Sales of $5 million-plus mansions in Los Angeles rose by almost 10% last year, but their prices were down.
According to L.A.-based brokerage The Agency’s annual health check of the market released Friday, 366 single family homes priced at $5 million or above changed hands in the city last year, up 9.3% on 2015.
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However, it appears that sellers had to come down on price in order to achieve a sale. The median sales price was about $7 million, 4.1% lower year-over-year.
The highest sales of the year (and of all time in L.A.) were Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gore’s purchase of a spec house on North Carolwood Drive and the sale of the Playboy Mansion to Daren Metropoulos, son of billionaire investor C. Dean Metropoulos and Hugh Hefner’s next door neighbor. Each of the properties was sold for $100 million.
While Mr. Metropoulos scored a huge discount from the original $200 million listing price, the sale came with a clause—that owner Mr. Hefner, 90, could live at the mansion for the rest of his life.
Also in the top 10 was the sale of the late Betsy Bloomingdale’s Holmby Hills estate to fashion designer and film director Tom Ford for $38.75 million.
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As for L.A.’s luxury condo market, where prices start at $3 million, sales dipped slightly year-over-year from 60 to 58, while the median price was 4.6% lower at $3.7 million, according to the report.