The 20 biggest residential real estate transactions of 2023 (so far)

In July, Inman gazes at the glitter and glam of the luxury real estate market. Snapshots of the country’s top luxury markets, advice from leading agents, features on what affluent homeowners want now and a breakdown of the top sales of 2023 (so far) are all in the cards leading up to Inman Luxury Connect, Aug. 7-8 at the Aria in Las Vegas. Make plans to join us now.

August is around the corner and, with the passage of July, another page will be ripped from the calendar, leaving just five months until real estate analysts pore over the tea leaves for deeper meanings in the metrics.

But as Luxury Month comes to a close at Inman, it’s never too soon to dig into the year’s biggest real estate transactions — so far — in search of tell-tale signs of economic recovery or ruptures in the housing market, or both.

“[Buyers are] seeing really, really interesting, unique and significant properties — private islands, homes in Aspen, penthouses,” @properties Christie’s International Real Estate Co-CEO Thad Wong told Inman last month. “And I think there’s a desire to own these really one-of-a-kind trophy properties.”

With Beyonce, Jay-Z, the fashion designer and filmmaker Tom Ford and The Estée Lauder Companies Chairman William Lauder all dropping in excess of $50 million each for new homes this year, many of the biggest deals to close in 2023 have been by notable celebrities and executives. What any of that says about the state of the housing market, or health of the economy, is difficult to say, but it’s clear from the data that as mortgage rates rose last year, many typical American homebuyers fell away, leaving only luxury buyers to press on — not always at the most rapid clip but no doubt with the power of cash behind them.

The luxury market has no doubt felt the effects of a fluctuating economy and low inventory so far this year, with nationwide luxury sales down by 24.13 percent year over year during the second quarter of 2023, according to a report released this week by Redfin. But while inventory declined 2.39 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2023, the median sale price of luxury homes in the U.S. has soared 4.6 percent, to a record $1.2 million.

For this study, Redfin defined “luxury” as properties in the top 5 percent of the market.

That annual price increase also reflected in the price tag of the most expensive deal on the list below — $200 million — which exceeds the sales price of 2022’s most expensive residential transaction by $27 million.

Those luxury buyers who have remained active in the market this year seem to be coaxed into wielding their buying power by the most unique properties available. From Florida to Virginia to Chicago and L.A., luxury agents have been telling Inman for months that rare, trophy properties are not staying on the market, even when other properties are.

And, indeed, from Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s desire to own one of renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando’s designs to the buyer who coveted Mark Wahlberg’s mammoth chateau-style Beverly Park mansion and to those buyers who snatched up penthouses on Billionaires’ Row and beyond, the priciest deals transacted in the U.S. so far this year show off a desire by the wealthy to own a piece of property unmatched by any other.

Meanwhile, luxury buyers in 2023 have been hot on Palm Beach, where 7 out of the top 20 deals of the year have been transacted. Following Palm Beach, L.A. and surrounding areas had the greatest number of top deals at five, and New York City came in third, with four of the year’s top deals so far. After that, the Hamptons, Miami and Aspen saw two and one each top deal, respectively — but the year isn’t over.

Due to the extreme discretion often practiced with some high-end transactions, the following list is likely not comprehensive, but what follows are the priciest residential real estate transactions in the U.S. made public in 2023 as of July 30.

27712 Pacific Coast Highway

$200M

Malibu, California

The power couple of the music industry made a huge power move in real estate this spring when the duo laid down a staggering $200 million for a mansion in Malibu, shattering previous California state price records and marking the most an African American buyer has ever paid for a home in the U.S.

Kurt Rappaport, of Westside Estate Agency, represented both the buyers and the seller.

Bey and Jay bought the six-acre estate from Bill Bell Jr., an art collector and son of Bill Bell and Lee Phillip Bell, creators of soap operas Bold and Beautiful and The Young and The Restless. Prior to the sale, the most expensive home ever sold in California was venture capital investor and software engineer Marc Andreessen’s $177 million purchase of a seven-acre Malibu estate in 2021.

The 40,000-square-foot, concrete mansion was designed by acclaimed Japanese architect Tadao Ando, who has become a favorite of other elite celebrities in recent years, including Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. Ando’s projects are generally characterized by his use of reinforced architectural concrete, which racks up quite the price tag and therefore is only available to the ultra-wealthy.

589 N. County Road

$170M

Palm Beach, Florida

A new price record was also made this year in the luxury enclave of Palm Beach during an off-market deal for $170 million.

Luxury car dealer Michael Cantanucci was the buyer, according to The Journal, and records show the sellers were Green Mountain Coffee Roasters founder Robert Stiller and his wife, Christine Stiller.

Lawrence Moens, of Lawrence A. Moens Associates, represented the seller and Christian Angle, of Christian Angle Real Estate, represented the buyer.

