Wayzata, Minnesota and Fish Creek, Wisconsin? Most Expensive Neighborhoods in Each State

Most of us are at least a little bit curious about expensive homes in well-to-do neighborhoods, where the rich and famous Netflix and chill. It gives us something to shoot for. Or avoid at all costs. A cousin from Germany visited us last fall and we took a boat ride on Lake Minnetonka, in the Twin Cities metro. I snapped this photo of a private home on Ferndale Road in Wayzata, Minnesota. My cousin initially marveled at the hotels on the lakeshore, and I had to point out to him that these were, in fact, private homes. His eyes got big. Well, everything about Wayzata is bigger and better, some might argue.

It turns out that Wayzata is the most expensive neighborhood in Minnesota, according to research conducted by CashNetUSA, with an average single family home price tag of $2,236,365. That's the average.

Fish Creek, Wisconsin: take a bow. You are the most expensive neighborhood in Wisconsin, along with Lead, South Dakota, Cumming, Iowa and Lakeside, Michigan.

Apparently, calculating the most expensive neighborhoods wasn't rocket science. CashNetUSA teamed with Zillow by adding together the house prices in each area and then dividing them by the number of properties to calculate the average price in every neighborhood in the USA. According to researchers, a few major themes emerged:

• The Manalapan neighborhood of Florida is America’s most expensive, with homes averaging $39,761,000.
• The neighborhood of Snowmass is Colorado’s most expensive and the third most expensive in the U.S. (average $23,568,750).
• Four of America’s 10 most expensive neighborhoods are in Florida.
• Hudson Yards is the most expensive neighborhood of New York City, at an average of $7,459,720.

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Pass the smelling salts. An average home price tag of over $39 million in Manalapan, Florida? Can I rent this on airbnb? Whether or not you are a fan of wretched excess, it's interesting to see how supply and demand, inflation (and housing scarcity) has impacted even the most expensive neighborhoods across the nation.

I tried to calculate what mortgages and property taxes might be on some of these homes, but my calculator broke. Oh well, through the digital magic of the interwebs we can all be voyeurs, capable of seeing how the one tenth of 1 percent of Americans live.

American Dream, Exhibit A? Or a garish, tasteless, nightmarish example of just how out-of-control housing prices are across the nation right now?

I report - you decide. Wait, that's already taken. Apologies.