California county hits new level of luxury
Toolbox
By JEFF COLLINS The Orange County Register - Published: January 15, 2006
SANTA ANA, Calif. — The three-car garage, the spacious modern kitchen, the home theater — of course. But what house hunters at Mary Ditullio's real estate office want are huge boat docks.
"Can you accommodate a 120-foot yacht?" they ask. "We get calls every week for that," said Ditullio, an agent at Coast Newport Properties.
Other agents specializing in high-end homes serve a global market of buyers coveting local beachfront property in what's sometimes called the "American Riviera." And with this worldwide demand, prices for Orange County trophy homes have gone sky-high.
Nearly a decade after a Laguna Beach residence sold for a record $17 million, three homes trumped that price in 2005. Wealthy buyers — actor Nicolas Cage among them — plunked down between $22 million and $29 million for pieces of Orange County waterfront. And at least four other homes are for sale at prices ranging from $23 million to $31 million.
"We're hitting a stratosphere that's never been reached before in Orange County," said Steve High, executive vice president of Coldwell Banker Previews International in Newport Beach.
Magnificent beaches, weather and lifestyle have placed Orange County among the nation's top 10 markets for trophy homes, according Rick Goodwin, publisher of "Unique Homes" magazine.
"A number of things work in your favor," Goodwin said. "Newport Harbor is a world-class boating site. And you have a gorgeous, Riviera-esque coastline."
Orange County prices, though, haven't caught up to the levels of its northern neighbor, which is home to some Malibu and Bel Air estates with $50 million-plus asking prices, or New York City, where prices for some exclusive high-rise homes have topped $40 million.
And the nation's pacesetter remains Palm Beach, Fla., after the record sale of just under $70 million in 2004, Goodwin said.
According to county records and high-end property specialists, recent local trophy home sales include:
Irvine Cove: A home on a 21,000-square-foot beachfront lot in north Laguna sold for a record $29 million in March, according to county records. The 9,200-square-foot Riviera Drive house boasts eight bathrooms and six bedrooms. It was bought by a trust on behalf of an unidentified buyer.
Newport Bay: Actor Nicolas Cage paid as much as $25 million in July for a Newport Bay home on Lido Channel near John Wayne's former estate, according to estimates from High and Ditullio. The 25,000-square-foot site reportedly features a boat dock, an 8,300-square-foot home with seven bathrooms, four bedrooms and a spa. Cage was drawn to Orange County's coastal beauty, boating and "positive family lifestyle," his publicist said.
Emerald Bay: William Shopoff, head of an Irvine real estate investment firm, and his wife, Cindy, closed on the 8,000-square-foot, four-level beachfront house on Dec. 15. The estimated price is in the low $20 million range, according to High. The home, which originally listed for $28 million, features an elevator, nine bathrooms, three kitchens, a pool, theater and wine cellar.
In some ways, the high-end home sales are a reflection of what's going on throughout Orange County. Nearly 6,700 homes sold here for $1 million or more in the past 11 months, compared with fewer than 500 in 1990.
But the high-end market is largely an economy onto itself, unrelated to the vicissitudes of the larger local housing market. Since high-end buyers come from all over the world, the Orange County job market, for example, has no effect on prices for trophy homes.
And while the county's median home price tripled in the past 10 years, the three top-priced homes were up four- to five-fold on average, due in part to the scarcity of such waterfront properties, high-end specialists said.
High-end specialists say there's no shortage of buyers for these homes either. A couple of the homes that sold recently had multiple offers.
Ditullio attributes that in part to the county's exposure through television shows such as "The O.C." and the hit MTV show "Laguna Beach."
"It's amazing that you get calls from people who have seen these programs, and they want the lifestyle. They want 'The O.C.' lifestyle," she said.
Orange County trophy-home buyers are a diverse group, including Asian business owners, investors, entrepreneurs and corporate bigwigs.
Newport Beach agent Robert Giem said the few things such buyers have in common are that they have the means, they're intensely private, and they pay cash — or quickly pay off their financing.
The county increasingly draws high-end buyers, he added, because it offers residents and visitors so much to do, with an abundance of places to dine, shop or golf. And with e-mail, Internet access and video- and teleconferencing, many now are able to own and maintain business interests elsewhere while living here.
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