alpine nj

Last year, sellers in Alpine N.J., took their lumps like the rest of those trying to unload their properties in today's real estate market. The borough (population: 2,200) saw sales volume plummet by nearly half. Only 19 homes were sold between July 2006 and June 2007, compared to 36 the year before.

A bad year for Alpine? Hardly.

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Though sales were down, values went up. The area's median home sale price jumped $1.06 million to $3.4 million. That's enough to place the northern New Jersey ZIP (07620) in a tie with Miami Beach's Fisher Island (33109), for No. 1 on our list of the nation's 500 most expensive.

It's easy to see why. Alpine has provided New York's power brokers a quieter lifestyle since steel magnate Henry Clay Frick put the borough on the map in the early 1900s. Last year, the hamlet, which boasts rolling hills and multi-acre mansions, was the site of the market's highest-priced home sale: Richard Kurtz's $58 million purchase of a 10,000-square-foot home on 63 acres of land. He now calls hip-hop royalty such as Sean "Diddy" Combs, Fabolous and Lil' Kim neighbors.

Fisher Island, a man-made body of land named after developer Carl Fisher, is just as luxe. It teems with large waterfront mansions and boasts an impressive country club. It boasts a median income of $200,000 and residents including mutual fund manager Martin Zweig and Vector Group Chief Bennett Le Bow.

See if your ZIP ranks at top of the list at our partner site, Forbes.com

Behind The Rankings The list is dominated by ZIPs in the nation's coastal states. Blame it on supply and demand. There just aren't large plots of land waiting to be developed along the Pacific Coast Highway or in West Palm Beach. Scan local listings and you'll find that 120 feet of Palm Beach beachfront starts at $20 million. Want an acre in Newport Beach? You'll be lucky to pay under $5 million. Oceanfront properties like these, real estate agents say, are more desirable than acreage along a lake or prairie.

The top ZIPs also tend to be in areas boasting healthy industry and reflect the investments of the local economy's beneficiaries. Silicon Valley tech billionaires buy in Los Altos, Calif.; bonus-rich Wall Street bankers scoop up summer homes in beach towns such as Amagansett, N.Y.; film stars often settle in Beverly Hills, Calif. What's more, foreign oligarchs don't tend to go too far inland: The flights from Tokyo to San Francisco or from Moscow to Miami are already long enough.

This 4-bedroom, 5-bathroom house helped to land 94123 on Forbes' Most Expensive Zip Codes list - #55 to be exact. At 2500 Lyon Street, you can live right down the street from Gordon Getty and Larry Ellison. How fun! The property lies at the entrance to the Lyon Street steps and boasts "abundant with rich and opulent architectural detailing and superb Bay views."

Not expensive enough for you?

Coldwell Banker lists another 94123 gem at 2090 Vallejo Street for a mere $15,250,000 � Peanuts, really, when you consider such accoutrements as a butler's pantry and an "elegant" library. The property also boasts 4+ fireplaces. (What does the "+" mean, anyway?)

At prices like these, how is it possible that a San Francisco zip code made it to only 55 on the Top 100 list? Well, as you probably guessed, 90210 beat SF, landing at #40. Jim and Cindy Walsh might roll over in their syndicated graves having been beat out by a few towns in New Jersey, of all places. In fact, the #1 most expensive zip code is in Alpine, NJ, famous for such hip-hop residents as P. Diddy, Chingy, Lil' Kim, and Russell Simmons (according to Wikipedia).

Other San Francisco zips to make the Top 100 list? None. Believe it or not, 94114 (Castro) and 94118 (Inner Richmond) missed the cutoff, coming in at a tie for #103. Tough luck. Our wealthy neighbors in St. Francis Wood (94127) didn't even make it, coming in at #109. Oh well.

With all the crazy mortgage crap that's going on around the globe, we can only hope that more of our zip codes will make it onto the top 100 next year � and far fewer of our SFist friends will ever be able to afford a home in the greatest city in the world.
Alpine is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 2,183. According to Forbes, Alpine was ranked 8th on its list of "Most Expensive ZIP Codes 2005", with a 2004 median home sale price of $1,773,880.[3]

For the period between July 2006 and June 2007, Alpine ranked #1 in a tie with Fisher Island, Florida on the ABC News list of most expensive zip codes, with a median home sale price of $3.4 million.[4][5]

Alpine was formed by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 8, 1903 from portions of Harrington Township. The borough gained a portion of Cresskill in 1904.[6][7]

As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 2,183 people, 708 households, and 623 families residing in the borough. The population density was 132.5/km2 (343.5/mi2). There were 730 housing units at an average density of 44.3/km2 (114.9/mi2). The racial makeup of the borough was 77.37% White, 1.51% African American, 0.23% Native American, 19.10% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.32% from other races, and 1.42% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.52% of the population.

There were 708 households out of which 36.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 79.8% were married couples living together, 4.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 12.0% were non-families. 9.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.08 and the average family size was 3.24.

In the borough the population was spread out with 24.7% under the age of 18, 5.4% from 18 to 24, 20.9% from 25 to 44, 34.2% from 45 to 64, and 14.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 102.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.8 males.

