Sales of Million-Dollar Homes Make Upswing in Southland

From the craggy coastline of Laguna Beach to the posh Los Angeles enclave of Brentwood, million-dollar-plus homes are being snapped up in growing numbers in Southern California, a real estate data firm reported.

The trend is being echoed throughout California, as 705 buyers purchased homes of more than $1 million in the third quarter this year, a 35% increase from the same time last year, according to a survey released late Wednesday by DataQuick Information Systems.

“This is the strongest sales pace we’ve seen since 1990,” Dataquick analyst John Karevoll said Thursday.

Southern California led the state in these pricey transactions. In Los Angeles County, 256 homes commanding prices of $1 million or more sold from July 1 to Sept. 30, up 44% from 178 such sales in the same quarter last year. Orange County followed suit with 61 homes, a 24% increase from the 49 sold the same time last year.

This week, in fact, one of the priciest homes in Southern California closed escrow. Pacific Reflections, a 11,000-square-foot Laguna Beach mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean, sold for more than $14 million, including artwork and furniture.

The home, once owned by convicted stockbroker Boyd Jefferies, was sold by real estate developer Robert Breese and his wife, Beverly, to an unnamed out-of-state investor.

The Breeses had purchased the home from Jefferies for $6.25 million in 1986, just a month before he came under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was eventually convicted for his part in the illegal “parking” of stock for insider trader Ivan Boesky and corporate raider Paul Bilzerian.

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Like other properties, the high-end estates plummeted in value during the real estate slump, with some losing about 40% of their value.

Although prices in Southern California have stopped their free fall, they have not increased significantly in recent months, brokers say.

Still, the increased sales of million-dollar homes could mean an uptick in prices next year, said Joyce Rey, general manager and co-founder of Rodeo Realty, an estates division of Prudential-Jon Douglas Co.

“Consumer confidence has definitely strengthened,” she said. “Sales volume is up and we now have a distinct shortage of inventory.”

The most expensive homes that sold in Los Angeles County last quarter were a Brentwood estate for $18.3 million, which may have included additional property, and a Santa Monica home, which sold for $6.17 million.

The most active ZIP Code in the study was Beverly Hills’ 90210 of television fame, with 35 sales, followed by Brentwood, with 29 sales. Some of the sales involved condominiums.

Analyst Karevoll said the Los Angeles area, which makes up 60% of the state’s supply of homes valued at more than $1 million, was hit hardest during the last real estate slump and is only now beginning to recover.

“We are just now returning to normal sales levels,” Karevoll said.

He added that the higher end of the real estate market is more volatile than the lower end, with prices often changing dramatically from month to month. And they are impervious to changes in interest rates or other factors that affect the rest of the housing market.