Most Expensive Home Sales In The U.S. 2005

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Most Expensive Home Sales In The U.S. 2005
Sara Clemence

Builders and pharmaceutical distributors made it, as did Donald Trump. So did reality show maestro Mark Burnett. And media mogul Rupert Murdoch nearly had the distinction of appearing twice.

For the third year in a row, Forbes.com has compiled a list of the most expensive home sales of the year. In 2005, some real estate records were snapped multiple times, while others remained firmly intact. The average price of a home on our list was up just slightly from last year, rising from about $35 million to approximately $36 million (the exact averages are elusive, because some of the final sales prices are estimates), but increasing nearly 40% from 2003.

The priciest sales were all in California, Florida and New York. And though Palm Beach estates constituted nearly half our list, nothing came close to the national standard set in 2004, when Ronald O. Perelman, the billionaire who controls Revlon (nyse: REV - news - people ) and other brands, sold his oceanfront estate there for $70 million. That's still the record for the most expensive home sale in the U.S. (Lakshmi Mittal's 2004 purchase of a house in London for approximately $125 million is the highest price ever paid.)

Slide Show: Most Expensive Homes

In New York, stratospheric sales kept the country's most real-estate-obsessed city enthralled throughout 2005. Just weeks after Murdoch, head of News Corp. (nyse: NWS - news - people ), agreed in late 2004 to pay the highest price in state history for a single residence--$44 million for the late Laurance Rockefeller's Fifth Avenue triplex--a little-known pharmaceuticals tycoon bested him.

Stewart Rahr, president and chief executive of Whitestone, N.Y.-based Kinray, the largest privately held wholesale pharmaceuticals distributor in the country, purchased Burnt Point, a sprawling estate on East Hampton's Georgica Pond, for $45 million from commodities trader David Campbell. Both deals were at the top of our list. (Murdoch's purchase closed in the spring, once he passed muster with the building's board.)

Murdoch still held the New York City record--until, that is, it was busted by hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, who plunked down a whopping $45 million for something that doesn't even exist. His mansion-in-the-sky will occupy the 39th floor of the Robert A.M. Stern-designed luxury complex, Fifteen Central Park West. Completion is planned for 2007.

However, Murdoch also set a listing record for downtown Manhattan, putting his SoHo loft on the market for $28 million. Clothing designer Elie Tahari has reportedly agreed to buy the spread. If the deal had closed this year (and for close to the asking price), Murdoch would have hit our list twice.

We compile our list by tracking media reports, examining public records and talking to real-estate brokers and consultants around the country. In some cases, we obtained prices from public records. In other cases, they come from published reports or local brokers who are in the know. We're certain there are also other deals that would have made our list but were kept extremely quiet. Our list did not include land deals, nor did it include sales where the prices were totally undisclosed. For example, Little Jennie Ranch, a Wyoming property that made our list of the most expensive homes in the U.S. with an asking price of $55 million, changed hands this year for a sum that has not leaked into the public sphere.

That was far from the only big sale in the West, though none broke price ceilings, says Steve Lewis of Beverly Hills brokerage Hilton & Hyland. "There are houses out here that would set records," Lewis says. "But nothing is on the market. Everyone's yelling and screaming. There is no inventory."

The Beverly Hills home of the late oilman, real-estate developer and former owner of 20th Century Fox, Marvin Davis, sold for somewhere in the mid-$40 million range. A stunning oceanfront property in Montecito, Calif., was sold for a reported $27.5 million to Peter Sperling, senior vice president of the Apollo Group (nasdaq: APOL - news - people ), parent company of University of Phoenix Online, and his wife, Stephanie.

In Malibu, an elegant oceanfront estate was sold by Sandy Gallin, who produced the 1991 film Father of the Bride and its sequel, among others, as well as television shows such as Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel, to another television bigwig. Mark Burnett, the executive producer of reality hits, including the Survivor and The Apprentice series, reportedly paid between $26 million and $27 million for the house, rounding out the bottom of our list.

Meanwhile, in Palm Beach, Bruce Toll, vice chairman of homebuilding giant Toll Bros. (nyse: TOL - news - people ), bought himself a luxurious spread on the water. And Paul Saville, chief financial officer of construction company NVR purchased a villa for $32 million--half what his boss, Dwight Schar, paid for Perelman's place.

Not every pricey locale has seen such real-estate bounty. Aspen, home to the $46 million sale of Hollywood producer Peter Guber's ranch, which made last year's list, was conspicuously absent in 2005. The Miami area is said to still be staring down the record set in 1999, when Sylvester Stallone sold his villa for $27.5 million.

"It was not a record-setting year," says Audrey Ross, a broker in Coral Gables for Esslinger Wooten Maxwell. The most expensive home sale in the area, she says, was way below $20 million.

The top sale around Boston, says Terry Maitland of LandVest, was under $9 million this year. That's far from the $18.5 million deal he brokered a few years ago for a 13.5-acre private residence in Brookline. "It's become a buyer's market," he says.

That doesn't necessarily bode ill for 2006. Though most of the country is watching where mortgage rates are heading, and many experts predict a slowdown in the real-estate market, the super-rich don't operate the way the rest of us do. They are not hindered by high interest rates, since all-cash deals are the norm. And they don't appear to be backing off.

"There've been more double-digit sales in L.A. in the last six months than there were probably in the 18 months prior to that," says Joe Babajian, a Beverly Hills broker for Prudential. "People with money typically have a better knowledge of where the economy's going. I think that's a good indicator that the market's going to keep going."

So 2006 is looking as though it could be just as strong at the very top of the luxury real-estate market. That would certainly be the case if the rumored $105 million sale of Schlumberger heiress Adelaide de Menil's 40-acre oceanfront estate in East Hampton proves to be a reality. Another year, another record.

Click here to see the most expensive home sales in the U.S.