The Most Expensive Home For Sale in Orange County - What You Get For a Paltry $37mil

What is the most expensive home for sale in Orange County? At this moment, it is this one: Villa del Lago, at an asking price of ONLY $37,000,000. :)

Villa del Lago has been a development project that started back in 2003 when the land was purchased from the Irvine Company. The property has been the subject of much controversy as the developer is allegedly in default with the bank who offered the construction loan of roughly $20,000,000 (which developer claims was never lent in full). The property has come down from the previous asking price of $57,000,000 and is considered to be at risk of foreclosure.

All that stuff aside, the property itself is amazing. 3 levels, 8 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, parking for 17 cars, and over 18,258 sqft of living space. Sitting on nearly 12.5 acres of land in Newport Coast, the grounds include private lake with fountain, equestrian ring, tennis courts, private wine vineyard, pool pavilion. wine cave, and guest house.

 But what about the price and is it right?  I'm guessing if you're like me and have to ask, it probably doesn't matter for you either. But just for fun, we did some research and the results are interesting. We looked at the most recent sales in the area and found that the most expensive home sold in the past year was right around $18,000,0000. This was a cliff side home in Corona Del Mar with dramatic ocean views, 7,000sqft of living space, and under a half acre lot. If we go back to 2009, we can find one of the highest sales to ever take place when a Harbor Island Estate in Newport Beach sold for $26,000,000 giving the buyers about 11,000 sqft of living space.

How much per month? Don't worry, you (or anybody else) can't get a home loan for this kind of money but if you could finance the entire thing, the monthly payment would be a very reasonable (wait for it...) $219,000!

While the price of this home is certainly out of scale for most of Orange County, an asking price like this is nothing out of the ordinary in places like Beverly Hills or Malibu. Do I think its a little high. Yes I do, especially given the fact that its twice the price of the last most recent comparable and we're not in Malibu. Still, it is definitely more home and a much larger lot in an area where land is insanely valuable. So to be fair, it really is hard for anybody to judge the value on this home given that nothing similar may have ever sold on the market. But if I were pressed, I'll bet they get about $28 million in the end for this one.  

   

Property listed by McMonigle Group, Inc

Housing Market Report 2010 - Newport Beach, CA

Really Cool Newport House $31,750,000
click here to see slideshow

While Newport Beach saw cooler Spring/Summer temperatures than most are accustomed to, the hot time to sell in 2010 was definitely during these months. There are normally more homes on the market during the warm seasons, but it will sometimes just mean more competition among sellers. Interestingly enough, the other sales statistics were also up in favor of the sellers (when compared with the rest of the year).  The best time to buy a home in Newport Beach, CA might just be these last months of the year with prices more reflective of the beginning of 2010 but with more inventory to choose from.

Sales Volume

After a brutal Winter season, Newport's home sales rebounded strongly through the Spring and Summer seasons.  After the peak of roughly 75 homes selling each month, Newport Beach's volume has slightly slowed to roughly 70 homes per month. (Note: The sales stats below are indicative of the combined sales volume for the previous three months.)





Avg Days on Market vs Inventory

With the Spring pickup in sales activity, word spread among homeowners that things were starting to sell again. What we then saw was a 30% increase in inventory! In other words, more options for buyers but more competition for those toying with the idea of selling. The last quarter of the year has seen inventory levels drop off slightly which is pretty typical for the coastal market in the cooler months.

Also of interesting note, the Average Days on the Market for Newport Beach homes was very high at the beginning of 2010, taking nearly 9 months on the average to sell. This came down with the upswing in sales activity to an average of about 6 months to sell. Since then, we've noticed the average starting to get longer and the graph below will show what we mean.




Average Price Per Square Foot

This statistic is always a tricky one because it can really fluctuate based on what size homes are selling. If its larger homes, the avg can actually go down, and vice-versa with smaller homes. Still, what we have seen is a spike in the average during the hot selling season Newport had in the Spring. Since then, it has dropped quite a ways down from over $900 per square foot to almost $700 per square foot. This can be a big deal if all other things are equal. For example, take your average 2,000 square foot home, it is $1,800,000 at $900/sqf and only $1,400,000 at $700/sqf. This is definitely a trend buyers are hoping will continue down and homeowners want to see climb back up.




We're always open to questions and encourage comments.