Some of Southern California’s homes are almost as famous as its celebrities.
There’s the Ennis House, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Mayan Revival-style concoction of textile blocks. The Chemosphere, John Lautner’s modernist UFO hovering above Hollywood Hills. And the Gamble House, the Craftsman mansion in Pasadena that got its starring role in “Back to the Future.”
But the L.A. area’s most iconic home is the Stahl House, Pierre Koenig’s Midcentury masterpiece that seems to float above the city. Julius Schulman’s black-and-white photo of two women conversing in the cantilevered living room has been declared “the most famous picture ever taken of Los Angeles.”
So when the Stahl House surfaced for sale late last year, experts assumed there would be a line of buyers stretching all the way to Sunset Boulevard. But so far, a deal hasn’t closed.
The house hit the market for $25 million. With no takers, the price tag was trimmed to $20 million in April. Still nothing.
L.A.’s luxury market regularly sees sales of $20 million or more, so where’s the demand for a piece of the city’s architectural history, albeit one much smaller than most homes in that price range? Real estate agents say that selling iconic homes with storied pasts is much harder than it seems.
The first tricky part is pricing. Typically, an agent looks at bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage and neighborhood comparisons. But how do you price reputation? Does appearing in the pilot of “Columbo,” as the Stahl House did in 1968, add value?
A little, but perhaps not approaching $11,364 per square foot, which is what the Stahl House, at $25 million for 2,200 square feet, was originally asking. For reference, a 4,041-square-foot home down the road is listed for $2.975 million — $736 per square foot.
The Stahl House’s listing agent, William Baker, didn’t respond to requests for comment. But other experts weighed in on the dynamic.
“It’s hard to take a house’s history or architectural prominence and translate that into dollars,” real estate agent Ed Reilly said.
In 2019, Reilly handled the sale of the Bailey House, which Koenig built for the Case Study program along with the Stahl House. It also features minimalist living spaces surrounded by steel panels and walls of glass.
Reilly listed the Bailey House for $4.5 million, but it eventually sold for $3.26 million to film producer Allison Sarofim. He said the previous owners were art dealers and showcased art in the home instead of living there, but not everyone has that much to spend on a gallery space.
“These properties aren’t for everyone,” Reilly said. “The floor plan isn’t as livable as modern houses.”
He pointed to another house made famous by a photo: Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann Desert House, captured in Slim Aarons’ 1970 “Poolside Gossip.” It hit the market for $25 million in 2020 but sold for $13.06 million — the highest price ever in Palm Springs but barely over half the original ask.
For aging iconic homes, upkeep is also a factor. In 2022, real estate agent Mike Deasy handled the sale of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Samuel Freeman House. Wright, who was devoted to organic architecture, used materials sourced from the site, including sand, to make textile blocks. However, the sand deteriorated over time. Meanwhile, greedy architecture fans stole blocks as mementos while the house was unoccupied.
It made for a headache of a listing.
“Pricing it was a stab in the dark,” Deasy said. “By the time we got it listed, it was in extremely bad condition.”
For an asking price of $4.25 million, the house came with a few conditions set by the L.A. Conservancy, which had been granted an easement by the owner, USC. Any changes to the facade — for example, replacing crumbling tile or old windows — had to be approved by the conservancy. In addition, the house needed to be made available to the public four times a year.
The fine print hampered the value. The one-of-a-kind house, despite its pedigree, sold to developer Richard Weintraub for just $1.825 million, barely above the neighborhood median.
“It’s impossible to put a price on fame,” Deasy said. “With the exception of billionaires who buy properties as collector’s items, most people are buying a home as a place to live.”
From a buyer’s perspective, owning a piece of architectural history is tricky. The more well-known a property is, the more people care about it. If your preservation efforts fail to meet their expectations, a firestorm can follow.
A spat recently flared up between the L.A. Conservancy and the All Right Now Foundation, a nonprofit that bought Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sturges House, a Usonian-style gem in Brentwood.
The conservancy accused the foundation of “demolition by neglect,” claiming that the home’s iconic redwood deck was decaying. Multiple news outlets then reported that the house was falling apart, even quoting anonymous neighbors who said wild animals were entering the property.
The foundation rebutted the claims, posting a response on its website. A spokesperson for All Right Now told The Times that the house is in good shape, is actively occupied — by people, not wild animals — and is slowly but steadily being renovated with long-term preservation in mind.
Southern California holds plenty of architectural treasures, but other kinds of homes achieve fame here as well: mega-mansions. Many of L.A.’s hillsides are crowned by 30,000-square-foot behemoths jam-packed with more amenities than a mall.
But like art, a house is worth only what someone’s willing to pay. And the developers who build them often have a tough time assessing their value.
Mega-mansion developer Nile Niami wanted $500 million for the largest modern home in the country, a 105,000-square-foot house in Bel-Air known as “The One” that he built on spec. But construction took so long that parts of the house were crumbling before others were even finished. Debt mounted until it was sold at a bankruptcy auction for $126 million.
Businessman Gary Winnick wanted $250 million for Casa Encantada, one of L.A.’s grandest Old Hollywood estates. But buyers balked at the price tag, and it was eventually auctioned off over the summer to PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel for the relative bargain of $130 million.
In 2018, a prized piece of land in Beverly Crest known as the Mountain made headlines when it listed for $1 billion, the highest asking price for a residential property ever in L.A. It sold a year later at a bankruptcy auction for $100,000 with a $200-million debt tied to it.
Bret Parsons, a real estate agent with the Craig Strong Group at Compass who specializes in architectural properties, said he typically asks other brokers for their opinions before setting a price. He comes in slightly lower, which brings in multiple offers and drives bidding wars.
“I have a mantra: Pricing lower gets you higher,” he said.
Parsons said there’s a small pool of buyers willing to pay a stratospheric price for a property such as the Stahl House that’s essentially a sculpture more than a place to live.
“It’s a pair of golden handcuffs,” he said. “A very expensive mistress who needs constant attention.”
Commissioned by Buck and Carlotta Stahl, the Stahl House has stayed in the family’s hands for 66 years, racking up appearances in films such as “The Marrying Man,” “Galaxy Quest” and “Nurse Betty.” Buck died in 2005, and the home has been unoccupied since 2007, subsequently opening for tours, which grew its reputation among the public.
It’s small, with only two bedrooms, but for many, it represents the best of California living: indoor-outdoor spaces, panoramic views of the city and a pool to ride out days of endless sun. For those reasons, there’s still plenty of interest, even though the house has been on the market for nearly a year, Parsons said, citing rumors about multiple offers at lower amounts.
It might not be much longer before the marketplace pinpoints the value of an L.A. legend.
“It’s an extraordinary house,” Parsons said. “The best representation for what Los Angeles was, is and will continue to be.”
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