Villa Rockledge, a historic mission-style mansion on oceanfront-bluff property in Laguna Beach, sold for $14 million.
The home, originally set for a market auction with a reported minimum of $10.5 million, was sold before any bidding started. It was sold to a couple from Europe who has purchased other Orange County properties in the past.
Azita Sadeghi, an agent with Realty One Group Inc.’s Laguna Beach office, represented the buyer.
Agent Jeff Knowles of SageLang represented the sellers, Roger Jones and his wife, Sherill Bottjer.
Jones is a retired manager of an electronic parts company, and he used to rent one of the villas at the estate before buying the home for $430,000 in 1973.
The nearly 9,000-square-foot home was built in 1918 by Frank Miller, developer of the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa in Riverside, and was designed by architect Arthur Benton. The home was Miller’s beach residence at one time.
The mansion had been on and off the market in the past few years. It was listed in 2009 for about $35 million, and more recently, for $29 million.
The property has six villas and a 10-car garage.
Jones and his wife restored and tended to the estate over the past few decades.
Jones, now in his 70s, told The Wall Street Journal in 2009 that Villa Rockledge was too large for him and his wife, and that they had planned to move to a lake-side retreat in Washington state.
Villa Rockledge, one of the oldest homes in Laguna Beach, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Impulse Buy
The $4.5 million purchase of the home at 6 Mar Vista Lane in Laguna Beach was unplanned.
The buyer, a local couple, happened to see that the 1945 beach cottage was for sale, said John Trevino, an agent with Newport Beach-based Surterre Properties Inc.
“They really like the vintage, beach-cottage style,” said Trevino, who represented the buyer.
The 1,889-square-foot home has three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
The home, with panoramic ocean views, is situated in the center of the gated neighborhood of Three Arch Bay.
Ray McAfoose, an agent with Coldwell Banker’s Laguna Beach office, represented the seller, a local sports agent who used the place as a vacation home.
The seller wasn’t using the property much anymore and had listed it in the thick of the downturn before taking it off the market. He relisted it when the market improved.
“That’s when my client came in and bought it,” Trevino said.
It spent about 45 days on the market this time, with a list price of $4.7 million.
The buyer had owned another vacation home on Balboa Island. They put their home at 206 Grand Canal on the market after they got 6 Mar Vista.
It sold in about two weeks for $2.6 million.
2012 Sees Luxury Lift
The number of $4 million-plus sales recorded so far for 2012 is up nearly 53% to 156 homes, compared to 102 homes in 2011. More December sales could post in early January.
Thirteen sales have already been reported for December, matching the total for November, according to Redfin.com.
Last year began slowly for sales in the price range but heated up through midyear and finished relatively strong. There were 35 sales in January through April, 66 in May through August (sales peaked in August with 23), and the last four months of the year saw 55 closings.
Median home prices are up overall in Orange County, to $451,800 for November, a 6.2% increase from a year earlier, according to Zillow.com.
Coastal OC has seen a mixed bag on median sale prices.
The median sale price in Laguna Beach was down 0.6% to $1.2 million in November compared with a year earlier.
The median sale price was up 17.4% to $1.1 million in Newport Beach overall, and up 53.5% to $2.1 million in Newport Coast.
Recent Transactions
• 30 Black Hawk in Irvine sold for $4.5 million, down from $4.7 million in May.
Sherri Van Wagenen, an agent with Newport Beach-based HÔM Sotheby’s International Realty, represented the seller.
Yao-Ming Lee, an agent with Corona-based R.E. Pros, represented the buyer.
The 6,800-square-foot Shady Canyon home has five bedrooms and five bathrooms.
• 10 Rockshore Bluff in Newport Coast sold for $4.2 million, down from $4.5 million in October.
Rex McKown, an agent with Surterre Properties Inc., represented the seller.
JP Park, an agent with Re/Max Premier Realty’s Irvine office, represented the buyer.
The 4,093-square-foot home in Crystal Cove has four bedrooms and four bathrooms.
