Published reports put ultra-luxury homes at $10 million and up: Compass draws its line there, and Elliman's top-10% tier for Greater Los Angeles started at $9.49 million in Q4 2025. Each step above that ($20 million, $50 million, $100 million) changes who sells and how a deal is financed and insured. Inside the City of Los Angeles it also changes the tax: a $10.9 million sale pays 5.5% under Measure ULA, and the same sale in the City of Beverly Hills pays none of it.
You're pricing, buying or selling a home above $10 million in Beverly Hills or the Westside and need to know what changes at each price tier.
At a glance
| Compass ultra-luxury line | $10 million and up |
|---|---|
| Elliman luxury entry, Greater LA (Q4 2025) | $9,490,000 single-family |
| Measure ULA top bracket (from July 1, 2026) | 5.5% at $10,900,000 or more |
| ULA in the City of Beverly Hills | Does not apply |
| LA County conforming loan limit (2026) | $1,249,125 |
What counts as ultra-luxury homes in Los Angeles?
For ultra-luxury homes here, the line that matters most is the city line. Reports put the tier's start near $10 million, and the City of Los Angeles taxes sales just above that at its top Measure ULA rate. So a $10.8 million and a $10.9 million house in Bel Air are one tier on paper and about $68,000 apart for the seller. In Beverly Hills they aren't.
Three reports are quoted most often, and each one draws the line in its own place.
| Report | How it defines the top tier | Latest Los Angeles figure |
|---|---|---|
| Compass, 2025 Ultra-Luxury Report | Every sale of $10 million or more | Greater LA $10M+ sales up 53.7% in 2025 |
| Elliman Report (Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel), Q4 2025 | Top 10% of sales | Single-family entry $9,490,000; median $14,250,000 |
| Redfin luxury report | Top 5% of a metro's estimated home values | LA metro luxury median $4,512,482 (three months to May 2026) |
Compass: a flat $10 million line
Compass counts every US home sale at $10 million or more: 2,261 of them in 2025, worth $38.63 billion. Greater Los Angeles had a 53.7% jump in those sales in 2025, after a 17.75% drop in 2024.
Elliman: the top 10% of sales
The Elliman Report treats the top tenth of sales as the luxury market, so its floor moves every quarter. In Q4 2025 the Greater Los Angeles single-family tier started at $9,490,000, with a median of $14,250,000 across 66 closed sales.
Redfin: the top 5% of the metro
Redfin's luxury label is the broadest. A home qualifies when its estimated value sits in the top 5% of its metro, which put the Los Angeles luxury median sale price at $4,512,482 in the three months to May 2026, 4.9 times the non-luxury median.
Our pick: use $10 million as the working line, then check the parcel's city before you price anything above it.
Ultra-luxury homes at $10M, $20M and $50M+
Each step up is a smaller market with its own habits. No source we trust publishes how many Los Angeles homes sell above $20 million a year, so the reported sales below are examples rather than a census.
$10 million homes: the entry tier
In two Zillow neighborhoods, $10 million is roughly what an ordinary house costs. Zillow's typical home value was $11,549,534 in Beverly Hills Gateway and $10,277,281 in The Flats in September 2026. Across Bel Air the same measure was $4,140,242, so $10 million there buys well above the local norm.
This tier has the most closings, so pricing can rest on recent comparable sales, though Elliman's tier spent 86 days on market in Q4 2025, up from 56.
$20 million homes: lots, views and zoning
Around $20 million you're paying mostly for land: a bigger lot, a protected view, or a site whose zoning allows a larger house. Reported sales near this level include a Beverly Hills home at $20.2 million, reported by Century City News in March 2025, and a Trousdale Estates home at $19.5 million, reported by TMZ in February 2022.
In Trousdale every structure is capped at 14 feet, so the money buys the pad and the view rather than height. The Trousdale Estates building rules set out what a lot there can hold.
$50 million homes: a national ranking for every sale
Above $50 million, a single closing usually lands in national top-10 lists. Redfin's 2025 ranking put a $63.1 million Beverly Park sale tenth in the country, and every one of its July 2026 top ten sold for at least $40 million. The gap between asking and sale price widens here: a Benedict Canyon estate in Beverly Hills sold for $47.75 million in 2026, reported by Casino.org, after asking $110 million in 2021.
