Mar Vista Home Sets New Record With $10 Million Sale

The $10 million sale of a Mar Vista home has set new records for the Westside neighborhood.

The five-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom home at 11948 Modjeska Place bests the community’s previous priciest-ever residential deal set in September 2024, when 3400 Greenwood Avenue sold for $7.1 million. Modjeska Place, which traded off market for roughly $1,639 per square foot, is also Mar Vista’s first residential deal ever to hit eight figures.

Compass’ Paul Salazar was the listing agent, while the brokerage’s Tracey Becker brought the buyer.

11948 Modjeska Place in Mar Vista (Nick Frandjian, Compass, Joe Fletcher)

Property records show a trust tied to Robert Green was the seller, who had tapped architecture firm Woods + Dangaran to design the custom build that was completed about five years ago to serve as the family home.

Now, a Venice family that was looking for more room will enjoy the residence’s more than 6,100 square feet looking out onto the San Gabriel Mountains and Downtown Los Angeles.

“It’s a rare property,” Salazar said of the home and the price it commanded. “This just shows that there are a lot of buyers in this price range looking in Mar Vista.”

In the neighborhood’s hill section, located east of Centinela Avenue, lot sizes of 10,000 square feet or more are common and about double Mar Vista’s average lot size of around 5,000 to 6,000 square feet, Salazar pointed out. The Modjeska Place home sits on about a 16,000-square-foot lot.

Salazar said his client had several buyers view the property and sales in the $4 million to $7 million range are not uncommon for the neighborhood, pointing out “it’s just a matter of time” before Mar Vista sees more $10 million sales.

Becker, who was one of the listing agents on last June’s sale of 1215 Appleton Way in nearby Venice, said buyers looking for more room and who want to remain on the Westside are helping drive demand in Mar Vista and the general area. The Appleton Way property sold for $9.5 million, or $1,109 per square foot, to become Venice’s priciest residential deal.

The hunt by families seeking more room has been further padded with increased demand from Palisades fire-impacted property owners who remain looking for either temporary or permanent housing.

“We had the big surge of people looking for homes post-fire and now we’re seeing that there are a lot of families who have finally settled with insurance and are finally figuring out what they’re able to do,” Becker said. “They’ve had a moment to sit with it and decide if they want to rebuild and settle in the Palisades. It’s an ever-evolving process because there are different tranches of people in different phases of their recovery.”

The Measure United to House L.A. tax within the city of Los Angeles, of which Mar Vista is a part of, hasn’t stopped dealmaking.

The so-called mansion tax, which assesses a 4 percent levy on real estate deals starting at $5.3 million and then jumps to 5.5 percent beginning with sales of $10.6 million, applied to the Modjeska Place trade.

The seller on Modjeska Place was already aware of the tax, which triggered the 4 percent tier, and amounted to about $400,000.

“It’s definitely a conversation with the sellers,” Salazar said of Measure ULA. “They’re not happy about it and they’re always asking is there a way to get around it.”

In short, the answer is no.

For a furnished home, a seller might break out the sale of the pieces into a separate transaction. In other cases, buyers and sellers may agree to split the price of ULA, although regardless of whether that conversation happens, the tax is still factored into pricing.