CNN has just released a report on the “hottest” zip codes in the Baltimore/Washington area–those zip codes that have seen the largest median price increase in the last five years. Given the continuing real estate boom in the area, its surprising that the 10 zip codes all lay in Montgomery County, with four in the sprawling, massive D.C. suburb that is Silver Spring. DCist suspects that this is due to the development of Downtown Silver Spring, with its new AFI theater, the culinary delights of one of Maryland’s three Potbelly locations, and the over-priced produce of the ubiquitous Whole Foods Market. No doubt DCist friend The Deceiver will bristle at the new hotness:

Sure, New Yorkers sometimes have to drag Long Island City behind them and L.A. is saddled with the Valley, but it just doesn’t compare to the dispiriting, soul-leeching blight that is Silver Spring, which, even as it attempts to upscale itself feels more and more like rusty tin can crapulence. What’s that stench from the North? Oh, it’s that sprawling slum with the pretty movie theatre!

Other locales that have been pegged as hot by CNN/Money include two nods to Gaithersburg and Rockville, and one each to Kensington and the famously liberal People’s Republic of Takoma Park.

Given the seeming focus of the list on areas of serious suburban sprawl, DCist is surprised that no locations in Northern Virginia made the list. Sorry, V.A.–maybe next year!