A sprawling Shady Canyon estate has traded hands for $17 million, tying the highest price paid for a single-family home in Irvine.
The nearly 15,100-square-foot home at 60 Golden Eagle—situated in the 300-home, 1,070-acre gated community—is on a 1.4-acre lot. The custom property counts seven bedrooms and 11 bathrooms.
“People are willing to pay more for larger homes in gated communities,” a trend that has only grown more prevalent in the wake of the pandemic, according to Tim Smith of Coldwell Banker Realty, who represented the undisclosed sellers.
The sellers sold the home for the same amount they paid for it in 2019; that sale set a new price benchmark for Irvine.
“This sale matched the price record for Shady Canyon,” Smith said.
Sources indicate the international buyers will upgrade the home, which was first built in 2003, and use it as a vacation property. A San Francisco affiliate of Keller Williams, KW Silicon City, represented the buyers.
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SeneGence Listing
The home at 60 Golden Eagle first hit the market in 2021 for $19 million, marking the priciest listing for Irvine at the time.
Today, there are three active listings, the priciest being a 12,978-square-foot estate on a 0.9-acre lot at 76 Golden Eagle. The home is being sold by Ben Kante and Joni Rogers-Kante, the latter of whom is the founder, CEO and chair of Foothill Ranch’s cosmetics firm SeneGence. It first hit the market in 2021 with a price tag of nearly $50 million; after a few price cuts and listing changes, the property is currently available for nearly $30 million.
Ariana Gaffoglio with Douglas Elliman has the listing.
Former Los Angeles Angel slugger Albert Pujols recently put his Shady Canyon home on the market, at a price just under $10 million; brokerage data shows the 9,239-square-foot property to be under contract.
Year for Sellers
Shady Canyon is the only community in Irvine that offers an inventory of custom homes for sale, with land lots that are far larger than average and with more space in between homes than other communities in the county.
That, coupled with the community’s sense of privacy, has prompted athletes, executives and others to call Shady Canyon their home, including best-selling author Dean Koontz and Alteryx Executive Chairman Dean Stoecker.
As Orange County’s inventory of luxury homes for sale continues to diminish, specifically along the coast, buyers are being pushed to inland markets like Irvine and Laguna Niguel. These markets are seeing an added boost in interest from buyers coming from outside of OC, who are in the market for larger lots and privacy.
“Our market is sitting at under 2,400 total active listings,” Smith said. “That’s far below the 5,000 listings in a typical year.”
Higher interest rates and lowered consumer confidence has negatively impacted home buyer demand over the past year, but that’s changing as shoppers prepare for a potential drop in interest rates.
“There’s been a 5% increase in new escrows in the past five weeks,” Smith said.
“I think 2023 is going to be a fantastic year for sellers as inventory stays low and demand picks up.”
