The Nine-Figure Home Sale Isn’t Going Anywhere

Across the U.S., 2024 was one of the slowest years for home sales since the 1990s. But it was a banner year for the ultrahigh end of the market, where buyers are so wealthy that interest rates or market fluctuations have little impact.

In 2024, there were at least seven single-family home sales recorded in the U.S. for $100 million or more, up from five in 2023, according to data gathered by appraiser Jonathan Miller and The Wall Street Journal. That’s just under 2021’s record eight deals, property records show.

Across the country, the number of nine-figure home sales has been gradually climbing over the past decade, Miller said. In 2014, there were four sales of $100 million or more, marking the first time the U.S. had seen more than one in the same year, Miller said. In the last four years, there have been a total of 27 recorded. What at first seemed like a fluke has now become an established market for nine-figure sales, he said, adding that it is only a matter of time before $200 million becomes the new benchmark for ultraluxury deals.

“We’ve witnessed the creation of a new asset class,” Miller said. “We now have a decadelong pattern of elevated activity like this. It’s been remarkably consistent. It’s not going away.”

The country’s priciest deals of 2024 mostly took place off-market, meaning they sold without an official listing price. And they included some unusual elements, such as a property swap between two wealthy buyers and a joint purchase by business moguls Steve Wynn and Thomas Peterffy. Several of the buyers purchased properties adjacent to homes they already owned.

Most of the deals were located in the usual places—California, New York and South Florida—but the luxe ski destination of Aspen, Colo., also had its first deal cross the $100 million threshold in 2024. Richard Ferrari, president and CEO of Douglas Elliman’s Northeast region, said Aspen is among the fastest-growing of the company’s markets and he predicts more $100 million-plus sales there.

That the wealthy are buying big-ticket homes in new markets such as Aspen speaks to how much their coffers have grown in recent years, due in part to stock-market growth. At the beginning of 2020, the total collective net worth of the top 1% in the U.S. was $30.356 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve. By the second quarter of 2024, it had grown to $46.7 trillion.

“The rich are getting richer and they’re diversifying,” said New York luxury agent Donna Olshan. “The concentration of wealth in certain areas like New York is no longer. They’re buying all over the place.”

Miami and Palm Beach, Fla., continue to be among the most active markets for ultraexpensive deals, a trend that intensified during the pandemic, real-estate agents said. But the market in New York’s Hamptons has been slower than in the past, with no nine-figure sales in 2024 and just one sale over $50 million, according to Miller’s data. In California, the beachfront city of Malibu—which saw 2024’s only sale over $200 million—continues to post record sales, but nearby Los Angeles has fewer than usual due in part to a new tax on high-end home sellers known as Measure ULA.

With the presidential election over, Ferrari said he expects 2025 to be an extremely active year for ultraluxury real estate across the country. “There’s no indication that the high-end market will slow down anytime soon,” he said.

Read on for a look at the country’s most expensive home sales of 2024.

1. Malibu, Calif.

Only one deal in the U.S. topped $200 million in 2024: Oakley founder James Jannard’s sale of a roughly 10-acre Malibu estate on a bluff overlooking the ocean.

The identity of the buyer couldn’t be determined. The deal, which closed in May, set a record for a single-family property in California, besting the $190 million paid by the musical power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z for a nearby estate in 2023.

The Jannard property was never publicly listed for sale, according to people familiar with the situation. The estate includes a large residence designed by New York-based Ferguson & Shamamian Architects. Interiors were done by Michael S. Smith, the designer who remodeled the Oval Office under President Barack Obama.

2. Palm Beach, Fla.

In May, Australian investor Michael Dorrell purchased Tarpon Island, a roughly 2-acre private island in Palm Beach. Developer Todd Michael Glaser bought the island with partners for $85 million in 2021, renovated and expanded the home, then relisted it. The estate has 11 bedrooms and a “wellness wing” with a massage room. The grounds contain a gym, a lighted tennis court, a 98-foot-long pool and two private docks.

