Los Angeles Times Hot Property

Sunday, January 10, 1999

The 1998 luxury-home market on L.A.'s Westside was the best it has been in more than a decade, thanks largely to the entertainment industry, according to a year-end study by Cecelia Waeschle, a broker with Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas Co., Beverly Hills.

Waeschle has tracked the sales of Westside homes going for more than $2.5 million since 1987. She doesn't focus on deals in the $1-million-to-$2.5-million range, because there are so many of them. She concentrates on Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Holmby Hills, Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and Malibu.

During 1998, there were 241 sales in the area for more than $2.5 million, and of those, 42 sales were for more than $5 million and six were for more than $10 million, she said, adding that about 65% of the 241 sales involved the entertainment community.

During 1997, there were 170 home sales for more than $2.5 million: of those, 37 were for more than $5 million and two were for more than $10 million.

"The last year we had this many sales at over $10 million was in 1990," Waeschle said. That was the year David Geffen bought Jack Warner's Beverly Hills estate for $47.5 million. To date, no subsequent sale has approached that amount.

One of the closest was the $18-million sale in 1998 of the Bel-Air home of the late presidential advisor Henry Salvatori. Among other top sales of 1998 were the $12.5-million purchase of a Malibu home by saxophonist Kenny G and the nearly $13-million purchase of a Malibu home by Chicago financier Sam Zell.

Wall Street Journal
PRIVATE PROPERTIES

Friday, December 11, 1998

Sunny Sales in L.A.

MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR residential-real-estate sales in Los Angeles are showing considerable strength, despite some concern late in the summer that the swooning stock market was spooking potential home buyers.

According to Cecelia Waeschle of Coldwell Banker's Beverly Hills office, six sales topping $10 million have been recorded so far this year, compared with only two in 1997. Mrs. Waeschle tracks high-end sales on the Westside of Los Angeles, which includes Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Malibu and Santa Monica.

Examples of transactions in the above-$10 million category include the $18 million sale of the home owned by the late Henry Salvatori, a close advisor to President Reagan, and the $12.5 million Malibu purchase by Mr. Gorelick, the saxophonist.

To date, there have been 41 sales above $5 million, compared with 33 during the 1997 period. In the lowest price range Mrs. Waeschle tracks - between $2.5 million and $5 million - there were 83 sales, compared with 138 in 1997. That kind of strength is a far cry from the early-to id-1980s, when recession, a riot and natural disasters rocked the luxury market in Los Angeles.