Million-dollar homes were once a sign of real affluence. Now, at least in California, they are getting to be a dime a dozen.
Nearly 49,000 homes in the state sold for at least $1 million last year -- a 47% increase from 2004, according to data released Tuesday by DataQuick Information Systems, a La Jolla-based real estate research firm.
Adolph Rangel joined the $1-million-home club thanks to the state's 6-year-old real estate boom.
In 2004, the 30-year-old mortgage bank branch manager sold his Yorba Linda house for $1.05 million, $300,000 more than he paid 12 months earlier. Last year, Rangel bought a new tract home there for $1.3 million and on Sunday he accepted an offer on it for $1.55 million.
His idea of a million-dollar house used to be "what you saw on 'Dynasty,' " Rangel said. "I didn't think it would be a million-dollar tract house."
California ranked first in the survey of homes selling for at least $1 million in 2005, DataQuick said.
In Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego County, one of the wealthiest communities in the U.S., virtually all home sales were in the $1-million-plus category. Malibu and Beverly Hills have always had their share.
The real news is that $1-million homes are becoming more commonplace in areas not known for lifestyles of the rich and famous.
Now it's expensive to be Eagle Rock-adjacent: In the Glassell Park area of Los Angeles, 18 homes sold for $1 million or more last year, versus only one in 2004, according to DataQuick, which collects data on all reported home transactions in California. In Baldwin Hills, the number of seven-figure sales went to 23 from 9. Temple City posted 17. The year before: zero.
"A million dollars isn't what it used to be," said James Joseph, owner of Century 21 Grisham-Joseph brokerage in Whittier.
Indeed, if you sold a home in California last year, there was a 1 in 13 chance that it went for at least $1 million, according to DataQuick.
Your chances in 2004: 1 in 20.
The total of homes fetching $1 million or more last year was nearly four times the number in 2002, according to DataQuick.
Only a few years ago, $1 million bought you an "estate" property, one with ample square footage on a large lot in an exclusive neighborhood.
Not anymore. The median-sized million-dollar home last year was 2,480 square feet with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, DataQuick found.