The median income for a household in the borough was $130,740, and the median income for a family was $134,068. Males had a median income of $87,544 versus $45,536 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $76,995. About 5.4% of families and 6.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.5% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over.


[edit] Government

Alpine Borough HallThe current mayor of Alpine is Paul H. Tomasko (D, term ends December 31, 2010. Members of the Alpine Borough Council are Michael Cacouris (D, 2009), Vicki Frankel (D, 2009), Paul Garjian (D, 2008), Gayle Gerstein (D, 2007), Sidney Merians (D, 2007) and Ronny Siegel (D, 2008).[9]

On Election Day, November 7, 2006, Democrats swept all three open seats unopposed, with Paul H. Tomasko (443 votes) reelected as Mayor, and Michael Cacouris (412) and Vicki Frankel (399) winning additional terms on the Borough Council.[10][11]


[edit] Federal, state and county representation
Alpine is in the Fifth Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 39th Legislative District.[12]

New Jersey's Fifth Congressional District, covering the northern portions of Bergen County, Passaic County and Sussex County and all of Warren County, is represented by Scott Garrett (R, Wantage Township). New Jersey is represented in the Senate by Frank Lautenberg (D, Cliffside Park) and Bob Menendez (D, Hoboken).

The 39th legislative district of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by Gerald Cardinale (R, Cresskill) and in the Assembly by John E. Rooney (R, Emerson) and Charlotte Vandervalk (R, Westwood). The Governor of New Jersey is Jon Corzine (D, Hoboken).

Bergen County's County Executive is Dennis McNerney (D). The executive, along with the Board of Chosen Freeholders administer all county business. Bergen County's Freeholders are Chairman Tomas J. Padilla (D, Park Ridge), Vice-Chairman Elizabeth Calabrese (D, Wallington), David L. Ganz (D, Fair Lawn), James M. Carroll (D, Demarest), Bernadette P. McPherson (D, Rutherford), Julie O'Brien (D) and Connie Wagner (D).

Other countywide elected officials are Sheriff Leo McGuire (D), Surrogate Court Judge Mike Dressler (D, Cresskill) County Clerk Kathleen Donovan (R, Rutherford).


[edit] Politics
As of April 1, 2006, out of a 2004 Census estimated population of 2,340, there were 1,359 registered voters (58.1% of the population, vs. 55.4% in all of Bergen County). Of registered voters, 184 (13.5% vs. 20.7% countywide) were registered as Democrats, 380 (28.0% vs. 19.2% countywide) were registered as Republicans and 794 (58.4% vs. 60.1% countywide) were registered as Undeclared. There was one voter registered to another party.[13]

On the national level, Alpine leans toward the Republican Party. In the 2004 presidential election, Republican George W. Bush received 56% of the vote here, defeating Democrat John Kerry, who received around 43%.[14]


[edit] Education
The Alpine Public School, is a K-8 community school district serving a total of 142 students at the Alpine School. Public school students attend Tenafly High School in Tenafly for grades 9 - 12, as part of a sending/receiving relationship.


[edit] Transportation
U.S. Route 9W, the Palisades Interstate Parkway, and County Route 502 all pass through Alpine.


[edit] Media

Armstrong Tower, AlpineAlpine is home to the tower and laboratory built by Edwin Howard Armstrong after RCA evicted him from the Empire State Building. Armstrong's experimental FM station, W2XMN, broadcast from various locations on the tower, first on 42.8 MHz; later on 44.1 MHz; and finally on 93.1 MHz in the modern FM band. The laboratory building and the tower still stand; the 400-foot (122-m) tower is home to many two-way radio users, one modern FM station (Fairleigh Dickinson University's WFDU), and backup transmitters for several of New York's television stations. The tower served as a primary tower for the stations after September 11th when the World Trade Center was destroyed. There was some local opposition to this scheme, but the move was temporary, as the stations affected moved their primary broadcast facilities to the Empire State Building. The original lab building is home to a static display of historic communications equipment and offices; the USA Network cable channel operated from this building in the late 1970s.


[edit] Points of interest
Rio Vista is an upscale neighborhood in the southern section of Alpine. Rio Vista is home to Devil's Tower, a stone clock tower that is claimed to be haunted. The tower was originally built by a wealthy man in order to allow his wife to see New York from the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. However, when his wife saw him with another woman, she committed suicide by jumping off the tower. After becoming upset over his wife's death, the husband ceased all work on the tower.[15] The Rio Vista estate, where Devil's Tower was located, was later subdivided during the 1970s.

The New Jersey Section of the Palisades Interstate Park runs the length of Alpine along the top of the New Jersey Palisades and along the Hudson River.

The Alpine Boat Basin serves as both a public picnic area and small marina for private boats. The area is a scenic riverfront picnic area and boat basin, plus beach for car-top boat launches (canoe and kayak), with fishing, access to hiking trails and Henry Hudson Drive, restrooms, water, vending machines, and public phones. The area also has Alpine Pavilion, an open-air stone picnic pavilion built in 1934 by the Civil Works Administration (available for rental), as well as the historic Kearney House.


[edit] Noted residents