Orange County’s wealthier residents have increasingly taken center stage when it comes to snapping up the region’s inventory of high-end homes. Couple that with growing demand from out-of-town shoppers (see story, page 1), and the OC market is well on its way to experiencing yet another banner year for luxury sales, brokers indicate.
“There’s no doubt we will see another record-breaking year in 2021,” said John Cain of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty. “Demand has spiked over the past four months in an unprecedented way, with new buyer profiles in the area and many local homeowners looking to move up.”
These factors are “creating a lot of euphoria in the market,” Cain notes, with nearly a dozen homes trading above the $20 million mark during the first half of 2021, including the $41 million sale for a nearly 19,000-square-foot Crystal Cove home at 28 Midsummer, the top deal so far this year.
“Sales volume will be substantially ahead of 2020,” said Rob Giem of Compass. “The quality of life that Orange County has to offer has never been more appealing.”
New Product
As was true last year, luxury buyers are continuing to invest in new product in coastal locations that offer ease of ownership and privacy, Giem notes.
Finding a newly built home is more important than location, Giem adds, with buyers preferring a “brand new house in a B- location rather than a property in an A location that needs to be remodeled.”
A lack of inventory of luxury homes continues to drive up pricing, with an imbalance of sellers and buyers in the market.
For high-end homeowners, there’s no real push to sell, while buyer demand has only grown over the past two years.
“Homes are selling quickly, and often times are bid up above asking price,” notes Kathryn White of Compass.
Competitive Market
Such was the case of 34 Pelican Crest in Newport Coast. Coldwell Banker’s Tim Smith had the nearly $20 million listing for the 12,525-square-foot home; it sold for $21 million.
Rex McKown and Marcy Weinstein of McKown Weinsten & Associates repped the buyer.
“Our inventory is half of what it was a year ago, and demand is the best we’ve ever seen it, not just from people in Orange County but from all over the United States,” Smith said.
Smith has one of the priciest listings currently online in Orange County: 76 Golden Eagle.
The 13,000-square-foot Shady Canyon home is priced at nearly $50 million. Situated on a nearly 38,000-square-foot parcel, the home was built in 2007 and wrapped an extensive renovation in 2019, about two years after the sellers, Joni Rogers-Kante and Ben Kante, bought the home.
Rogers-Kante is the founder of SeneGence, the Foothill Ranch-based marketing company that sells skincare and makeup products. SeneGence is among OC’s largest privately held companies.
The family decided to sell the home as they prepare to move to Rogers-Kante’s hometown of Sapulpa, Okla.
“The home has everything buyers are looking for in this market” from privacy to extensive amenities, like a resort-style pool and auto-tee driving range, Smith notes.
Local Buyers
Last year, the cumulative sales prices for the top 26 deals in OC rose some 5% from year-ago levels to a little more than $500 million, according to Business Journal research.
The top three deals—representing $136 million in sales volume—all sold to local business execs with familiarity of the area.
In the top deal of 2020, Anthony Hsieh, the billionaire founder of Foothill Ranch-based loanDepot Inc., paid $61 million for 15 Del Mar, a 18,717-square-foot Crystal Cove estate that sold just months after hitting the market for $68 million (see page 32).
Smith represented Hsieh; Giem represented the seller.
The deal bested the prior local record sale set just months before when 1 Canyon Terrace in Newport Coast sold for $50 million.
Stearns Lending LLC founder Glenn Stearns, who now runs Kind Lending in Santa Ana, bought the 30,000-square-foot estate from best-selling author Dean Koontz in an off-market transaction.
McKown and Weinstein represented Stearns in the deal, while Evan Corkett and Steve High of Villa Real Estate represented Koontz, who now lives in Irvine’s Shady Canyon.
In the third top deal of 2020, locally-based real estate developer and investor Khosro Khaloghli paid $25.1 million for 37 Del Mar in Crystal Cove. Coldwell Banker’s Jeff Ewing represented Khaloghli while Cain represented the seller.
“Local buyers are continuing to buy homes in this market, while not as many are looking to sell,” Giem said.
