After leasing for a few years, a former executive of Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. recently bought a $4.5 million home in the Shore Cliffs neighborhood of Corona del Mar.
Steve High, an agent for Coldwell Banker Previews International’s office in Newport Beach, represented him.
Fellow Coldwell agent Evan Corkett represented the seller.
The five-bedroom home is in one of the older neighborhoods of Corona del Mar and has access to Little Corona beach.
Shore Cliffs has about 140 custom homes. It’s not gated.
The 5,700-square-foot, five-bedroom home on Driftwood Road sold for about $789 per square foot.
The buyer, who left Pimco to start his own fund, sold his prior home several years ago on a hunch about a downturn in the economy, High said.
He had been leasing in Shore Cliffs.
“He and his wife fell in love with the neighborhood,” High said. “They ended up buying a property that’s literally around the corner from the one they were living in.”
The home was listed for about four months.
“It was really, quite frankly, the only offer we had on the property,” he said.
The home was built in 2006 and was listed at $4.9 million as recently as February.
“When we lowered (the price), the buyer stepped up to the plate,” High said.
The sellers of the property definitely took a loss on the deal, he said.
They were empty nesters.
“They felt like it was more property than they wished to own,” High said.
Dockside on Lido
Need a home for that mega yacht?
A rare waterfront home is for sale in Newport Beach.
The 3,000-square-foot place at 3336 Via Lido has a dock that can fit a yacht of 100 feet or longer.
There are only about a dozen homes with enough water front in the harbor to accommodate a boat of that size.
Pimco cofounder Bill Gross’ 18,500-square-foot waterfront plot—minus a recently demolished home—on Harbor Island has room for two large yachts. It’s going for $26.5 million.
The Via Lido home is on a much smaller lot selling for $7.9 million.
Renee West, an agent with Prudential California Realty, is the listing agent for the Via Lido home, which is decorated like an Italian villa and being sold furnished.
The seller bought the home about four years ago for $7.2 million.
“He bought a home for (his) yacht,” West said.
The seller has never lived in the home, she said. It is one of several that he owns.
He’s now keeping his boat elsewhere in the harbor.
The home is near the bridge leading into Lido Isle.
It has its own website at 3336vialido.com.
Global Gauge
Here’s something of interest for Orange County agents, who are seeing growing numbers of buyers from other countries.
The following are some findings from the National Association of Realtors report on international homebuyers in the U.S. for the 12 months through March:
• International buyers of U.S. homes came from a total of 70 countries. The top five—Canada, Mexico, China, U.K. and India—accounted for 53% of the deals.
• Four states—Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas—accounted for 58% of deals. Florida has as many transactions as the other three states put together.
• 47% of the buyers own one home in the U.S.; 25% have two homes; 10% have three; 5% have four homes.
• The West Coast is attractive to Asian buyers, while many Mexican purchasers tend to look in Texas. South Americans, Europeans and Canadians prefer Florida.
• 28% of realtors reported working with an international client.
• 62% of foreign buyers pay in cash.
On why foreign buyers purchase in the U.S.:
• 43% cite U.S. desirability; 27% say it’s a profitable investment; 21% say it’s a secure investment; 9% cited some other reason.
• 37% intend to use the property as a primary residence; 28% intend to use it as a vacation home; 16% see it as a rental property.