$100 million homes: a short list of estates
Los Angeles has only a handful of sales at $100 million or more, most in Bel Air, Holmby Hills and Beverly Hills, with the state's top three in Malibu. They include the Warner Estate at $165 million (CNBC, February 2020), Chartwell at about $150 million (Los Angeles Magazine, December 2019) and Casa Encantada at $130 million (Los Angeles Times, September 2026). Our record list of the most expensive houses in Los Angeles gives each sale with its outlet and date.
How Measure ULA taxes ultra-luxury homes in the City of LA
Measure ULA is a City of Los Angeles transfer tax in force since April 1, 2023, and upheld by a Court of Appeal ruling that became final in June 2026. For sales closing after June 30, 2026, it charges 4% on sales over $5,400,000 and under $10,900,000, and 5.5% at $10,900,000 or more. Add the city's 0.45% base tax and the combined city rate is 4.45% or 5.95%, charged on the whole price. The county's documentary tax of $1.10 per $1,000 comes on top.
ULA applies in Bel Air, Holmby Hills, Beverly Crest and Beverly Park. It doesn't apply in the City of Beverly Hills, a separate city.
| Sale price | City of LA: ULA + base tax | County tax | City of Beverly Hills (no ULA) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000,000 | $445,000 (4.45%) | $11,000 | County $11,000; ask escrow about any city amount |
| $20,000,000 | $1,190,000 (5.95%) | $22,000 | County $22,000; ask escrow about any city amount |
| $50,000,000 | $2,975,000 (5.95%) | $55,000 | County $55,000; ask escrow about any city amount |
| $100,000,000 | $5,950,000 (5.95%) | $110,000 | County $110,000; ask escrow about any city amount |
The $10.9 million cliff: a worked example
Because the top rate applies to the full price, a slightly higher offer can leave a City of LA seller with less money. Here's the arithmetic, before commissions and other costs.
- At $10,800,000, city taxes are 4.45% ($480,600) and the county takes $11,880. The seller keeps $10,307,520.
- At $10,900,000, city taxes are 5.95% ($648,550) and the county takes $11,990. The seller keeps $10,239,460, about $68,000 less.
- To keep the same $10,307,520, the price has to reach about $10,972,000.
So between $10.8 million and roughly $10.97 million, a higher price doesn't help a seller in the City of LA. The same dead zone sits just above $5.4 million: a seller needs about $5,626,000 to match the net at exactly $5,400,000. Thresholds move each July with inflation, so redo the sums with your own price in the Los Angeles transfer tax calculator.
Why a 90210 address doesn't settle it
About 60.5% of the land in the 90210 ZIP lies in the City of Los Angeles, according to the 2020 Census, and the Census geocoder puts North Beverly Park's entrance in the City of LA. A $20 million sale there pays $1.1 million in ULA alone. The same price in Trousdale Estates, inside the City of Beverly Hills, pays none.
UCLA Lewis Center researchers found ULA cut in half the likelihood that a property sells above the threshold. Our guide to Measure ULA covers that research and the November 2026 ballot.
Who sells ultra-luxury homes, and how many sell off-market
Several of the largest recent sales came from developers, lenders and bankruptcy courts rather than from owners, and that changes how you read an asking price.
Spec developers and their asking prices
A developer's first price is an opening position. The Bel Air spec house nicknamed "Billionaire" asked $250 million and sold for $94 million, a 62% discount, as InsideHook reported in October 2019, citing The Wall Street Journal. A Beverly Hills spec house listed at $39.9 million in 2020 sold for $30.1 million, reported by Inman in February 2024. The guide to Los Angeles mansions tracks today's spec listings and their cuts.
Courts sell too: The One went at a bankruptcy auction for about $141 million including costs (ABC7, March 2022) after a $295 million listing.
Off-market sales above $10 million
The last market-wide count is old: Miller Samuel found about one-third of Greater LA sales over $5 million in Q1 2017 never hit the MLS. Recent deals reported as off-market include a $210 million Malibu sale in 2024 and the $41.3 million former Bruce Willis home in Beverly Hills in 2026. Since 2025, NAR rules let a seller file an office exclusive, which sits in the MLS but isn't shown to other members, so "off-market" now covers more than one arrangement. Read how pocket listings work in Beverly Hills, or use our private search for off-market estates.
Whoever lists for you, ask for the closed sales behind their figures. Our recommended agent for Beverly Hills estates lists his reported sales, each tied to its source.
