Guess in which state the most expensive house sold in the United States in 2006 is.

Yes, indeed. It is New Jersey.

The 7,000 square foot house on 63 acres of property in Alpine, New Jersey was sold for $58 million by Henry Clay Frick II, “the grandson of the steel magnate who founded the Frick Collection, one of the finest collections of European paintings in the United States.”***

Being a regular Garden State property tax victim payer, I can only imagine what Mr. Frick’s annual property tax bill must have been.

***It is not all that surprising, given that Alpine is located in a very desireable part of Bergen County, which is in the northeast corner of the state and just across the Hudson River from New York. In 2005, Forbes magazine ranked Alpine 8th on its list of “Most Expensive ZIP Codes. Over the past couple of years, Alpine has attracted several well-moneyed entertainers (e.g. Wesley Snipes and Stevie Wonder) and (occasionally arrested, imprisoned, shot, or otherwise engaged in gunplay) rappers, including Fabolous, Li’l Kim and P. Diddy. Other celebrities such as Russell Simmons and his brother Joseph Simmons a/k/a “Dr. Run” of Run-DMC, live in nearby towns in Bergen County.