The waterfront mansion spans more than 20,000 square feet and sits on approximately 1.6 acres with about 150 feet of ocean frontage. The property is a Mediterranean-style home and was built in 2006, then expanded in 2015. The Stillers originally purchased the home for just $25 million in 2014.

1495 N. Ocean Blvd., 1501 N. Ocean Blvd. and 108 Mediterranean Road

$155M

Palm Beach, Florida

In yet another celebrity-studded transaction so far this year, executive chairman of Estée Lauder Companies William Lauder was revealed as the buyer of the late Rush Limbaugh’s longtime Palm Beach estate for $155 million.

Limbaugh’s widow, Kathryn Adams Limbaugh, quietly shopped the compound around starting in the summer of 2022 and had asked between $150 million and $175 million.

The property is located on the swanky North Ocean Boulevard, features multiple houses, 250 feet of ocean frontage and direct access to the beach. The late conservative talk show host also put his own personal touches on the property over the years, largely decorating the estate’s 24,000-square-foot main house himself, according to the Limbaugh biography An Army of One by Zev Chafets. The West Indies-style home included a salon modeled on Versailles and a dining room chandelier that’s a replica of the one in New York’s Plaza Hotel.

However, a report surfaced this week from the Palm Beach Daily News that Lauder has begun tearing down Limbaugh’s painstaking work for a complete demolition of the property. Last year, Lauder demolished a separate Palm Beach mansion down the street from the Limbaugh estate after purchasing it in late 2021 for about $110 million.

32 and 26 Windmill Lane

$91.5M

East Hampton, New York

Early this spring, an expansive Hamptons estate encompassing two lots on a private lane sold for $91.5 million to a mysterious pair of limited liability companies, Newco Windmill and Newco Windmill 2.

The property off of exclusive Further Lane was sold by New York real estate developer Peter Fine, who is CEO of Bolivar Development, and the exchange was conducted off-market.

Fine purchased the property in 2020 for $45 million and conducted a complete renovation, The Wall Street Journal reported. He relisted it for $72 million in 2020 but then took the property off the market in 2021.

The estate was previously home to James Evans, the late chairman of Union Pacific, who purchased the lot in 1986 and built the home.

149 E. Inlet Drive

$68.1M

Palm Beach, Florida

A local Palm Beach real estate developer, Myron “Mosie” Miller, made a pretty penny on the oceanfront property he sold earlier this summer at 149 E. Inlet Drive for $68.1 million.

Miller and his wife, Michelle Miller, turned the property over to a company called Island Sands Trust. The buyer’s identity was unknown.

The Millers purchased the 1.4-acre property in 2017 for $14.6 million and proceeded to tear down the existing home and build a 7,700-square-foot mansion in its place. The estate features several hundred feet of waterfront, a main house, a guest house and staff quarters.

Lawrence Moens, of Lawrence A. Moens Associates, represented the listing. Madison Collum, of One Sotheby’s International Realty, represented the buyer.

1165 Madison Ave., Penthouses C and D

$67.8M

New York, New York

New York City-based development firm Naftali Group began closings at The Bellemont, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, this April following its sales launch in the fall of 2021.

The $67.8 million deal for Penthouses C and D included two full-floor duplexes represented by Alexa Lambert, of Compass. The units span more than 13,000 square feet and marked one of the priciest deals to ever be conducted above 59th Street on the Upper East Side.

Compass Development Marketing Group handled marketing and sales of The Bellemont.

1350 N. Lake Way

$66M

Palm Beach, Florida

After offloading their $170 million estate earlier in the year, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters founder Robert Stiller and his wife, Christine Stiller, had some cash to burn.

When the opportunity arrived for the two to purchase billionaire casino mogul Steve Wynn’s lakefront mansion on North Lake Way, the couple bit with cash to spare, bringing the property home for $66 million.

Wynn purchased the 13,375-square-foot property for $49 million in March 2021. The mansion features eight bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a pool and a dock.

Lawrence Moens, of Lawrence A. Moens Associates, represented both sides of the deal.

730 S. Galena St.

$65M

Aspen, Colorado

The blossoming of spring saw a fruitful deal for Detroit manufacturing entrepreneur and philanthropist Joel Tauber when he sold his family’s Aspen mansion for $65 million. The buyer was unknown.

The ski-in, ski-out property was first listed for $100 million in June 2022. Tauber purchased the 14,000-square-foot home back in 1996 for roughly $9 million, according to records. The sale marked the most expensive home to be sold in downtown Aspen since Texas oil heir Christy Thompson’s $60 million sale of a mansion near downtown in May 2022.

Steven Shane, of Compass, represented the seller.