Financing, insuring and taxing ultra-luxury homes
The running costs scale with price, and two of them break at fixed dollar caps that ultra-luxury homes blow straight past. This table shows a few of them at each tier.
| Price | Yearly property tax at 1.189084% (central Beverly Hills, FY 2026-27) | FIRPTA withholding if the seller is foreign (15%) | Share of dwelling the FAIR Plan can cover ($3M cap) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000,000 | $118,908 | $1,500,000 | Up to 30% |
| $20,000,000 | $237,817 | $3,000,000 | Up to 15% |
| $50,000,000 | $594,542 | $7,500,000 | Up to 6% |
The FAIR Plan column treats the price as the insured value, so read it as a rough guide.
Jumbo loans above $10 million
In Los Angeles County any mortgage above $1,249,125 (the 2026 conforming limit for a single home) is a jumbo loan. Lenders such as Bank of America say jumbo loans usually carry higher rates, stricter underwriting and larger down payments. For scale, Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed average was 7.24% on October 29, 2026; at that rate, $8 million borrowed costs about $577,000 in first-year interest. That survey covers conforming loans, so get jumbo quotes and run them in the jumbo mortgage calculator. The jumbo loans guide covers the rest.
Insurance and fire zones at this price
The FAIR Plan writes residential policies only up to $3 million and covers named perils such as fire and smoke, so on a $20 million house it's a partial answer at best. County maps show Very High fire hazard zones at sample points in Trousdale, Holmby Hills, Bel Air, Beverly Crest and Beverly Park, while a point in the Beverly Hills flats isn't zoned. Get a written quote before you drop your contingencies, and read how insurance works for Beverly Hills estates. Confirm cover with a licensed insurance broker.
Property tax and foreign sellers
A purchase resets the assessed value to the price and can bring one or two supplemental bills on top of the annual one. Run your figure in the Beverly Hills property tax estimator. If the seller is a foreign person, the buyer generally withholds 15% of the gross price under FIRPTA; on a $20 million sale that's $3 million held at closing. The FIRPTA guide for foreign sellers explains the forms and the ways to reduce it. Check both with a CPA before you sign.
Where ultra-luxury homes sit in Beverly Hills and the Westside
Zillow's typical home value covers the middle third of each area, so it understates estate prices. It still ranks the areas well and shows where $10 million is ordinary and where it's the top.
| Area (Zillow boundary) | Typical home value, September 2026 | City |
|---|---|---|
| Beverly Hills Gateway | $11,549,534 | Beverly Hills |
| The Flats | $10,277,281 | Beverly Hills |
| Trousdale Estates | $7,906,445 | Beverly Hills |
| Hidden Hills (city) | $5,078,023 | Hidden Hills |
| Bel Air | $4,140,242 | Los Angeles |
| Beverly Crest | $2,759,470 | Los Angeles |
The Flats and Beverly Hills Gateway
These are the only two areas in our data where the typical home is worth more than $10 million, and both sit inside the City of Beverly Hills, outside ULA, and the county map shows no fire hazard zone at a sample point in the flats. If you want an ultra-luxury house with the lowest transfer tax and the simplest insurance, start in the Beverly Hills flats. The catch is lot size: the flats' floor-area rule ties the house to the lot. See how prices run across Beverly Hills homes as a whole, and where the city's estates sit in our Beverly Hills mansion guide.
Bel Air, Holmby Hills and Beverly Park
These carry many of the $50 million-plus sales but lower typical values, because they mix estates with ordinary hillside houses. Zillow has no series for Holmby Hills or Beverly Park. All three are in the City of LA, so ULA applies at every tier above $5.4 million. Compare Bel Air estates, Holmby Hills and Beverly Park before you set a budget.
Ultra-luxury homes FAQs
What is considered an ultra-luxury home?
Most published reports start ultra-luxury at $10 million. Compass counts every sale at $10 million or more, and Elliman's top-10% tier for Greater Los Angeles single-family homes started at $9,490,000 in Q4 2025. Redfin's luxury label, the top 5% of a metro, sits far lower.
How many $10 million homes sell in Los Angeles?
Compass reported that Greater Los Angeles $10 million-plus sales rose 53.7% in 2025, with dollar volume up 61%, but its press release didn't give the local count. Elliman's luxury tier, which starts near $9.5 million, had 66 single-family sales in Greater Los Angeles in Q4 2025.
