cities can still scrape together a property median wishing price just under $850K.  Remember, we correct the mistakes as we find them, and we added the comparison to last year’s list.  That’s the kind of original work you’ll only find done by obsessive-compulsive bloggers who think zip codes are fascinating.  Well, Mr. Zip certainly agrees!

#304: San Mateo 94402

• Median Home Price: $849,292
• Median Price Change: NA
• Average Days On Market: 200 114
• Inventory: 114 81
• Rank in 2010: 236 (-68 spots ⇓)
• Most Expensive Home: $13 Million

Now I am beginning to think that the people at Forbes were just making stuff up for that “Most Expensive Home” field.  $13 million.  In San Mateo.  The most expensive place I could find sold for $3.3 mil in June, including the gated entryway.  It’s just like what you get in mid-level condoplexes, including calling itself an ESTATE (complete with the CAPITAL LETTERS).

Ah, but that living room does look spacious enough to hold a very small charity ball.  More goodness from Mr. Zip after the break!

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What will it take to make the zip code series stop?  Lots and lots and lots of quality submissions!  So until you send in your best guest post EVEH, we’ll be running these wonderful lists and photos for the next few hundred Sundays or until we run out of data, by which time Forbes (if they’re still a going concern) will have the 2012 list ready.  But look on the bright side.  No more annoying maps like last year!

Today we look at all the Northern California entries in Forbes Most Expensive Zip Codes 2011: The Top 100 of the Bottom 400.

Previous entries in this year’s series:

• Top 50 Most Expensive Zip Codes, RBA Edition
• Next 50 Most Expensive Zip Codes, Almost-RBA Edition

Quick recap: Forbes messed up their data even worse than usual this year, plus many areas on last year’s list have completely disappeared without explanation.  We add in the comparison to last year’s rankings and find the “most expensive” house (if it’s findable) that Forbes mentions for each entry.  While Forbes doesn’t seem that interested in hearing from their readers (registration is required), Altos Research, who did the number-crunching, loves talking data.  They’ve responded to a couple of my concerns here.

Here we go, numbers 101-200, which are now under the Million and a Half Median!  How Low do we have to go to sink under a million?  Remember, this is the Third Tier, so Real Bay Area (RBA) bragging rights are gone (except for some exceptions).

#106: Alamo 94507

• Median Home Price: $1,396,000
• Median Price Change: -7.8% ⇓
• Average Days On Market: 200 134
• Inventory: 134 102
• Rank in 2010: #101 (-5 spots ⇓)
• Most Expensive Home: $11.8 Million (322 Lark Lane)

This high-end (for the East Bay) location south of Walnut Creek is stuck in atop the third tier right where it belongs, just a few spots above Newport Beach.  This luxury home that looks more like an administration building kind of says it all.  Free architectural clue: It’s the windows that make this place a façade fail.

A new $13.8 million property has come on the market since the Forbes article ran, and it has a more traditional (and attractive) look, in the classic “Let’s build a French country estate in Contra Costa County” style.

Plenty more to enjoy after the break!  In fact, we promise the very next one is a Burbed favorite, so click on through.

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1855 Felta Rd Healdsburg, CA 95448
Price: $849,000

Beds:     1
Baths:     1
Sq. Ft.:     768
$/Sq. Ft.:     $1,105
Lot Size:     2 Acres
Property Type:    Residential, Detached, Single Family
Style:    Cabin, Craftsman
Year Built:    1945
Stories:    1
View:    Water
Area:    Healdsburg
County:     Sonoma
MLS#:     20831778
Source:     BAREIS
Status:     Active
On Redfin:     13 days
Enchanting 1945 craftsman cabin on magical 2 ac property on both sides of Mill Creek with cable foot bridge leading across creek to 3M yr old volcanic rock outcroppings and caves. the cabin is one bedroom with a great room (stone fireplace, kitchen) large deck just above high water is perfect place to experience the muscularity of the creek’s storm flow and the serenity and sensuality of spring/summer flow. Only 8 min to the Healdsburg Plaza.

Thanks to Burbed reader Mark for this find. Here’s what he had to say:

$1105 / sqft with a cesspool!!!

Love the description … ‘perfect place to experience the muscularity of the creek’s storm flow’ i.e. keep oars under your bed – you may need them.

Holy cow! I had to look on a map to remind myself where Healdsburgh was – oh right, it’s near Snoopy. And frankly, when I first saw this house, I thought it was a set piece from Lord of the Rings. But in any case, welcome to the Real Bay Area Healdsburgh. Congrats!

Black Friday is typically the start of an economic boom – will this house set it off?

2227 Malin Pl Santa Rosa, CA 95407
Price: $239,900

Beds: 2
Baths: 1
Sq. Ft.: 943
$/Sq. Ft.: $254
Lot Size: 1,307 Sq. Ft.
$/Acre: $7,996,667
Year Built: 1976
Stories: 1 Story
Style: Other
Area: Southwest Santa Rosa
County: Sonoma
MLS#: 20809034
Source: BAREIS
Status: Active
On Redfin: 77 days
Duette home located in a cul-de-sac, with a large side yard.

Burbed rarely ventures north – and this piece of real estate is a great example why. Just $239,900? Sheesh… might as well price it for free if you’re going to price it like that.

Still Burbed reader mrbogue was reminded by something when he saw this listing:

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (Star Trek: The Original Series)

Personally, I’m reminded of this:

Seinfeld – The Dinner Party
JERRY: Oh look Elaine, the black and white cookie. I love the black and white. Two races of flavor living side by side [mumble?] It’s a wonderful thing isn’t it?

ELAINE: You know I often wonder what you’ll be like when you’re senile.

The term duette is pretty cute. What does this house remind you of? Doesn’t it sound like a cleaning product?

The Least Affordable Place to Live? Try Salinas – New York Times
IN 2005, the least-affordable place in the country to live, measured by the percentage of income devoted to mortgage payments, was Salinas, Calif.

The second was the Santa Cruz-Watsonville area of California.

The third? Santa Rosa-Petaluma, Calif.

In fact, California has the distinction of having the 11 least-affordable metropolitan areas in the country. One would need to go all the way down to 12th place — and across the country to the New York region’s northern suburbs — to find a non-California metropolitan area on the least-affordable list of 2005.

Congratulations! And why is California so unaffordable? Is it because it’s the most special place on earth?

Another quintessentially California issue is Proposition 13, the 1978 measure that slashed property taxes by more than 50 percent and ignited a national property tax revolution.

The measure, which was supposed to facilitate home buying, has backfired to some extent; local governments prefer that land be used for retailing rather than housing because they collect more from sales taxes than from property taxes.

“Proposition 13 is a big stop sign saying ‘no housing needed,’ ” said Peter Dreier, professor of public policy at Occidental College in Los Angeles and an author of “Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st Century” (University Press of Kansas, 2001). “Every municipality is engaged in a bidding war for retail — they’re battling for Wal-Mart, to keep the libraries open.”

It is unlikely that will change, Professor Dreier and others say, calling Proposition 13 “the third rail of government — it’s untouchable.”

Maybe they can build dual purpose Best Buy’s – stores during the day, houses at night. Then, instead of having a Best Buy every 5 miles (East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale) – we could have one every block. Everyone wins!