854 S. County Road

$63.43M

Palm Beach, Florida

After purchasing the property at 854 S. County Road for $53 million in 2022, real estate developer Todd Michael Glaser and his partners sold the waterfront home for about $63.43 million in May. The buyer of the property remains unknown.

Suzanne Frisbie, of Corcoran Group, represented the seller and Dana Koch and Paulette Koch, of Corcoran Group, represented the buyer.

The property’s main house was originally built in 1936 and spans about 10,200 square feet. Aside from adding a seawall, Glaser and his partners largely left the property unchanged, The Wall Street Journal reported. However, the sale did include plans crafted by Glaser’s group to expand the house by about 10,000 more square feet.

2571 Wallingford Drive

$61M

Beverly Hills, California

If Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s year-long house-hunting endeavor is any sort of indication, it seems celebrities have to go through the painful process of finding the right home just like the rest of us.

The couple landed on the 38,000-square-foot mansion in the gated Wallingford Estates neighborhood after previously going into escrow on multiple properties, including $50 million, $34.5 million and $64 million homes across L.A.

Compass’ Ginger Glass represented the seller, which was a company affiliated with developer Gala Asher. Brett Lawyer, of Carolwood Estates, represented Affleck and Lopez.

The property was originally listed for $135 million in 2018 and went on and off the market a number of times between with a series of price cuts. Most recently, it was listed at a reduced price of $74.995 million in March, according to Zillow.

71 Beverly Park

$55M

Beverly Hills, California

High on the list of top deals so far this year is also a transaction featuring actor Mark Wahlberg and his wife, Rhea Durham. In February, the couple sold their 30,500-square-foot mansion for $55 million after initially listing it for $87.5 million in April 2022.

Carl Gambino, of Compass, and Kurt Rappaport, of Westside Estate Agency, represented the listing. Ginger Glass, of Compass, represented the buyer who was not identified.

Records show that the celebrity couple purchased the property for roughly $8.25 million in 2009 and then commissioned the 12-bedroom, 20-bathroom, chateau-style estate for construction.

Featuring sweeping outdoor amenities across six acres of land, including a five-hole golf course, a driving range, a sports court, a grotto pool, a skate park and a guest house, “essentially, this is your own private country club,” the listing description boasted.

67 Beverly Park Court

$52M

Beverly Hills, California

Villa Firenze, located in the exclusive Beverly Park neighborhood of Beverly Hills, has had a wild ride the past few years.

Hungarian-American billionaire Steven Udvar-Házy owned the property for decades and listed it for $165 million in 2018. After failing to attract buyers to pay such a price, Udvar-Házy ultimately put the property up at auction with Concierge Auctions in 2021, and it sold for a fraction of that — $51 million — to biotech lab tools maker Roy T. Eddleman.

Eddleman then listed the property for a whopping $120 million in May 2022. He passed away in June 2022, and subsequently the price was cut by his estate down to $67.5 million and ultimately sold in February 2023 for $52 million to an unknown buyer.

Richard Klug, of Sotheby’s International Realty, represented the listing. Jade Mills, of Coldwell Banker, represented the buyer.

442 Further Lane

$52M

East Hampton, New York

In an under-the-radar transaction that largely went unnoticed, 442 Further Lane in East Hampton went into contract in November 2022 and closed in mid-June for $52 million, Corcoran Group informed Inman.

The off-market deal was handled by Corcoran’s Catherine Juracich on both the seller’s and buyer’s side.

In March 2022, the New York Post reported that Peloton founder John Foley and his wife, Jill Foley, had started to quietly shop the property around just months after purchasing it for $55 million. That news came as Foley’s once elite stationary bike brand had started to fall out of favor, with stock shares falling as the public turned its eye back to the gym following coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.

The 6,100-square-foot property sits on four acres of land and includes 400 linear feet of ocean frontage, according to Zillow.

195 Via Del Mar

$50M+

Palm Beach, Florida

In the type of transaction that is only likely to transpire between the most privileged classes, American fashion designer Tom Ford swapped Palm Beach mansions with Sterling Organization CEO Brian Kosoy just months after purchasing a property for $51 million at 241 Jungle Road.

Apparently, Ford and the private equity exec decided the grass was greener on the other side and decided to trade properties in a transaction that was estimated to exceed $100 million, although the exact details of each property’s price were not made known, the Palm Beach Daily News reported.

It was anticipated that each property likely set a new record for non-waterfront homes in Palm Beach, following Ford setting that record at $51 million with his purchase of the property on Jungle Road in December. Ford’s new home on Via Del Mar spans more than 17,000 square feet and sits on about 1.6 acres. It includes a tennis court and a pool.

