The rich are getting richer, and their properties are getting pricier.
The 1920s-era Beverly Hills mansion of William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies was put on the market Monday for $165 million, making it the nation's most expensive residential listing.
The pink stucco, H-shaped estate, dubbed Beverly House by the late newspaper magnate, is spread across 6.5 acres north of Sunset Boulevard. It has just about everything a billionaire could want -- including three swimming pools, 29 bedrooms, a state-of-the-art movie theater and even a disco.
Expensive house: The credit with a photo of the Beverly House in Business on Tuesday included Microsoft Virtual Earth. The image should have been credited solely to Pictometry International.
The compound boasts six separate residences -- four houses, an apartment and a cottage for the security staff.
"This is the kind of home that comes on the market once in a generation," said Jeff Hyland, a Beverly Hills real estate broker and author of "The Estates of Beverly Hills."
The seller, attorney-investor Leonard M. Ross, bought the property in 1976 and is now seeking "a lifestyle change," said his real estate broker, Stephen Shapiro.
The asking price surpasses the $155 million being sought by developers of an estate in Montana's Big Sky country, and the $135-million price of an Aspen, Colo., compound being sold by Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia.
In the last two years, six U.S. residences have come on the market with nine-digit price tags, according to Rick Goodwin, publisher of Ultimate Homes magazine, an annual compendium of the world's hottest properties.
Yet, so far, no U.S. home sale has broken the $100-million mark. (None of the six noted by Goodwin has sold.) The record remains the $94 million paid by former telecom mogul Gary Winnick for a Bel-Air estate in 2001.
"It's only a matter of time" before the record falls, Goodwin predicted.
With its breathtaking asking price, the latest Beverly Hills listing adds more luster to the region's Platinum Triangle, the neighborhoods of Beverly Hills, Bel-Air and Holmby Hills, where the pace of multimillion-dollar sales has outshone the rest of Southern California's slumping housing market.
From January to May, the number of homes in the Platinum Triangle that sold for at least $10 million more than doubled compared with the year-earlier period. In contrast, Los Angeles County overall saw a 19% decline in sales for the same period.
New homeowners in the Platinum Triangle include actor Tom Cruise and his actress wife, Katie Holmes, Amazon.com Chief Executive Jeff Bezos and soccer star David Beckham and his wife, Spice Girl Victoria Beckham.
- In Their Day, They Were Stars Sep 29, 2006
- Catherine Campbell Hearst; UC Regent, Benefactor Jan 01, 1999
- Land Plan Opens Window on Hearst Rift Jan 20, 1998
