California Million-Dollar Home Sales Up

February 22, 2001

A record number of Golden State homes sold for a million dollars or more last year, the result of appreciation and a particularly strong Bay Area market, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 11,364 million-dollar homes were sold in California last year. That was up 50.5 percent from 7,553 for 1999. Both years were record highs, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

"The jump in sales was mostly due to near million-dollar homes appreciating across the million-dollar threshold. If we factor appreciation out, the sales increase was around twenty percent," said Mike Ela, DataQuick president.

Sales in the Bay Area surged from 3,093 in 1999 to 5,373 last year, a 73.7 percent increase. In Southern California sales went up from 3,988 to 5,244, a 31.5 percent increase. Last year was the first time million-dollar home sales in the Bay Area exceeded Southern California sales. Ten years ago Southland sales were four times higher than Bay Area sales.

DataQuick, a subsidiary 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. Home sales to companies were included, as were sales to trusts.

The most expensive purchase last year was a 10,280 square-foot 6-bedroom, 6.5-bathroom Atherton house which went for $22,000,000 in July. The largest was a 22,997 square-foot 10-bedroom, 18-bathroom Coronado house which went for $5,500,000 in February.

Thirty-four of the homes went for $10 million or more, 164 were in the $5-$10 million range, 165 were in the $4 million range, 411 in the $3 million range, 1,297 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.

Newly-built homes accounted for 1,343 of the sales, up from 776 for 1999. Orange County and San Diego County are the most active million-dollar new-home markets, DataQuick reported.

There were 528 condo sales in the million-dollar category, mostly in West Los Angeles, San Francisco and Coronado.

The median size of a million-dollar home was 2,961 sq.ft. with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The median price per square-foot for all million-dollar homes was $492, up 16.2 percent from $423 a year ago, DataQuick reported.

Around 24 percent of the buyers paid cash. Of those who financed their purchase, the median down payment was $400,000. Lending institutions most willing to provide financing were Washington Mutual, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Zip	Community	1999 Sales#	2000 Sales#	2000's Most Expensive
Saratoga	95070	243	348	$11.0 mill.
Hillsborough	94010	237	275	$7.5 mill.
Rancho Santa Fe	92067	250	269	$12.5 mill.
Beverly Hills	90210	265	260	$12.0 mill.
La Jolla	92037	170	239	$8.9 mill.
Los Altos	94024	132	228	$5.6 mill.
Newport Beach	92660	158	214	$4.9 mill.
Cupertino	95014	47	206	$2.9 mill.
Los Altos	94022	168	197	$12.0 mill.
Pacific Palisades	90272	179	185	$4.4 mill.
Rolling Hills Est.	90274	144	183	$10.0 mill.
Manhattan Beach	90266	126	179	$3.9 mill.
Malibu	90265	155	175	$17.0 mill.
Danville	94506	89	173	$8.5 mill.
Los Gatos	95030	95	155	$6.9 mill.
Brentwood	90049	205	151	$15.5 mill.
San Jose	95138	61	150	$3.1 mill.
Laguna Beach	92651	100	139	$6.3 mill.
Newport Beach	92657	52	138	$6.8 mill.
Belvedere Tiburon	94920	129	132	$7.2 mill.
Menlo Park	94025	95	124	$4.5 mill.
Santa Monica	90402	128	123	$5.5 mill.
Mill Valley	94941	85	121	$4.3 mill.
Fremont	94539	65	119	$3.0 mill.
Corona Del Mar	92625	81	113	$3.1 mill.

For more information call John Karevoll (909)867-9534

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