Dodgers owner sells Brookline estate, but after more than $6 million price drop
If you thought the real estate tumble bruised your home’s resale value, it can’t quite compare to the hurting Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt took on his Brookline estate.
The developer and construction tycoon first listed the 18,000 square foot three-story, eight-bedroom, seven-bathroom Brookline mansion for $22 million. The house sits on nearly three acres surrounded by multimillion-dollar homes, but most $10 million or more below the most recent asking price of $15.75 million.
It will be a while before the actual selling price is made official, but listing broker on Thursday acknowledged a sale is pending.
“It is a truly great house in superb condition,” Saul Cohen of Hammond Realty in Chestnut Hill said of the Cottage Street estate built in the 1920s Georgian Revival Colonial.
While the house started off being in the running for the most expensive single-family home to be sold in the Boston area, it quickly fell out of contention. Another Brookline home is currently listed for $19.5 million. Its 15,860 square feet holds nine bedrooms, 11.5 baths, sitting on 4.7 acres.
Peter Casey, former president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, said there are many high-priced luxury homes in the greater Boston area including Weston, Needham, Dover, Westwood, Brookline and Newton.
“Several of them are within shouting distance of downtown Boston,” said Casey. “There are some pretty good sized homes in Massachusetts – tucked very neatly in private spaces.”
Because so few people can afford such luxury, the market is less predictable than the broader market. The sale prices end up being more a matter of negotiating than market forces.
“It’s very hard to find what the fair-market value is,” said Casey. ” A lot of it depends on the people who are negotiating and what their goals are.”
Two years ago, a mansion in Westwood sold for $22 million and within the last five to six years, quite a few 15,000 to 20,000 square-foot homes have been built featuring luxury space for athletics and multi-car garages.
“Generally speaking, they are the true meaning of estates,” said Casey, who owns Prudential Wilmot Whitney Real Estate in Weston, a luxury home broker.
McCourt’s Brookline estate was renovated and expanded in 1997, and features a gated driveway, a heated stone courtyard, a service entrance, a carriage house-wing with housekeeper’s quarters, formal public rooms, a chef’s kitchen, pool/spa area, playroom, media room and staff quarters.