940 N. Lake Way

$50M

Palm Beach, Florida

The estate of late liquor distributor James V. “Jimmy” Tigani Jr. sold a $50 million waterfront Palm Beach estate to entrepreneur and investor Harvey Jones, The Wall Street Journal reported in July.

Tagani purchased the house in 2002 for $7.37 million and conducted extensive renovations, listing agent Mark Bennett, of the Corcoran Group, who was also Tagani’s longtime partner and lived at the house, told The Journal.

The one-acre estate features a deep water concrete dock that can accommodate up to a 130-foot yacht and includes a 40,000-pound lift, as well as a 15,000-pound lift for smaller vessels. The grounds include private deeded beach access, several water features, an oversized travertine pool terrace and covered loggias for entertaining, the listing description reads.

The 8,100-square-foot home itself includes four bedrooms, two kitchens, two offices and a billiards room.

Frances and Todd Peter, of Sotheby’s International Realty, represented the buyer.

151 Wooster St., Penthouse

$50M

New York, New York

In one of Manhattan’s priciest deals of the year so far, a penthouse at boutique loft condo 151 Wooster St. in Soho traded for $50 million in June.

The unit was never publicly put on the market and was sold by a limited liability company tied to Stefan Kaluzny, of private equity firm Sycamore Partners. The buyer of the unit was not revealed.

John Gomes and Fredrik Eklund, of Douglas Elliman, represented the seller and Ryan Serhant, of SERHANT., represented the buyer.

The limestone building has eight floors and only 10 units, according to StreetEasy. The penthouse unit is 10,000 square feet and features a floating staircase made from three-inch-thick limestone treads, a 26-foot glass wine vault and a private terrace with a rooftop lawn.

3007 Brickell Ave.

$48.49M

Miami, Florida

An LLC led by Paul Morelli, managing partner at the San Francisco-based Vernal Point Advisors, made Miami’s biggest deal of the year so far with the purchase of a 1.5-acre property for nearly $48.5 million, The Real Deal reported in March.

The 7,800-square-foot estate on Brickell Ave., sold by Alan Richter and Mary Widel, is also next door to a property that a trust managed by Morelli acquired back in 2014 for $29 million, according to records.

Combined, the two properties make up about 2.7 acres of land valued at $77.5 million. The properties border mansions owned by hedge fund manager Ken Griffin and developer David Martin.

Julian Johnston, of Corcoran Group ,handled both sides of the off-market transaction.

1426 Summitridge Drive

$47.5M

Beverly Hills, California

Sold just in time to miss L.A.’s mansion tax going into effect, listing agent Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency certainly earned his commission on the $47.5 million sale of the Summitridge Estate.

The roughly one-acre estate has an address within the scope of the Beverly Hills Post Office, but is technically in the City of Los Angeles, meaning that if Rappaport had failed to sell the property before April 1, the seller, film producer Henry Winterstern, would have been subject to a hefty 5.5 percent tax.

Winterstern purchased the property for $2.9 million in 2012, demolished the existing, pre-1940 structure, and constructed the three-level, six-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion to take its place. The home boasts a car museum, a two-story living room and a theater.

Fred Bernstein and Ethan Peskowitz, of Westside Estate Agency, represented the anonymous buyer.

111 West 57th St., Penthouse

$47.2M

New York, New York

A 78th-floor penthouse unit of the 84-floor Billionaires’ Row condo at 111 W. 57th St. sold for $47.2 million in February, Mansion Global reported. Corcoran Sunshine is exclusively handling sales for the building.

The 6,500-square-foot penthouse has four bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms, and walls of windows with views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. The buyer was not identifiable.

The luxury tower, developed by JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group, is also known as the Steinway Tower for its history as a former Steinway showroom. The building features a double-height fitness center with a mezzanine terrace, an 82-foot swimming pool with private cabanas, and sauna and steam rooms, as well as a residents’ lounge and terrace.

217 W. 57th St., Unit 114

$45M

New York, New York

Unit 114 at Extell’s Central Park Tower sold for $45 million this spring, which was $19 million less than the unit’s initial $63.5 million asking price, The Real Deal reported. The property was sold to an unknown buyer attached to NGM Bridge LLC, and Corcoran Sunshine handled the sale.

The 7,000-square-foot unit includes five bedrooms and five bathrooms and access to Central Park Tower’s extensive list of ultra-luxe amenities, including a 60-foot pool, a private 100th floor lounge and fitness center with an indoor saltwater pool, steam room, sauna and basketball/squash court.

Extell Marketing Group launched sales for the building in 2018 and started closings in 2021. Since then, a number of units have closed at a discount, including another 7,000-square-foot unit that sold for $43 million in August 2022 which had originally asked $63.8 million.

Update: This story was updated on July 31, 2023 to note Corcoran Sunshine’s involvement in sales at 111 West 57th Street and Central Park Tower.

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