3. Palm Beach, Fla.

In June, a roughly 100-year-old, Addison Mizner-designed estate in Palm Beach was sold to investor Daren Metropoulos, a principal at private-equity firm Metropoulos & Co. and the owner of L.A.’s Playboy Mansion.

The sellers were the family of the late Canadian businessman William Pencer, who died in 2021.

Known as Casa Amado, the roughly 3.2-acre waterfront estate commanded top dollar for its scale and location. The approximately 23,000-square-foot, Mediterranean Revival-style house has 10 bedrooms, a gym and a movie room. There is also a pool and a tennis court.

Pencer and his wife, Ida Pencer, paid $12.1 million for the property in 2003 and did a major renovation. Later, they restored it again after it was damaged in a fire.

4. New York, N.Y.

In July, Russian-born billionaire Vladislav Doronin paid $135 million for a penthouse developed by his own company, OKO Group, at New York’s Crown Building just south of Central Park.

The seven-bedroom condo unit spans the top five floors of the building, with about 13,000 square feet of indoor space and roughly 4,500 square feet of terraces.

Doronin, who never released an asking price for the unit, had previously said the penthouse was in contract to sell to an Asian buyer for about $180 million.

5. New York, N.Y.

In June, a high-floor unit at the newly built Central Park Tower on Billionaires’ Row sold for $117 million to an unknown international purchaser. The closing price was far less than the $175 million the developer, Extell Development, originally asked when the apartment came on the market in 2023.

The seven-bedroom apartment spans the 107th and 108th floor of the tower, with expansive views over Central Park. It has about 12,500 square feet of interior space, as well as two terraces.

6. Los Angeles, Calif.

George Ruan, a co-founder of online coupon- and discounts-company Honey, sold his Bel-Air mansion for around $112 million in September, the biggest L.A. deal recorded in 2024. The identity of the buyer couldn’t be determined.

Ruan bought the unfinished house for $60 million in 2012 and completely renovated it. He listed the approximately 21,000-square-foot home for $150 million in 2022.

Located in a prestigious enclave not far from the Hotel Bel-Air, the property was notable for its 360-degree views of the city.

7. Aspen, Colo.

In April, Aspen saw the $108 million off-market sale of an estate to former casino mogul Steve Wynn and financier Thomas Peterffy. It wasn’t clear why the two purchased the property together, but they are said to be friends.

The roughly 4.5-acre estate is located at the base of Red Mountain, one of Aspen’s most sought-after locations. Spanning about 22,000 square feet with 11 bedrooms, it has a main house built in 2006, a guesthouse, and a heated outdoor pool.

8. Carpinteria, Calif.

In June, comedian and former television host Ellen DeGeneres sold a blufftop home near Santa Barbara for a record $96 million as part of a larger off-market property swap with mining magnate Robert Friedland. The deal represented a tidy profit for DeGeneres, a frequent home-flipper who had bought the house for about $70 million less than two years earlier.

The property spans about 10 acres and includes a roughly 8,000-square-foot house as well as a guesthouse.

As part of the deal, DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, paid Friedland $32 million to buy back a Santa Barbara home they sold him earlier in the year.

9. Malibu, Calif.

Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, is building an oceanfront compound in Malibu’s Paradise Cove. In June, she paid $94 million for this 4-acre parcel adjacent to her property. The deal brought Jobs’s aggregate spend in Paradise Cove to more than $170 million across separate transactions with four sellers from 2015 to 2024.

Jobs’s new property includes a 1950s-era, four-bedroom home, but most local agents said it is likely a teardown.

10. Miami, Fla.

Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos paid $87 million for a seven-bedroom waterfront mansion on Miami’s Indian Creek island in June, his third purchase there over the last two years. Bezos has spent a total of about $234 million in the area.

The $87 million property has roughly 14,000-square-foot house on about 2 acres, according to property records, as well as a pool and a dock.

The seller was former banker Javier Holtz and his wife, Andria Holtz, who paid $2.5 million for the property in 1998, records show.