A Million Reasons to Wait
Nancy Thompson has been sitting in her black Porsche Boxster since Monday to keep her place at the front of the line of prospective buyers at Newport Coast, where 16 $1-million homes go on sale Saturday.
“Aren’t I ridiculous?” the 39-year-old Newport Beach lawyer asked Thursday night as she waited for her husband, Robert, to relieve her. Some relatives and even his secretary also have taken occasional shifts, she said.
Other hopefuls hired people to wait in line for them.
“There’s a market for this,” said Christian Torres, 26, who was holding the No. 4 spot in a line of 15 cars along Vista Ridge on Thursday night. “I’ve got a lot of friends that make a lot of money doing this.”
That people would camp out for concert tickets or for a glimpse of the stars on Academy Awards night is not surprising, but for $1-million houses?
“Oh, my God, we’re blown away by the response,” said Julie Hutchinson, vice president of sales and marketing for Greystone Homes, which is building a total of 61 homes in the gated community called Sausalito.
It will be part of Newport Coast’s 2,600 homes, about half of which are already built. Located in the hills between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, the development is much in demand. Hutchinson said a model-home tour of Sausalito last weekend drew 2,700 people.
Potential buyers were prequalified, and so far, Hutchinson said, 100 applications have been processed. The homes will go to those with a down payment in hand on a first-come, first-served basis.
“We feel it’s the fairest way,” she said.
Reflecting Orange County’s booming economy, sales of seven-figure homes leaped 47% last year to 580, the highest annual total on record.
In fact, such prices have grown so common that entire communities of $1-million houses are being mass-produced. No fewer than such 30 subdivisions, albeit gated ones, are under construction across the Southland. Builders say waiting lists are the rule.
At Newport Coast, where construction started in the early 1990s, homes range in size from 3,700 square feet to 4,100 square feet. They have Spanish-style architecture and canyon views. Three designs are available, each by a different architecture firm. Features include his-and-her closets, nanny suites, private sun rooms, detached libraries that can double as studios, and decks off the master suites.
Such amenities were worth enduring days of waiting in 50-degree temperatures, said prospective buyer Richard Adler, holding the No. 2 spot in his Lexus and battling boredom by listening to talk radio, working crossword puzzles and reading joke books to his new neighbors.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said the 64-year-old stockbroker from Corona del Mar. “It’ll be something I’ll never forget.”
For Tony Tonthat, 48, of Seal Beach the demand for the homes showed capitalism at its best. “This is crazy,” the Vietnamese immigrant said. “This only happens in America.”
