A short sale in the neighborhood can make the pricing of luxury homes difficult for sellers.
Take the recent $4.4 million sale at 31941 Monarch Crest in Laguna Niguel. The property was originally listed in summer 2010 for about $7 million.
Meantime, a nearby short sale prompted a bunch of offers the Monarch Crest seller was not going to accept. The short sale home closed at $3.5 million.
“We were barraged with lowball type of offers,” Giulietta Fox Wilson, an agent with Prudential California Realty’s Monarch Beach office who represented the Monarch Crest seller. “Everybody thought that it was an opportunity to snatch something at a crazy price. None of them, of course, we entertained.”
The $4.4 million price for the Monarch Crest home was still a relative bargain.
“It’s a great deal for what it sold for,” Fox Wilson said.
The 7,875-square-foot Mediterranean-style home sold for about $559 a square foot. The home would probably draw upward of $7 million in Newport Coast, the agent estimated.
The sellers were an affluent retired couple who relocated to Orange County several years ago. They are scaling back and have purchased another home in Orange County, Fox Wilson said.
The agent said she’s seeing a lot of homeowners looking for smaller homes, even in the luxury market.
“Everybody’s evaluating their needs,” she said. “That’s what I’m seeing.”
“People are asking themselves, ‘Do we really need this, and do we want to support all of what comes along with it?’ ”
The buyers were young, local entrepreneurs. They came in with an all-cash offer; the buyer’s agent wasn’t listed.
Fox Wilson said financing is still a challenge in the home market, so most of the sales are in cash. The luxury home market still hasn’t reached a distinct bottom yet, but recent sale activity has picked up and the market has a “steady pulse,” she said.
The buyers fell in love with the home on the first visit, she said. They had looked at properties in Laguna Beach. They were most familiar with Laguna Niguel and the Monarch Beach area, she said. They visited a second time and shortly thereafter they wrote an offer.
The home is located at The Pinnacle at Monarch near the Monarch Point neighborhood, and the ocean can be viewed from several rooms. There are about 22 lots with 18 homes at The Pinnacle at Monarch, which has its own homeowners’ association.
Most of the homes in the neighborhood are three levels with a large subterranean garage. The five-bedroom, seven-bath home has the usual bells and whistles—a guest or housekeeper’s quarters, a game room, media room, two laundry rooms, a private pool and spa and access to a clubhouse and tennis courts.
The Pinnacle of Monarch features modern-styled homes built in the 2000s.
Deal Closings
December is typically a slow month in home sales, but there were a few closings:
n 11 Pelican Vista Drive in Newport Coast sold for $8.2 million, down from $9.8 million in July 2011.
John Burrill, an agent with Newport Beach-based Hom Real Estate Group Inc., represented the seller. Roseanne Levan, an agent with Newport Beach-based Surterre Properties Inc., represented the buyer.
The 7,500-square-foot home in the Pelican Crest neighborhood sold for about $1,093 a square foot.
n 169 Shorecliff Road in Corona del Mar sold for nearly $14.9 million, down from $19.9 million in July 2011.
Jo Ann Yeakel, an agent with HOM Real Estate Group, represented the seller. John Cain, also with HOM, represented the buyer. The 7,251-square-foot ocean view home sold for about $2,048 a square foot.
n 31031 Coast Highway in Laguna Beach sold for $5.7 million, down from $6.9 million in June 2011.
Lee Ann Canaday, an agent with Remax Fine Homes Inc., represented the seller. Michael Spindle, an agent with Prudential California Realty’s Laguna Beach office, represented the buyer. The 1,695-square-foot beachfront home on two lots sold for about $3,392 per square foot.
n 23 Moon Shell in Newport Coast sold for $6.8 million, down from $7.4 million in September 2011.
Jim Weisenbach, an agent with Surterre Properties, represented the seller. Carole Geronsin, an agent with Prudential California Realty, represented the buyer. The 6,754-square-foot ocean-view home sold for roughly $1,007 per square foot.
