Market Intelligence · July 8, 2026
A Record Falls, and a Tax Fight Refuses to Die
The Week’s Most Consequential Stories in LA Luxury Real Estate
Los Angeles luxury real estate delivered one of its more paradoxical weeks in recent memory: a condominium sale shattered a price-per-square-foot record even as the broader condo market sits at a two-decade low, luxury contract volume more than doubled year over year, and City Hall’s three-year fight over Measure ULA took yet another unresolved turn. Here is what mattered most.
Record Sale
A Sierra Towers Penthouse Redefines What a Los Angeles Condo Can Command
The priciest condominium sale of 2026 in Los Angeles County just became the most expensive on a price-per-square-foot basis in the market’s history. A penthouse at West Hollywood’s storied Sierra Towers, located at 9255 Doheny Road, closed this week for $36 million — working out to $4,888 per square foot, eclipsing the previous record of $4,848 set by a 2022 sale at Pendry Residences West Hollywood.
The nearly 7,400-square-foot, three-bedroom residence hit the market in early April asking $39.5 million. Sellers Dan Fischel and Sylvia Neil, Chicago-based philanthropists, acquired the partially completed unit in 2021 for $17.5 million and spent millions over a five-year buildout that added a private elevator foyer, a roughly 5,500-square-foot wraparound terrace, a media lounge, gym, and gallery. Carolwood Estates’ Linda May represented the sellers; The Agency’s Blair Chang represented the buyer.
Sierra Towers has long counted A-listers among its residents, including Sandra Bullock, Courteney Cox, and Katy Perry — and this sale underscores a widening gap between the ultra-luxury tier and the broader Southern California condo market, where prices fell 6 percent year over year in February, the steepest drop in 14 years, amid the slowest sales volume for that month since 2005.
The takeaway for sellers of trophy condominiums: even in a depressed market, exceptional product in an irreplaceable building continues to command a premium that defies the broader data — a pattern that will matter to anyone evaluating condo inventory at the top of the Los Angeles market.
Policy
Measure ULA’s Three-Year Fight Takes Another Unresolved Turn
The Los Angeles City Council shelved a proposal that would have exempted new multifamily projects from Measure ULA and placed the question before voters this November. In its place, the council instructed the Los Angeles Housing Department to draft a pilot tax credit ordinance that would lower the transfer tax rate — potentially to 1.5 percent or below — for multifamily and mixed-use projects built with prevailing wages and a share of affordable units, applicable to sales within ten years of construction.
The move arrives amid a tangle of competing proposals. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association withdrew a statewide ballot measure that would have effectively nullified ULA, after Sacramento offered a compromise preserving the tax’s legal standing. Separately, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks has introduced state legislation that would cap all California transfer taxes at 1.5 percent — a bill that, if passed, would apply well beyond Los Angeles.
Measure ULA’s price thresholds also reset with the new fiscal year on July 1: the 4 percent tax now applies to sales of $5.4 million or more, and the 5.5 percent tax to sales above $10.9 million. Since taking effect more than three years ago, the tax has generated roughly $1.2 billion — well short of the $600 million-to-$1.1 billion the city projected annually — with 55 percent of that revenue coming from commercial transactions rather than luxury home sales.
Council member Katy Yaroslavsky’s remarks reflect a growing frustration among reform advocates: with Los Angeles at just 17.8 percent of its state-mandated goal of more than 456,000 new housing units by 2029, the debate over ULA’s drag on both residential and commercial dealmaking is unlikely to quiet down before the November election cycle.
Industry
Christie’s Bets on New Development Even as the Condo Market Cools
In a move that runs against the grain of a slumping Southern California condo market, Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California has launched a division dedicated exclusively to new condominium development. Helmed by Tomer Fridman, Don Heller, Amir Ensani, and Aaron Kirman, the team will represent listings at recently completed buildings including Rosewood Residences Beverly Hills, The Harland, and Privé Malibu — and holds exclusive California marketing rights for Dubai’s Burj Azizi, set to become the world’s second-tallest building.
The division’s leaders argue that Los Angeles condo data, taken as a whole, obscures a far healthier story at the top: while overall condo sales hit a 20-year low in February, submarkets like Brentwood, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica are holding steady or ahead of last year’s pace. Douglas Elliman’s Cory Weiss points to an accelerating downsizing trend — buyers in their 40s and 50s, not just retirees, trading single-family homes for full-service condo living — along with a durable wave of Pacific Palisades fire survivors who initially leased condos and have since made the move permanent, drawn in part by the appeal of not having to insure a rebuilt home.
Still, the team acknowledges the headwind: since the Aman Residences Beverly Hills broke ground, little new luxury condo product has entered the pipeline, with Measure ULA and elevated construction costs cited as the principal deterrents to new vertical development within city limits.
Market Pulse
A snapshot of the contract activity and notable listings shaping the week.
- Steve Wynn’s Beverly Hills mansion tops the week’s contracts. The gaming magnate’s 27,000-square-foot, 11-bedroom estate at 1210 Benedict Canyon Drive — designed by William Hablinski and asking just shy of $50 million — went into contract, per the Eklund Weekly Luxury Report Los Angeles compiled by Marcy Roth of Douglas Elliman’s Eklund Gomes team. Wynn purchased the home in 2015 for $47.9 million.
- 28 luxury contracts totaled $279.6 million in asking volume — more than double the dollar volume and ten more contracts than the same week a year ago, a marked reversal from the softer weeks reported through most of June.
- The Azria Estate in Holmby Hills placed second at $43.5 million asking. The 30,000-square-foot, 14-bedroom home — built in 1930 by architect Paul Williams and owned by Lubov Azria, widow of BCBG Max Azria founder Max Azria — carries an estimated $2.4 million Measure ULA liability at its asking price. The Agency’s Mauricio Umansky and Farah Levi hold the listing.
- A “Full House” pedigree hits the market in the Hollywood Hills. Investor Dan Gatsby’s DG Home listed the 20,800-square-foot hilltop estate at 1302 Collingwood Place — built for sitcom creator Jeff Franklin and designed by Richard Landry — for $39.8 million, roughly double the $20.2 million Gatsby paid in 2016.
The Takeaway
Conviction at the Top, Uncertainty in the Framework
This week’s stories share a common thread: buyers, sellers, and brokerages with genuine conviction continue to transact and invest at the very top of the Los Angeles market, even as the policy environment beneath them remains unsettled. A record-setting condo sale and a doubling of weekly contract volume both point to real, deep-pocketed demand for exceptional product. Christie’s decision to build a new development division — rather than wait out the uncertainty — reflects the same instinct.
Measure ULA, meanwhile, remains the variable no seller above $5.4 million can ignore. With reform efforts continuing to stall at the ballot box and shift instead toward incremental administrative fixes, the tax’s role in every high-end pricing conversation looks set to persist well into next year.
For buyers and sellers navigating that tension, the opportunity lies in precision: understanding exactly how the tax framework applies to a given transaction, and moving decisively on the properties — like this week’s — where quality and conviction are unmistakable.
For guidance on navigating the current luxury market, contact Aram Afshar at [email protected].