Coldwell Banker: Burlingame Is Capital of the $1 Million Home

Coldwell Banker is out with a couple of new reports on luxury home-buying that could a) make a lot of us feel excluded from a really swell party b) open some eyes about the sheer volume of cash being spent on high-end homes c) open even more eyes about who's buying those homes.

The reports -- one a study of high-end home listings, the other a survey of "high-net-worth consumers" and their real estate aspirations -- are from Coldwell Banker's Previews International high-end listing service.

The firm's Luxury Market Report lists the nation's top ZIP codes for home sales at three price points: $1 million plus, $5 million plus and $10 million plus.

In that lowest tier, the $1 million-plus sales between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014, Burlingame tops the entire United States, with seven other Bay Area ZIPs making the Top 20 list.

Here they are:

In the $5-million-plus category, the Peninsula town of Atherton is No. 3 nationwide, with 44 such sales, and Burlingame (again) is No. 13, with 25 sales. In the $10-million-plus category, Atherton again ranks No. 3, with 14 top-end sales. It's the only Bay Area ZIP code on the Top 20 list.

It's not brand-new news that a lot of Bay Area (and California) homes are selling for $1 million or more. In July, real-estate analysis firm DataQuick reported that the number of $1 million-plus sales in our nine-county region had reached 5,734 in the second quarter of this year. That broke the record set in the second quarter of 2005, as the last bubble got ready to burst boom approached its acme.

Those $1 million home sales are happening against the background of sharply rising home prices across the Bay Area. The rapid escalation of real estate prices here prompted housing data firm RealtyTrac in July to name San Francisco the least affordable market in the United States for millennials. RealtyTrac also notes that the high price of housing has done nothing to slow the influx of millennials to the city. The firm says San Francisco saw a 68 percent increase in millennial residents between 2007 and 2013 (RealtyTrac's definition of millennial: those born between 1977 and 1992).

But before we descend to hand-wringing about the fate of generations present and to come, let's go back to Coldwell Banker's second report, High-Net-Worth Consumers and Real Estate. It's based on a survey of Americans who are doing well for themselves, with a minimum gross annual household income of $200,000 and a minimum net worth of $5 million.

Some of the survey's most interesting findings concern those who are very wealthy and young -- 35 and under. Coldwell Banker says members of that group:

• Spent an average of $7.8 million on their last home purchase.
• Frequently paid cash for the last home they bought -- 80 percent of them did that.
• Own 2.87 homes on average.

By comparison, members of the 65-and-up age group in the ultrawealthy survey spent $1 million on their last home purchase; just 25 percent paid cash; and they own a paltry 1.44 homes each.

But here's the item that I really found fascinating about the young, loaded homebuyers: As they think about purchasing their new manse, the most-often-named amenity they want is ... a safe room. You know -- a place to hide out from the bad guys when they break into your place.

Coldwell Banker says 37 percent of the rich 35-and-unders want a safe room in their house. For the 65-and-olders, it's 7 percent. You wonder what accounts for the difference.