Orange County’s luxury home market appears poised to benefit from Los Angeles’ misfortune.
“‘I need a four bedroom.’ ‘Get me to Newport.’ A lot of people are asking me for Orange County,” luxe broker Dylan Eckardt told Variety last week.
Eckardt, who stars in the reality show “Selling the Hamptons,” was reported to have about 160 off-market houses in both LA and OC at the time of the fires. He told Variety that he lost $63M worth of exclusive listings in a matter of days due to the multiple wildfires.
Local luxe broker Tim Smith told Stu News Newport that “I’ve had more calls in one week as a real estate agent than any other week of my career – north of 300 calls.”
“I’ve been showing lease listings all week to help out where I can,” he said. “The demand is so high right now that properties, which had little activity for months, are suddenly getting multiple applications.”
“I think it will be a short time before we completely run out of inventory for lease, which will in turn affect home purchases,” the Tim Smith Real Estate Group principal told Stu News.
“This crisis is an opportunity for Orange County to really step
up, show support and welcome Angelenos.”
Newport Beach Mayor Joe Stapleton agrees. He plans to host a welcome gathering Jan. 25 from 9-11 a.m. for displaced residents now staying in NB.
“Given everything they have endured, we want to show our support and help them feel at home in our community,” Stapleton told the Business Journal.
Among the priciest homes destroyed during the fires was a $83M mansion in Pacific Palisades owned by Luminar Technologies CEO Austin Russell. The 29-year-old billionaire was born in Newport Beach and studied at UC Irvine’s Beckman Laser Institute while still in high school in San Juan Capistrano (see Yuika Yoshida’s related fire coverage, page 1).
The Irvine Company remains committed to the San Diego area, though it’s slimming down its holdings in the city’s downtown.
California’s largest office owner at the end of December completed the sale of the 22-story 225 Broadway tower, its 3rd office tower sale in downtown San Diego since September. The trio of deals brought in about $138M for the Newport Beach-based landlord, a fraction of what the company paid for the towers.
The latest trade, made with Santa Monica’s XYZ Rent, was for $48M, according to local reports. Irvine Co. paid close to $116.5M for 225 Broadway in 2005.
Irvine Co., which historically has been loath to dispose of its larger office properties, still owns three additional towers in downtown San Diego. It says it is looking to focus more of its San Diego investments around the University Town Center neighborhood near UC San Diego.