Lennar’s Jaffe gets $27M for Linda Isle home in Newport Beach

A 6,000 square-foot home on Linda Isle i n Lower Newport Bay has sold for $27 million – the biggest home sale deal of the year so far in the toney coastal town.

Jonathan Jaffe, co-chief executive of Miami-based homebuilder Lennar Corp., sold the four-bedroom, five-bath home at 37 Linda Isle in Newport Beach, the Orange County Business Journal reported.

He bought the home for $14 million in 2019 from former Herbalife executive Fred Siegel. It had been custom built in 2002 for auto magnate Fletcher “Ted” Jones Jr., owner of Fletcher Jones Motorcars of Newport Beach and numerous other dealerships.

Architect Fleetwood Joiner designed the house, which has 50 feet of bay frontage and private dock space for an 80-foot yacht.

The property, with sweeping views of Newport Harbor, commanded $4,500 per square foot, the priciest on record for the private horseshoe-shaped island with 107 homes near Pacific Coast Highway.

For total cost, the deal tied the previous record when 86 Linda Isle sold for $27 million in 2017.

Susie McKibben of Villa Real Estate represented the undisclosed buyer. Tim Smith of Coldwell Banker represented Jaffe.

It offers “one of the best views in the harbor on Linda Isle’s Gold Coast,” said McKibben, who noted the new owner was from out of state and shopping for a second home as a respite from East Coast winters.

The 5,500-square-foot home next door is listed by Compass’ Rob Giem for $31 million – the only other home now for sale on Linda Isle.

“We looked at everything on the market from $20 million to $35 million,” she said, “and that’s really not that many properties considering the lack of inventory available,” she said.

The number of homes for sale in Newport Beach is at a record low, with just 125 active listings in the city. And like other established bayfront communities, Linda Isle owners rarely put their homes on the market.

Tight home inventories have also pushed up prices across Orange County, as limited buying options give potential sellers pause, the newspaper reported.

“It’s creating a bit of a perfect storm for home prices,” said Steve High, of Villa Real Estate. “Many don’t want to put their home on the market, while we are seeing an extreme depth of the buyer pool, even at the ultra-high end.”

[OCBJ] – Dana Bartholomew