The Golden State’s million dollar housing market sparkled in the second quarter of the year as high-end sales hit their highest level in seven years, a market tracker said Thursday.
Sales of homes costing $1 million or more rose 9 percent from 11,758 a year ago to 12,826 in the second quarter of the year, said Irvine-based CoreLogic DataQuick. Sales increased by 60 percent from the first quarter.
Southern California stood out among the tony markets for several reasons, ranging from an influx of foreign buyers into the market, an improving economy to rising home prices. For example, homes that were selling for around $850,000 to $900,000 a year ago now cost $1 million or more, said CoreLogid DatqQuick analyst Andrew LePage.
Manhattan Beach ranked first with 146 properties selling for more than a $1 million, while Westwood had the most expensive sale when an 11,637 square foot, four-bedroom six-bathroom mansion built in 1931 sold for $45 million in May, CoreLogic DataQuick said.
Jamie McCourt, the ex-wife of former Dodger owner Frank McCourt, sold the property to a buyer from a foreign country, said Realtor Stephen Resnick of Hilton & Hyland/Christie’s International Real Estate.
Neither the buyer’s name nor nationality can be revealed because of a confidentiality agreement, Resnick said. But the new owners won’t be picking up much mail because it was bought as a vacation retreat. “You can imagine what the primary home is like,” he said with a chuckle.
Cash, not loan documents, changed hands in this case.
“Nobody buys a $45 million house with a loan,” Resnick said.
He expects the area to remain ripe for big deals.
“You have demand and a lot of money out there. And there is not huge inventory,” he said. “And Los Angeles is still relatively cheap in the high end, believe it or not, for what they are getting for their money.”
Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency, who had the McCourt listing , said more and more buyers are coming from abroad.
“In the high end market we are truly seeing buyers from abroad. It used to be 75 percent of the buyers were people you knew and now 75 percent of the buyers are coming from abroad,” Rappaport said.
Many are from Russia and China, he noted.
Ranking behind Manhattan Beach were Hillsborough with 144 sales, San Jose with 137, Del Mar with 136 and Cupertino with 120. Pacific Palisades was 13th with 107 sales above $1 million, Newport Beach ranked 14th with 108, Brentwood was 15th with 105 , Beverly Hills was 16th with 101, Rolling Hills 21st with 86 and Hollywood 25th with 79.
Manhattan Beach might well be nicknamed the “Million Dollar City,” said Realtor David Fratello, who operates the Web site mbconfidential.com
“You are describing just about everything on the market in Manhattan Beach,” he said. Even small cottages can cost from $1.1 million to $1.4 million.
Fratello credits robust home appreciation for the high-priced environment.
“We are up 25 to 28 percent over the last two years. Last year you could have gotten a little cottage for $950,000 but that same house now will be $1.2 million or higher,” he said.
Even the dirt is expensive in this city. He currently has a house on two lots listed for $4.2 million. A 4,800 square foot lot in the neighborhood recently sold for $1,750,000.
“It has been a real runaway here. Land values have gone higher and higher,” he said.
