Merv Griffin's old desert compound is for sale again, and the number attached to it has been walking backward. The 40-acre La Quinta estate, horses and a manmade lake included, is listed at $23.9 million.
The property had an earlier seven-month run at $29.95 million beginning in February 2025; it resurfaced Nov. 5, 2026, the Orange County Register reported. Zach Goldsmith and Mauricio Umansky of The Agency share the listing. The Real Deal places the property at 81345 Avenue 54.
The Ask That Wouldn't Stick
Robb Report says the estate was offered in spring 2024 for $36 million. Then came $29.95 million. Now $23.9 million. A little more than $12 million has come off the first ask, and the compound is listed again.
The last sale on the record is older, and much smaller. Newport Beach real estate investor Mark Majerovic bought the property in 2013 for $7 million, Robb Report reported. The current ask is more than three times that figure, and still a steep step down from 2024.
Horses, a Lake, and a $15,000 Night
The Register describes a 10,685-square-foot estate: seven structures, 13 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms in all. Its centerpiece is a 5,409-square-foot Moroccan-themed main house completed in 1986. Griffin hired designer Waldo Fernandez to build that house and six ancillary structures, Robb Report reported. The property is walled and gated.
The grounds are the real acreage. The Register lists a 2.5-acre artificial lake, an orchard, a thoroughbred racing track and a 16-stall barn. An infinity pool looks over the lake, and the property also includes a citrus orchard, four small guest houses and a six-stall garage, The Real Deal reported.
The house sits roughly 1.5 miles south of Empire Polo Club and across the street from Madison Club. Empire Polo Club hosts Coachella and Stagecoach, so the festival traffic is not theoretical. The Register says the estate has hosted Coachella after-parties, weddings and corporate events, and was offered as a venue for $15,000 a night. The Real Deal names Katy Perry, Jack Harlow and Post Malone among guests at parties there.
The venue math is less glamorous than the guest list. At that $15,000 nightly rate, $23.9 million is about 1,590 booked nights. Festival weekends do not arrive that often.
The Last 40 Acres
Griffin, who created Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, subdivided 200 acres in 2005 and kept the original home on the remaining 40, The Real Deal reported. The party house and the horse track were the piece he held onto.
Seventy-Eight Lots, on Paper
A city file already sketches a different future for land tied to the estate. La Quinta's planning page for Estates at Griffin Lake lists the status as Tentative Tract Map and Site Development Permit Approved. It describes 78 single-family lots on about 30 acres, incorporating the existing Merv Griffin Estates.
Callers reaching Goldsmith and Umansky are shopping the equestrian compound at $23.9 million, not a stack of recorded lots. The permit is a status line. The market, so far, has answered with two higher asks and a third, smaller number.
