DQNews Archived Article

Million-Dollar Home Sales Record

by Real Estate Analyst John Karevoll
January, 2000

La Jolla, CA.— Sales of Golden State million-dollar homes reached a new peak last year, in large part because of a sustained sales surge in the Bay Area, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 7,553 homes were sold in California for a million dollars or more in 1999. That was up 40.8 percent from the year before when 5,366 were sold, according to DataQuick.

Both last year and the year before set new records, passing the previous peak of 4,271 in 1989. The low point of the decade was in 1995 when 2,017 million-dollar homes were sold.

Bay Area million-dollar sales increased a whopping 68.1 percent last year, going from 1,840 the year before to 3,093. Santa Clara County alone went from 575 to 1,073, up 86.6 percent, the most for any major county statewide. The Bay Area accounts for 41% of the state's million-dollar sales, up from 20 percent ten years ago.

Southern California went from 3,186 to 3,988 last year, a 25.2 percent increase, DataQuick reported.

"These numbers go up when sales go up, and they go up even more when price increases push homes across the million-dollar threshold. If we adjust for the shifts, increases in prestige home values and sales counts are actually about the same as for other home categories," said Mike Ela, president of the DataQuick.

A total of 555,171 homes were sold in California last year, up 8.2 percent from 513,309 the year before. The statewide median went up from $196,000 to $210,000, a 7.1 percent increase.

The most expensive home sold last year was a 20,344 square-foot Malibu home that went for $27 million in December. The largest home was a 26,674 square-foot 9-bedroom, 13.5 bathroom home on 5.45 acres in La Jolla which went for $15.9 million.

DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide. These numbers include home sales where it could be determined from public records that there was a buyer, a seller, that money changed hands, and that there was a legal transfer of property ownership. Not included were property swaps, sales of multiple lots, teardowns, and large farm or ranch properties. Sales to companies were included, as were sales to trusts.

Eight California homes were sold for more than $10 million last year. Eighty sold in the $5 million to $10 million range, 56 were in the $4 million range, 222 were in the $3 million range and 728 in the $2 million range.

Atherton and Rancho Santa Fe were the communities with the highest portion of million-dollar sales relative to overall sales. There were 367 condo sales in the million-dollar category, mostly in West Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The median sized million-dollar home was 3,128 sq.ft. with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The median price per square-foot for all million-dollar homes was $424 last year, up 8.0 percent from $392 a year ago, DataQuick reported.

Around 17 percent of the buyers paid cash. Of the remaining who used a mortgage, the median down payment was $412,500. Lending institutions most willing to provide financing were Washington Mutual, Bank of America and Chase Manhattan.

Saratoga 95070 topped the zip code list with 241 sales, followed by Hillsborough 94010 with 238 and Rancho Santa Fe 92067 with 229, DataQuick reported.

Zip	Community	1998 Sales#	1999 Sales#	1999's Most Expensive
95070	Saratoga	139	241	$4.70 mill.
94010	Hillsborough	140	238	$3.90 mill.
92067	Rancho Santa Fe	198	229	$8.00 mill.
94022	Los Altos	128	169	$5.85 mill.
92037	La Jolla	137	164	$15.85 mill.
90210	Beverly Hills	175	158	$12.00 mill.
90272	Pacific Palisades	142	136	$3.65 mill.
90274	Rolling Hills Estates	115	136	$4.50 mill.
92660	Newport Beach	88	134	$3.70 mill.
94024	Los Altos	49	133	$2.50 mill.
94920	Belvedere Tiburon	83	128	$6.53 mill.
90049	Brentwood	127	127	$4.43 mill.
90266	Manhattan Beach	65	121	$7.35 mill.
90265	Malibu	95	103	$27.00 mill.
92651	Laguna Beach	99	100	$7.00 mill.
95030	Los Gatos	56	97	$8.50 mill.
94025	Menlo Park	60	95	$2.35 mill.
94506	Danville	34	89	$5.85 mill.
94941	Mill Valley	54	89	$3.50 mill.
90402	Santa Monica	86	87	$4.26 mill.
91302	Calabasas	82	84	$5.50 mill.
92625	Corona Del Mar	64	82	$5.40 mill.
90275	Rancho Palos Verdes	41	78	$2.55 mill.
94062	Redwood City	40	73	$5.40 mill.
90077	Bel-Air	48	70	$6.38 mill.

Source: DataQuick Information Systems

Media Inquiries: John Karevoll (909)867-9534

Copyright © 2000 DataQuick Information Systems.
All rights reserved.

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