DQNews Archived Article

Robust Million-Dollar Home Sales in California

by Real Estate Analyst John Karevoll
July, 2000

La Jolla, CA.— Sales of million-dollar homes in the Golden State set another record during the second quarter, led by a continued surge of prestige home buying in the Bay Area, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 3,293 California homes were sold for a million dollars or more from April to June. That was up 48.0 percent from 2,225 for the first quarter, and up 54.6 percent from 2,130 for last year's second quarter, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

Last quarter's count was the highest ever.

"While sales in this category were strong during the second quarter, most of the sales increase can be attributed to appreciation, which has brought many 'almost' million-dollar homes across the million-dollar threshold," said Mike Ela, DataQuick's president.

The sales count for the Bay Area was 1,559, up 70.8 percent from 913 for second-quarter a year ago. Southern California had 1,515, up 39.8 percent from 1,084 last year. Last quarter was the first time that the Bay Area's million-dollar sales count exceeded Southern California's.

The most expensive home sold was in Bel Air. The 14,226 square-foot, six-bedroom, seven-bathroom home went for $12.65 million.

DataQuick, a business unit of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.

The 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.

Forty-four of the homes went for $5 million or more, 40 were in the $4 million range, 91 in the $3 million range, 347 in the $2 million range and the rest between $1 million and $2 million.

Atherton and Rancho Santa Fe were the communities with the highest portion of million-dollar sales relative to overall sales. There were 113 condo sales in the million-dollar category, mostly in West Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The median size of a million-dollar home was 2,951 sq.ft. with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The median price per square-foot for all million-dollar homes was $499, up 17.7 percent from $424 a year ago, DataQuick reported.

Around 23 percent of the buyers paid cash. Of the remaining who used a mortgage, the median down payment was $497,000. Lending institutions most willing to provide financing were Washington Mutual, Bank of America and First Nationwide Mortgage.

Saratoga 95070 topped the zip code list with 109 sales, followed by Hillsborough 94010 with 83 and Cupertino 95014 with 79, DataQuick reported.

Zip	Community	2Q99 Sales#	2Q00 Sales#	2Q00's Most Expensive
95070	Saratoga	70	109	$11.0 mill.
94010	Hillsborough	79	83	$7.0 mill.
95014	Cupertino	12	79	$2.6 mill.
92067	Rancho Santa Fe	71	77	$10.0 mill.
94024	Los Altos	35	77	$4.9 mill.
94022	Los Altos	63	59	$8.0 mill.
90274	Rolling Hills Estates	36	57	$2.9 mill.
92037	La Jolla	44	57	$8.3 mill.
90210	Beverly Hills	50	55	$4.0 mill.
92660	Newport Beach	28	51	$3.2 mill.
95030	Los Gatos	35	49	$6.9 mill.
90266	Manhattan Beach	33	45	$3.9 mill.
90265	Malibu	36	44	$4.8 mill.
92651	Laguna Beach	26	44	$6.3 mill.
94506	Danville	23	43	$3.0 mill.
95138	San Jose	13	43	$3.1 mill.
90272	Pacific Palisades	42	40	$4.4 mill.
90402	Santa Monica	32	39	$5.5 mill.
92024	Encinitas	26	39	$1.6 mill.
94025	Menlo Park	26	36	$3.5 mill.
94920	Belvedere Tiburon	40	36	$4.3 mill.
92625	Corona Del Mar	21	32	$3.1 mill.
94539	Fremont	20	32	$2.6 mill.
95032	Los Gatos	8	31	$5.5 mill.
95120	San Jose	8	31	$2.6 mill.

Source: DataQuick Information Systems

Media Inquiries: John Karevoll (909)867-9534

Copyright © 2000 DataQuick Information Systems.
All rights reserved.

---