Travel

The 10 most expensive beach towns in the US — where you have to be a millionaire to buy a home

manhattan beach california
If you want to live in these towns, better start saving up. Shutterstock/Lucky-photographer
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Beach season is upon us. If you're in the market for an affordable summer home within spitting distance of the ocean spray, there are some under-the-radar places across the US where you can nab a beach house for less than $250,000

In other places, you'd better be a millionaire or billionaire if you want to get a showing.

In ritzy summer vacation spots like the Hamptons, Malibu, or Nantucket, for instance, the median price for property currently exceeds $3 million, according to a report from Realtor.com. 

Realtor.com dug through its database to find the most expensive beachfront locales in America. It limited its scope to beach cities with populations between 1,000 to 100,000 and that had at least 30 properties on the market. And to ensure some geographic diversity, Realtor.com capped its list to two towns per state separated by at least 30 miles. 

In Malibu, the most expensive beach town in the US, one neighborhood along the surf has earned the moniker "Billionaire's Beach." Music mogul David Geffen reportedly sold his home there last year for $85 million.

Read on for the rest of the 10 most expensive beach towns to buy a home — each of which has a median home price over $1.4 million.

10. Anna Maria, Florida

anna maria florida
Shutterstock/Mark Winfrey

Population: 1,626

Median home price: $1.4 million

9. Avalon, New Jersey

avalon new jersey
Shutterstock/Jon Bilous

Population: 1,297

Median home price: $1.46 million

8. Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts (Martha's Vineyard)

vineyard haven martha's vineyard
Flickr/WalkingGeek

Population: 2,114

Median home price: $1.5 million

7. Key Biscayne, Florida

key biscayne florida
Shutterstock/Infinity2

Population: 12,924

Median home price: $1.7 million

6. Haleiwa, Hawaii

haleiwa hawaii
Shutterstock/Shane Myers Photography

Population: 3,970

Median home price: $1.88 million

5. Sullivan's Island, South Carolina

sullivan's island south carolina
Shutterstock/Henryk Sadura

Population: 1,896

Median home price: $2.45 million

4. Nantucket, Massachusetts

nantucket harbor homes
Shutterstock/GagliardiImages

Population: 10,856

Median home price: $3 million

3. Manhattan Beach, California

manhattan beach california
Shutterstock/Lucky-photographer

Population: 35,881

Median home price: $3.1 million

2. Water Mill, New York (the Hamptons)

water mill ny the hamptons
Shutterstock/João Paulo Tinoco

Population: 1,559

Median home price: $3.75 million

1. Malibu, California

Pacific Coast Highway Malibu California
iStock / ComfortableNomad

Population: 12,958

Median home price: $3.95 million

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Alex Morrell
Alex Morrell was a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering Wall Street at large.Prior to Insider he was a staff reporter at Forbes Magazine covering billionaires and their businesses. He's previously written and worked for the Associated Press, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. He's a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and holds a master's in business and economic journalism from Columbia University. Selected recent stories:How our insatiable appetite for electricity is giving rise to traders who make money from power-grid bottlenecksBehind a Wall Street headhunter's rapid ascent lie accusations of harassment and abuseSchonfeld's growing pains: Ryan Tolkin reckons with his greatest challenge yet as returns dry up at the $13 billion hedge fundHow a California hedge fund bulldozed the state's labor laws to impose some of the harshest noncompetes on Wall StreetFear and loathing on Wall Street: Inside the paranoid, hyper-competitive onslaught to prevent quant traders from defecting to rivalsMillennium has quietly minted billions off of America's passive-investing craze. Now rivals are racing to catch up.The bubble has popped on the mighty index-rebalance trade, and the overcrowded strategy is wreaking carnage across hedge fundsInside the rapid rise and fall of Coatue's quant fund: How a 23-year-old Wharton wunderkind seized power, alienated employees, and blew a $350 million opportunityFor years, Chase and Citi credit cards offered a generous, under-the-radar benefit that protected customers. And then the bots arrived.