One Million Dollar Plus Home Sales Hit Highest Level in 5 Years!

Data-Quick reported today that 3,631 Orange County homes sold for $1 million or more in 2012, the highest number since 2007. That’s up 34% from 2011′s tally of million-plus sales, compared to an increase of 17% for sales of all homes in the county.

Statewide, million-plus sales increased 27% to 26,993, vs. an 8.2% increase for sales in all price ranges. A record number of California buyers, 7,791 or 29% — paid all cash for their mansions, Data-Quick reported. In addition, four Orange County ZIP codes ranked among 25 in the state with the most million-plus sales: Newport Beach’s back bay area (92660) had 362 $1 million-plus home sales, the report said. Laguna Beach (92651) had 307, Corona del Mar (92625) had 256 and Newport Coast (92657) had 228.

 

Data-Quick attributed the increase in luxury sales to a recovering economy, rising home prices and a record number of cash purchases. And one local agent has said that confidence in the market has returned to high-end buyers.

Top O.C. home sales of 2012
Rank	Address	City	Sale Date	Sale Price
1	2692 Bayshore Dr.	Newport Beach	9/13/2012	$22 million
2	3 Montage Way	Laguna Beach	9/13/2012	$20 million
3	1 Pelican Hill Road N.	Newport Coast	6/29/2012	$19.4 million
4	819 Via Lido Soud	Newport Beach	8/1/2012	$18 million
5	3 Camel Point Dr.	Laguna Beach	12/31/2012	$17.5 million
6	168 Emerald Bay	Laguna Beach	7/5/2012	$16 million
7	103 Shorecliff Rd.	Corona Del Mar	4/23/2012	$15 million
8	107 Shorecliff Rd.	Corona Del Mar	2/9/2012	$14.5 million
9	40 Deep Sea	Newport Coast	11/7/2012	$14.3 million
10	2529 South Coast Hwy.	Laguna Beach	12/26/2012	$14 million
10	887 Cliff Dr.	Laguna Beach	6/14/2012	$14 million
12	44 Blue Heron	Irvine	3/5/2012	$12.8 million
13	2495 Ocean Blvd.	Corona Del Mar	6/12/2012	$11.8 million
14	1604 South Bay Front	Newport Beach	10/22/2012	$11 million
14	9 Avalon Vis.	Newport Coast	3/8/2012	$11 million
16	1 Shell	Newport Coast	2/25/2012	$10.9 million
17	1220 West Bay Ave.	Newport Beach	9/29/2012	$10.5 million
18	2137 Bayside Dr.	Corona Del Mar	3/30/2012	$10.2 million
19	7 Troon Dr.	Newport Beach	11/13/2012	$10 million

Last year’s pace of luxury buying in Orange County was the fifth-highest of the last 12 years. The record was set in 2005 when 8,169 million-plus sales occurred. Orange County accounted for a fourth of all million-plus sales in Southern California’s seven counties and was second only to Los Angeles County — which has three times Orange County’s population — in million-plus sales in the region.

Orange County had at least 20 homes that sold for $10 million or more last year, the priciest of which was the waterfront home on the north edge of Newport Harbor that sold for $22 million, according to the real estate site Redfin.com. The Bayshore Drive home, which had 8,355 square feet, once belonged to actor Nicolas Cage, who sold for a record $35 million in 2008. One other home, located on the front row of the beach-front Montage Laguna Beach resort, sold for $20 million. The 17,000-square-foot Villa del Lago mansion was the county’s third priciest sale at $19.4 million, although the unfinished home was sold as is during a bankruptcy court-approved auction.

At least seven California communities had minimum home prices of $1 million or more: They include Santa Monica, San Marino, Rancho Santa Fe, the Marin County town of Ross, Los Altos, Atherton and Hillsborough.

Newly-built homes accounted for 4.9 percent of last year’s $1 million-plus sales, down from 5.9 percent in 2011. Condo sales made up 9.2 percent.

The median-sized home that sold for $1 million or more was 2,641 square feet, with four bedrooms and three bathrooms. The median price paid per square foot for all million-dollar homes in 2012 was $641, up 5.5 percent from $607 in 2011.

If