LA Luxury Condo Market Continues to Soar

Median condo prices were caught slipping the past couple of quarters but the Los Angeles luxury market is bucking that trend.

A deal reported this week at the Maybourne Beverly Hills illustrates the point.

Unit 8E at 225 North Canon Drive traded in early October for $27 million, or $4,762 per square foot.

That’s a big price tag even given the property’s provenance–it sits squarely in the Golden Triangle of Beverly Hills–draws buyers with bold-face, and was known as the Montage until Qatar-backed Maybourne Hotel Group paid $415 million for it in 2019.

The four-bed, six-bath condo that recently sold went from one trust tied to philanthropists Paul and Hisako Terasaki to another linked to Gustavo and Maria Esther Marquez, owners of Hispanic food maker and distributor Marquez Brothers International.

The deal is notable not only for being one of the property’s priciest, but it beats a previous record reported in 2021. That involved Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who paid $23.8 million for his condo. It’s also Beverly Hills’s priciest on-market condo trade over the past year.

There’s more.

October’s deal is now Los Angeles County’s second priciest condo sale in the past 12 months. No. 1 is a penthouse unit at The Century in Century City, after it sold for $39.1 million in January.

Luxury insulation

Deals like the one at the Maybourne weren’t enough to help pull up the overall condo market. Across Los Angeles County, median condo closing prices fell the past two quarters, according to the most recent Douglas Elliman report.

Luxury tells a different story, with a rising median price, according to the Elliman report which counts luxury as the top 10 percent of sales.

The broad comparison is stark–the median price of a sold luxury condo spiked 69 percent from the year-ago period to $4.7 million in the third quarter, according to Elliman. That compares with the broader condo market’s median sales price decline of 3.8 percent year over year to $1.1 million.

Tops this year

What L.A.-area markets are winning this year? So far, the usual suspects are driving the upper end of the condo market. Here’s a look at the top deals in some of the county’s high-end residential markets this year, based on Zillow records of on-market sales:

Century City

1 West Century Drive #Penthouse 39

Sold in January for $39.1 million or $4,153 per square foot

Beverly Hills

225 North Canon Drive #8E

Sold in October for $27M or $4,762 per square foot

West Hollywood

8899 Beverly Boulevard Unit 7B/E

Sold in March for $15.5M or $2,886 per square foot

Brentwood

505 Barrington Avenue #100

Sold in September for $7.8M or $1,400 per square foot

Santa Monica

951 Ocean Avenue #404

Sold in March for $7.3M or $2,330 per square foot

Hollywood Hills

8420 Sunset Boulevard #803

Sold in July for $7.2M or $2,647 per square foot

Marina del Rey

5205 Ocean Front Walk #301

Sold in January for $4.9M or $1,789 per square foot

The Westside spread makes Downtown Los Angeles look quite middle market. The top deal in the city’s center comes in at $1.8 million, or $766 per square foot, for a unit at 1155 South Grand Avenue.

Crescent Heights conversion

South of L.A., in Orange County, Crescent Heights clearly sees opportunity in for-sale units.

The Miami company hung up the for-sale sign on the towers’ units after snapping up 9 MacArthur Place in April for $240 million, per the Orange County Business Journal.

A full price range isn’t known for the two towers, but units currently listed go from $851,825 to $1.1 million.

Lori Loughlin, Mossimo Giannulli find buyer

In single-family homes news, Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli may finally be able to part ways with their Hidden Hills home.

The property at 25210 Jim Bridger Road, listed for just under $15 million, is in contract. It topped the week ended Oct. 26 for signed contracts in L.A. County.

It’s been a long time coming for the now separated couple, who reportedly first placed the home on the market last spring for $17.5 million. It was re-listed in February for $16.5 million and then repriced again in July at the current ask.