The most-expensive home sales of 2006
A 64-acre estate near Manhattan went for a mere $58 million; Kevin Costner paid $28.5 for his oceanfront place.By Forbes.com
A former cab driver, the son of an African president and an actor famous for plowing a cornfield to build a baseball diamond are among the list of buyers of the most-expensive homes of 2006.
For the fourth consecutive year, Forbes.com has compiled a list of the year's most-expensive residential real estate deals. Despite a general housing market slowdown, 2006 was a banner year for those that deal in high-end homes. The average price of a home on our top 10 list was $40 million, up more than 10% from 2005's $36 million average, and more than 55% from the 2003 average.
It should come as no surprise that the priciest properties were clustered in California, Florida and New York, but after a year's absence, Colorado returned to our list.
In July, former Sony Records chief Tommy Mottola bought a sprawling Carbondale, Colo., ranch for $47 million. Situated at the base of Mount Sopris, the 12,000-square-foot main house has four bedrooms and four baths. The 900-acre property, which includes an 18-acre lake, was sold by broker Joshua Saslove, of Joshua & Co., who, with Gregory Antonsen of Christie's Great Estates, also holds this year's most expensive listing: Saudi prince Bandar's $135 million Hala Ranch in nearby Aspen, Colo.
Miami Beach is sizzling
Always good for a couple of $30 million-plus yearly sales, the Florida market maintained its presence on our list, and, according to local brokers, things in Miami Beach are just heating up. "For the people who can afford to buy these properties, there's so much money on the sidelines right now it's not even funny," says Nelson Gonzalez, who brokered developer Ugo Columbo's purchase -- at between $31 million and $35 million -- of Carl Fisher's Miami Beach villa. "I've been in high-end luxury real estate in Miami Beach the last 20 years and this was by far the best year ever."
We compiled our list by tracking media reports, talking to real estate brokers and consultants around the country and examining public property records. Our reported prices come from published reports and brokers who are in the know. No doubt there were deals that would have made our list but were kept under wraps. For example, the New York Post reported Schlumberger heiress Adelaide de Menil Carpenter sold her East Hampton mansion for $90 million, but based on property records it is not clear such a sale ever took place. Our list did not include land sales or sales of an undisclosed price.
The New York City metro area snagged three of our five top spots. In Alpine, N.J., about five miles from Manhattan, real-estate investor Richard Kurtz paid $58 million to Henry Clay Frick II for his 10,000-square-foot English-style mansion. The 63-acre property includes two guest cottages, a swimming pool and tennis courts, as well as greenhouses and more open space than imaginable so close to New York.
Other Gotham buyers included cab driver-turned-oil and real estate billionaire Tamir Sapir, who paid $40 million for the Duke-Semans mansion, owned by relatives of the late tobacco heiress Doris Duke. The seven-story Beaux Arts property, built in 1901, faces the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has an elegant mansard roof. Over on 75th Street, investment banker J. Christopher Flowers dropped $53 million on the 50-foot-wide Harkness mansion, located between Fifth and Madison avenues. The 1896 neo-French renaissance property is the most expensive townhouse ever sold in New York. The mansion is designed around a central, skylight-lit atrium that the previous owner, Woody Allen producer Jacqui Safra, used as a Ping-Pong room.
Both Manhattan homes are expected to receive millions in renovation.
In California, the movie stars, directors, financiers and attorneys who live in Malibu have a new neighbor with a different sort of clout. Teodoro Nguema Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang, dropped $35 million on an eight-bedroom oceanfront mansion despite a job in his father's government with an on-the-books salary of $5,000 a month. The 15,000-square-foot estate, just off the Pacific Coast Highway, has a four-hole golf course, tennis court and pools. Obiang has views of the ocean and, when the smog isn't too bad, of downtown Los Angeles.
Farther up the coast, the Hollywood crowd made their presence felt in Kevin Costner's acquisition of a $28.5 million beach house in Carpinteria, just south of Santa Barbara. The five-bedroom mansion is perched on a bluff with nearly 1,000 feet of ocean frontage. Built on 17 acres, the five-bedroom, three-bath property also boasts equestrian facilities and a polo field.
Price is not a factor
What's driving the market's top tier? High-end luxury sales can remain out of synch with market trends because the sector of the market is volume volatile and not price volatile. This means that sales are less affected by general market forces -- because potential buyers always have enough money -- but more affected by whether rare properties are available.
"I have multiple clients who want to buy $50 (million) or $60 million properties, but we can't find them one right now," says Mauricio Umansky, a broker at Hilton & Hyland. "When you're going to spend that much money, you have to find the perfect property."
Expect 2007 to be another blowout year, especially in New York where Wall Street bonuses came in above last year's record levels. "With all the money that's been building up, expect an active market next year," says Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, a residential real estate appraisal firm. "Money like that has residual benefits, and momentum has been growing for a while."
And then there's the ghost of the $100 million sale. Besides the Hala Ranch in Aspen, there are two other listed properties -- one in Florida and one in Lake Tahoe -- vying to join the company of Lakshmi Mittal's $125 million London home, purchased by the Indian-born steel magnate in 2004.
Realtors say it's just a matter of time. "Someone is going to get $100 million for a property in the next couple years, and I hope it's me," says Umansky. The commission on that? "A lot."
This article was reported and written by Matt Woolsey for Forbes.com.
