‘92 Saw Steep Decline in Sales of Million-Dollar-Plus Homes

While the total number of Southland homes sold in 1992 dropped by 2 1/2%, the million-dollar market saw a much steeper decline, as potential sellers held homes off the market or discounted them to sell below the million-dollar mark.

Last year a total of 1,267 homes were sold for more than $1 million in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. That was off 17.8% from the 1,541 sold in 1991, according to La Jolla-based Dataquick Information Systems Inc.

The most expensive Southland home sold in 1992 appears to have been a 9,777-square-foot house in Bel-Air with seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms. It went for $8 million.

Two or three other home purchases may have exceeded that amount, but their prices could not be determined from public documents, which is where Dataquick gets its information.

The largest home sold was a 6-year-old, 15,272-square-foot house with seven bedrooms and 10 bathrooms in Palos Verdes Estates. It was sold in December for $5 million.

The average million-dollar home had 4.2 bedrooms, 4.1 bathrooms and was 4,272 square feet in size.

While roughly 30% of the million-dollar buyers paid cash for their homes in 1991, that was down to 20% last year. Of those who did finance their purchase, Home Savings was most willing to provide a mortgage, followed by Bank of America and then the seller.

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Homes Sold for More Than $1 Million

Cities in Number Number 1992 Most Southern California Sold in ’91 Sold in ’92 Expensive Los Angeles (with Bel-Air) 309 220 $8.0 million Beverly Hills 155 103 $5.6 million Rancho Santa Fe 68 66 $6.9 million Pacific Palisades 70 57 $7.6 million San Diego (with La Jolla) 58 57 $4.9 million Santa Monica 61 55 $7.4 million Newport Beach 56 46 $4.7 million Malibu 56 40 $5.6 million Indian Wells 19 28 $4.4 million Corona Del Mar 33 26 $1.9 million Santa Barbara 32 26 $7.9 million Irvine 4 25 $1.6 million Pasadena 39 24 $2.0 million Arcadia 16 23 $2.4 million Encino 31 23 $5.2 million Palos Verdes Estates 11 19 $5.0 million Rancho Palos Verdes 36 18 $2.1 million La Canada Flintridge 21 17 $1.6 million Huntington Beach 11 15 $2.0 million Palos Verdes Peninsula 37 14 $2.2 million

SOURCE: Dataquick Information Systems, La Jolla