Malibu and Beverly Hills dominate LA’s most expensive neighborhoods

Malibu's Colony, where median sales price was $13 million, tops list

Edward Norton's home The “Steven’s House” by John Lautner (Credit: The MLS, Wikimedia Commons)
Edward Norton's home The “Steven’s House” by John Lautner (Credit: The MLS, Wikimedia Commons)

Surprise! Malibu and Beverly Hills were the most expensive places to buy in Los Angeles in 2017, according to a list of the 10 priciest areas based on median sales price.

The most expensive neighborhood in LA this year was Malibu’s Colony — the gated beachfront road tightly packed with mansions and their celebrity owners — where the median sales price was $13 million, according to PropertyShark data culled by Curbed. That figure is even lower than the median sales price of $15.7 million recorded in the Colony in the first half of 2017.

Prices have skyrocketed in the Colony in recent years. Actor Edward Norton bought the “Steven’s House” by John Lautner there earlier this year for $11.8 million, a decade after he paid $2.72 million for his first home in the neighborhood.

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Despite falling a few million dollars in the second half of the year, the Colony came out squarely ahead of the second-priciest area, Beverly Hills’s Trousdale Estates. The neighborhood chock full of mid-century masterpieces saw the median sales price jump 18 percent this year, to $9.3 million, rising from $8.5 million in the first half of the year.

All in all, seven of the 10 most expensive neighborhoods this year were located in Malibu, while the other three were in Beverly Hills. Rounding out the top five in order were Malibu’s Carbon Mesa, Beverly Hills’s Gateway and Malibu’s Cove Colony.

Celebrities made a number of buys in both areas. David Geffen topped the list this year, when he picked up 2108 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu’s Carbon Beach for $85 million in May, and Pabst Blue Ribbon heir Evan Metropoulos bought in Trousdale Estates for $65 million in February.  [Curbed LA] — Dennis Lynch