Letter from Bel Air: A $19.9 million teardown

No, that's not the $19.9-million teardown pictured, it's a reader photo of a dream house. It's Friday, indulge me for just a second to link to Business Week's look at the high-end markets, entitled "Down and out in Beverly Hills?"

Highlights: The cheaper dollar is helping move high-end properties: "Hilton & Hyland broker Aaron Kirman says half of the eight homes he has in escrow were sold to foreign clients."

A $2-million price reduction -- Story tells of a 1988-built home in Holmby Hills that was originally listed for $12 million; now it's $9.99 million.

The $19.9-million teardown is on a Bel-Air lot measuring 55,000 square feet with magnificent city views.

Bottom line: The high-end market is softening but doing OK: "... even in Beverly Hills, settling for less has become a fact of life.... Like the rest of the country, higher-end properties are holding up better than lower-end ones in Los Angeles."

Your thoughts? Comments? Email story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Hat tip: Todd in WeHo via email.
Photo Credit: "Nr. Palm Dr," by Mel, submitted to Your Dream House on the LA Land section of Your Scene at LATimes.com. The LA Land section of Your Scene includes five categories: Your Dream House, Foreclosures, Under Construction, Tree of the Week and Weird LA Houses.

Comments

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

This reminds me of something, perhaps just barely related to the subject on hand here, I read before.

When archaeologistsfirst started digging in Palestine, they discovered that while the ancient sujbects there were Semitic, their rulers there were Thunder-God worshipping, chariot-riding foreign people from north, probably the Caucuses or the Pontic basin. That must have been like 2000 BC or so, around the time Goddess worshippers were getting wiped out.

[Jonathan]

Oh my Goddess!

[JohnnyB]

Business Week absolutely SUCKS as far as publishing accurate and timely RE news and articles goes.

They were completely MIA for the past 2 years as this callapse unfolded. It's like the national, magazine version of the LA Times RE section.

Now they're trying to play catch up, but the years of promotional shill-stench just won't go away so easy.

"The cheaper dollar is helping..."

But, of course it is.

[Laker]

Peter,
22 Million dollars is not high end in LA, this is super duper rich people!
How many in LA population can buy this? 1% ...probably 0.001% of the so cal population...

High end is where 5-10% of LA is buying that is probably houses in the $900,000-2,000,000 range today!

[Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice]

Interesting to just glance at this article and see the $$ about the teardown. Here in Montecito CA one of our local Billionaires bought a $20 Million plus home next door to his home and promptly knocked it down simply to add to the lawn space and view. Crazy but true.