‘Tis the season for lists—as real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller said in his Friday real estate note.
In that spirit, Mr. Miller, the chief executive of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, has published a rundown of the most expensive homes sold in the U.S. this year based on his running list of blockbuster transactions.
At the top of his list is Waggoner Ranch, the second largest ranch in Texas at around 535,000 acres, larger than Singapore or Bahrain. The ranch had remained in the same family’s (embattled) hands for more than 150 years before reportedly selling to professional sports team mogul Stan Kroenke, who owns the Los Angeles Rams and is married to Wal-Mart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke, for $725 million.
Here are the next five biggest residential sales of 2016:
Lily Lane East Hampton, New York
Price: $110 million
Hedge fund manager Scott Bommer, who owned three adjacent properties in East Hampton, New York, according to local tax roll records, sold off the whole lot at the start of 2016. The monster sale has remained the second-most expensive residential transaction in the United States this year. Aerial shots of the properties show a stately, manicured main house with a swimming pool and direct ocean access in addition to another, shingle-roofed house with its own pool and tennis courts.
Carolwood Drive Holmby Hills, California
Price: $100 million
This spec home, built on a lot formerly owned by Barbra Streisand, in celebrity-speckled Holmby Hills sold for $100 million this fall. The property includes 3.2 acres of land and a main house with 38,000 square feet, 10 bedrooms and 20 bathrooms. The master suite alone is twice the size of your typical home, at more than 5,000 square feet. The house has your standard laundry list of luxury features including a theater room, wine room, lounge and spa, as well as some more unusual amenities, like a hair salon, massage rooms, a private hiking trail and two outdoor
Playboy Mansion, Holmby Hills, California
Price: $100 million
Hugh Hefner’s famous Playboy Mansion was sold to its next-door neighbor, Daren Metropoulos, for $100 million—but with a life estate clause that allows the nonagenarian to live there until his death. Playboy enterprises bought the estate in 1971 for $1.05 million. The 1920s home is roughly 20,000 square feet, has 29 rooms, a heated pool and five acres of land, according to a former listing of the home. It’s one of the few residential homes in Los Angeles with a zoo license.
Owlwood Estate Holmby Hills, California
Price: $90 million
The estate formerly owned by a slew of celebrities, from actor Tony Curtis to singing duo Sonny and Cher, sold in September for $90 million. Starchitect Robert D. Farquhar designed the home in 1936, inspired by Italian renaissance style. At the time it was the largest private home in Los Angeles. Over the years, the property was merged with two other neighboring lots, creating a combined estate of over 10 acres. The home has gardens, fruit trees, a tennis court, two guard houses, a pool with a pool house and fountains. The interior of the traditional home has many classic details including crown moldings, floor-to-ceiling wood paneling, chandeliers and fireplaces.
MidtownEast, New York, New York
Price: $87.7 million
New York City’s most expensive sale also made Mr. Miller’s top U.S. transactions list. A Saudi billionaire reportedly bought a full-floor, 8,255-square-foot penthouse atop 432 Park Avenue for a record-breaking $87.7 million—paying $10,623 per square foot. The window-lined apartment has six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, heated bathroom floors and a wood-burning fireplace. Elsewhere in the building is a shared 75-foot pool, a spa and private restaurant run by a Michelin-starred chef.