In New York City, the most expensive properties are in Manhattan — some located in historic properties like the Plaza, others with tremendous views and ample square footage. But what makes a home expensive in New York’s West Coast rival, Los Angeles?
The costliest real estate in Los Angeles County is strung across the city of Beverly Hills, with a few mega-pricey homes also in nearby Bel-Air and areas like Malibu and Brentwood. These Left Coast mansions are close to each other, but not walking-distance close; according to brokers, what matters most is substantial space and seclusion.
“Privacy is one of the most important factors. There are lots of pricey homes throughout Los Angeles, but people move to Beverly Hills because there’s more space and therefore more privacy,” said Joyce Rey, a broker in Beverly Hills for Coldwell Banker. “The minimum lot size here is about half an acre.”
The priciest homes in Los Angeles cost considerably more than in New York. Presently, the most expensive home for sale in Beverly Hills, and the costliest home in America, is listed for $165 million with Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency and has been on the market since July. It is owned by Leonard Ross, an attorney who bought the property in 1976. The mansion has 75,000 square feet of living space spread over 6.25 acres and was built in the 1920s by William Randolph Hearst. The home has 29 bedrooms, a movie theatre, a disco and three swimming pools. In 1953, former president John F. Kennedy spent his honeymoon there.
Several miles away, in Holmby Hills, the Fleur de Lys, a 5-acre property featuring a 35,000-square-foot estate with 12 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, is on the market for $125 million. The listing agents are Rey of Coldwell Banker and Robert Kass of Windermere Real Estate LA. It’s been on the market since August. The property was built by billionaire and major Republican party donor David Saperstein and his wife, Suzanne, who divorced last year.
The listing price also gets you pools, tennis courts, a vast ballroom, several guest houses, staff quarters for 10, a nine-car garage, and a three-quarter-mile jogging track.
The third most expensive home on the market is asking $50 million and belongs to George Santo Pietro, the ex-husband of Vanna White, Wheel of Fortune’s blond letter-turner. The mansion is in the Beverly Park area of Beverly Hills.
Brokers in Beverly Hills said that in the last few years, a neighborhood nicknamed the Bird Streets (so named because streets have names like Swallow, Oriole and Mockingbird) has become particularly popular with movie stars like Cameron Diaz and Keanu Reeves. Depending on their size and how far they are set back from the street, prices of homes in the neighborhood range between $2.5 and $5 million.
“People in Los Angeles don’t buy luxury homes based on a barometer like square footage [of the actual house],” said Ron Abrams, a broker with Sotheby’s International Realty in Beverly Hills. “When appraisers measure the house, they measure the perimeter square footage.”
Among high-end real estate buyers, brokers said that movie and music stars are a unique clientele, placing importance on features like tight security and plentiful space for their entourages to live.
Shortly after she was released from prison, Paris Hilton sold her Hollywood Hills home and paid $5.9 million to move to an almost 7,000-square-foot mansion in Mulholland Estates, a heavily guarded gated community in Beverly Hills.
Brokers indicate it’s not unusual for celebrities to view houses with multiple assistants and a train of bodyguards and friends. Recently, “Hot Property,” a gossip column in the Los Angeles Times, noted that when actor Jamie Foxx arrived to view a house, he was accompanied by four cars full of people.
While prices in Los Angeles have declined between 2 and 3 percent from a year ago, according to reports, the national credit crunch and stumbling housing market have so far not dented prices or demand at the top of the market. Zip codes in the county’s wealthiest enclaves have gone up at least 10 percent.
In Beverly Hills, the average single family home costs $2.2 million. According to the Warren Group, a real estate firm that compares prices throughout the country, single-family homes in Beverly Hills are the most expensive in America. The next most expensive enclave is Greenwich, Conn., where the average single-family home sold for $1.94 million.
Because it does not primarily include single-family homes among its housing stock, Manhattan, with its multimillion-dollar apartments, isn’t included in the study.