Sales of super-luxury home surge across U.S.

In 2021, at least 40 residential properties sold for more than US$50 million in the U.S., according to data compiled by the appraiser Miller Samuel.

That's about a 35 per cent increase over 2020, which was also a record year. “The surge in this tier is unprecedented,” says Jonathan Miller, the company's president and chief executive officer. “We've never seen this kind of growth.”

Fuelled by a booming stock market, low interest rates, and a pandemic-era's heightened emphasis on home life, prices for luxury houses have risen to stratospheric heights across the country.

“It's a national phenomenon,” says Miller. “Not enough words have been written on the impact of low rates, even on the überwealthy. And one big take-away in housing is: The lower the rates, the higher the prices. And this is that phenomenon on steroids.”

The country's eight most expensive homes, according to Miller Samuel's data, each sold for US$100 million or more and are spread equally between the Los Angeles metro area, the New York metro area, Palm Beach, Fla., and ranches in Montana.

“Since 2014, there's been the establishment of a new class of property,” says Miller, referring to these US$100 million-plus houses. “Initially, it seemed comical or whimsical; these numbers we were seeing came across as a flash in the pan. But now we're in our seventh year of it.”

A caveat: Miller says his tally is provisional, because, as financial advisers rush to line up deals before 2022 begins, he predicts a flurry of closings at the very end of the year.

“I don't think anyone is saying that in 2022, taxes are going to be cut,” he says, “so it's just hedging.”

For all the chatter about rich people leaving high-tax states, New York still topped the list for the number of sales over US$50 million, with 13; Florida had 11.

The US$157.5 million sale of a duplex at 220 Central Park South was No. 3 on Miller's list, while the most expensive sale in Florida, 535 North County Road in Palm Beach, sold for US$122.7 million.

Rupert Murdoch's US$200 million purchase of a 340,000-acre ranch in Montana topped the list.

The second-most-expensive home on Miller's list, a 7-acre compound in Malibu purchased by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, sits on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.