Do ultra-luxury homes in Beverly Hills pay the mansion tax?
Not if the home is inside the City of Beverly Hills. Measure ULA is a City of Los Angeles tax, so it applies in Bel Air, Holmby Hills, Beverly Crest and Beverly Park, even where the mailing address says Beverly Hills 90210. A Beverly Hills sale still pays the county's documentary transfer tax; ask escrow whether any city amount applies. Confirm the parcel's city before you price.
How much is the mansion tax on a $20 million home in Los Angeles?
For a City of Los Angeles sale closing after June 30, 2026, ULA is 5.5% of $20 million, or $1.1 million. The city's 0.45% base tax adds $90,000 and the county's tax adds $22,000, for about $1,212,000 in total. The same sale inside the City of Beverly Hills pays no ULA. Check your own figure with a CPA.
What is the most expensive home sold in Los Angeles?
Inside the City of Los Angeles, the record is Chartwell in Bel Air at about $150 million, reported by Los Angeles Magazine in December 2019. The Warner Estate in Beverly Hills sold for $165 million in 2020, which CNBC called the highest Los Angeles-area price. The California record is a $210 million Malibu sale in 2024, reported by FOX 11.
Are ultra-luxury homes sold off-market?
Many are. Miller Samuel found about one-third of Greater LA sales over $5 million in Q1 2017 weren't on the MLS, and several recent top sales were reported as off-market, including a $210 million Malibu sale in 2024. Since 2025, NAR rules also allow office exclusive listings, which are filed with the MLS but hidden from other members.
How long do ultra-luxury homes take to sell in Los Angeles?
In Elliman's Greater Los Angeles luxury tier, the top 10% of single-family sales, homes spent 86 days on market in Q4 2025, up 53.6% from 56 days a year earlier. The largest estates can take years: Casa Encantada first asked $225 million in 2019 and sold at a foreclosure auction for $130 million in July 2026.
Sources
- Compass: 2025 Ultra-Luxury Report press release (29 Jan 2026)
- Douglas Elliman / Miller Samuel: Elliman Report Q4-2025 Greater Los Angeles
- Redfin: luxury report press release (7 Jul 2026)
- Zillow Research: Zillow Home Value Index data (September 2026)
- City of Los Angeles Office of Finance: Real Property Transfer Tax and Measure ULA FAQ
- Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk: Documentary Transfer Taxes
- Burke, Williams & Sorensen: Measure ULA upheld (15 Jun 2026)
- U.S. Census Bureau: 2020 ZCTA5 to Place relationship file
- U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder: North Beverly Park entrance
- UCLA Lewis Center: Los Angeles's mansion tax has raised less money than expected (14 May 2025)
- Redfin: 10 Most Expensive Home Sales of 2025
- Redfin: Most expensive home sales of July 2026
- Casino.org: Wynn's Beverly Hills mansion sale (27 Jul 2026)
- Century City News: Will Arnett sells Beverly Hills home (16 Mar 2025)
- TMZ: David Spade sells Beverly Hills home (10 Feb 2022)
- Beverly Hills Municipal Code Art. 26, Trousdale Estates (gocodebook copy)
- CNBC: Bezos buys Warner Estate for $165 million (13 Feb 2020)
- Los Angeles Magazine: Lachlan Murdoch's record purchase (12 Dec 2019)
- Los Angeles Times via DNyuz: Peter Thiel buys Casa Encantada (30 Sep 2026)
- InsideHook: 'Billionaire' sells at 62% discount (28 Oct 2019)
- Inman: Beverly Hills spec mansion sells for $30.1M (28 Feb 2024)
- ABC7 Los Angeles: The One sells at auction (8 Mar 2022)
- Miller Samuel: Pocket listings in Los Angeles sales (27 Apr 2017)
- Robb Report via Yahoo: 10 most expensive US homes of 2024
- EntertainmentNow: former Bruce Willis home sells (16 Apr 2026)
- NAR: Multiple Listing Options for Sellers
- FHFA: Conforming Loan Limits 2026, full county list
- Bank of America: Jumbo Loans
- Freddie Mac: Primary Mortgage Market Survey
- California Department of Insurance: California FAIR Plan
- Los Angeles County GIS: Fire Hazard Severity Zones LRA layer
- Los Angeles County Auditor-Controller: Tax Rates by TRA
- California State Board of Equalization: Supplemental Assessment
- IRS: FIRPTA Withholding