For info on other high-end Colorado homes, go to www.ColoradoDreamHomes.net
A 64-acre estate near Manhattan went for a mere $58 million; Kevin Costner paid $28.5 for his oceanfront place.By Forbes.com
A former cab driver, the son of an African president and an actor famous for plowing a cornfield to build a baseball diamond are among the list of buyers of the most-expensive homes of 2006.
For the fourth consecutive year, Forbes.com has compiled a list of the year's most-expensive residential real estate deals. Despite a general housing market slowdown, 2006 was a banner year for those that deal in high-end homes. The average price of a home on our top 10 list was $40 million, up more than 10% from 2005's $36 million average, and more than 55% from the 2003 average.
It should come as no surprise that the priciest properties were clustered in California, Florida and New York, but after a year's absence, Colorado returned to our list.
In July, former Sony Records chief Tommy Mottola bought a sprawling Carbondale, Colo., ranch for $47 million. Situated at the base of Mount Sopris, the 12,000-square-foot main house has four bedrooms and four baths. The 900-acre property, which includes an 18-acre lake, was sold by broker Joshua Saslove, of Joshua & Co., who, with Gregory Antonsen of Christie's Great Estates, also holds this year's most expensive listing: Saudi prince Bandar's $135 million Hala Ranch in nearby Aspen, Colo.
Miami Beach is sizzling
Always good for a couple of $30 million-plus yearly sales, the Florida market maintained its presence on our list, and, according to local brokers, things in Miami Beach are just heating up. "For the people who can afford to buy these properties, there's so much money on the sidelines right now it's not even funny," says Nelson Gonzalez, who brokered developer Ugo Columbo's purchase -- at between $31 million and $35 million -- of Carl Fisher's Miami Beach villa. "I've been in high-end luxury real estate in Miami Beach the last 20 years and this was by far the best year ever."
We compiled our list by tracking media reports, talking to real estate brokers and consultants around the country and examining public property records. Our reported prices come from published reports and brokers who are in the know. No doubt there were deals that would have made our list but were kept under wraps. For example, the New York Post reported Schlumberger heiress Adelaide de Menil Carpenter sold her East Hampton mansion for $90 million, but based on property records it is not clear such a sale ever took place. Our list did not include land sales or sales of an undisclosed price.
The New York City metro area snagged three of our five top spots. In Alpine, N.J., about five miles from Manhattan, real-estate investor Richard Kurtz paid $58 million to Henry Clay Frick II for his 10,000-square-foot English-style mansion. The 63-acre property includes two guest cottages, a swimming pool and tennis courts, as well as greenhouses and more open space than imaginable so close to New York.
Other Gotham buyers included cab driver-turned-oil and real estate billionaire Tamir Sapir, who paid $40 million for the Duke-Semans mansion, owned by relatives of the late tobacco heiress Doris Duke. The seven-story Beaux Arts property, built in 1901, faces the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has an elegant mansard roof. Over on 75th Street, investment banker J. Christopher Flowers dropped $53 million on the 50-foot-wide Harkness mansion, located between Fifth and Madison avenues. The 1896 neo-French renaissance property is the most expensive townhouse ever sold in New York. The mansion is designed around a central, skylight-lit atrium that the previous owner, Woody Allen producer Jacqui Safra, used as a Ping-Pong room.
Both Manhattan homes are expected to receive millions in renovation.
In California, the movie stars, directors, financiers and attorneys who live in Malibu have a new neighbor with a different sort of clout. Teodoro Nguema Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang, dropped $35 million on an eight-bedroom oceanfront mansion despite a job in his father's government with an on-the-books salary of $5,000 a month. The 15,000-square-foot estate, just off the Pacific Coast Highway, has a four-hole golf course, tennis court and pools. Obiang has views of the ocean and, when the smog isn't too bad, of downtown Los Angeles.
Farther up the coast, the Hollywood crowd made their presence felt in Kevin Costner's acquisition of a $28.5 million beach house in Carpinteria, just south of Santa Barbara. The five-bedroom mansion is perched on a bluff with nearly 1,000 feet of ocean frontage. Built on 17 acres, the five-bedroom, three-bath property also boasts equestrian facilities and a polo field.
Price is not a factor
What's driving the market's top tier? High-end luxury sales can remain out of synch with market trends because the sector of the market is volume volatile and not price volatile. This means that sales are less affected by general market forces -- because potential buyers always have enough money -- but more affected by whether rare properties are available.
"I have multiple clients who want to buy $50 (million) or $60 million properties, but we can't find them one right now," says Mauricio Umansky, a broker at Hilton & Hyland. "When you're going to spend that much money, you have to find the perfect property."
Expect 2007 to be another blowout year, especially in New York where Wall Street bonuses came in above last year's record levels. "With all the money that's been building up, expect an active market next year," says Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, a residential real estate appraisal firm. "Money like that has residual benefits, and momentum has been growing for a while."
And then there's the ghost of the $100 million sale. Besides the Hala Ranch in Aspen, there are two other listed properties -- one in Florida and one in Lake Tahoe -- vying to join the company of Lakshmi Mittal's $125 million London home, purchased by the Indian-born steel magnate in 2004.
Realtors say it's just a matter of time. "Someone is going to get $100 million for a property in the next couple years, and I hope it's me," says Umansky. The commission on that? "A lot."
This article was reported and written by Matt Woolsey for Forbes.com.
For info on other high-end Colorado homes, go to www.ColoradoDreamHomes.net
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