Series of summer deals points to perky Westside LA home market

$32 million, $40 million, $20 million.

Those are some of the big closing prices on recent Westside deals, bucking the headwinds of higher interest rates and Los Angeles’ Measure ULA tax. In short, L.A.’s Westside is looking pretty good, according to Compass agent David Berg.

The founding partner of the Smith & Berg Partners team had the listing on the spec mansion at 538 Chautauqua Boulevard in Pacific Palisades that closed about a week ago for $32.3 million, a record price for the neighborhood. F. Ron Smith, Kristin Alexander and Jacqueline Chernov shared the listing.

“It says more about the Westside than anything,” Berg said of the deal. “There are transactions happening and good properties. There’s still a need for large estate-like properties.”

He pointed to rapper Kendrick Lamar’s $40 million purchase of a Brentwood mansion in May. The following month former Fox lawyer Viet Dinh paid $25.4 million for a home on Sunset Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades. Santa Monica saw its priciest sale so far this year when former Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers paid $19.2 million for a Georgina Avenue home in late May. The city’s second-priciest home occurred less than a week prior when former Warner Bros. CEO Cameron Strang scooped up a San Vicente Boulevard home for $17.5 million.

“If you look at 2021, people thought the market went crazy and, sure, there were certainly more transactions taking place, but a lot of properties are trading often at multiple offers,” Berg said. “Who would have thought someone would sell a house in Malibu for $200 million, but that took place in the highest rate environment in years.”

The comment refers to the reported $210 million purchase of a Malibu estate sold by Oakley and Red Digital Cinema Camera founder Jim Jannard. The Real Deal has been unable to confirm the purchase price or the buyer through property records. 

Malibu alone has seen its fair chair of mammoth-sized deals this year. Aside from the Jannard trade, there was also Lauren Powell Jobs’ $94 million purchase of her fourth property in Malibu.

Redfin reports that in June, the median sale price for a Westside home was $2.2 million, up 15.6 percent from a year prior. The number of homes sold in the market during the month totaled 589, an increase of 6.3 percent compared to a year ago.

On the upper end of the market, appetite remains strong for spec homes and estates.

Developer Scott Gillen completed the first sale for his five-estate development in Malibu, called The Case. The home, which is named The Edge, sold for $61 million and originally hit the market at $75 million. Most recently, a spec mansion sitting above Malibu’s Billionaire’s Beach traded for $32 million. That property originally came to market with a $50 million ask.

“If you look at what’s available, we’re still in a marketplace where there’s certainly a lot of aspirational pricing out there, but well-priced properties that are well located that have special attributes tend to trade,” Berg said. “Sometimes it takes a little bit of time. We’re not as active as, say, 2021 but everything that we’re seeing out there defies logic.”

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