A 2.6-acre oceanfront compound in San Clemente's gated Cotton Point Estates sold for $33.875 million on Nov. 3, setting a new city record for a single-family home sale. The eye-catching twist: the sale price topped the property's previous sale price by just $6,520.
The home, a Mediterranean-style residence with 12,854 square feet of living space, sits on the same street as President Richard Nixon's former Western White House, according to the Orange County Register. The estate previously set San Clemente's sale record in September 2021, when retired shipping executive Christopher R. Redlich Jr. paid just over $33.868 million for it, per the same report.
Redlich listed the estate for $55 million in June 2024, a figure confirmed by an earlier Orange County Register report describing the property's flat bluff-top setting behind dual gates and about 455 feet of beachfront. The estate later sold for $33.875 million, below its original asking price.
Who Actually Bought the Estate Remains Unclear
County records list Marie Roys, identified as a trustee, as the grantee on the grant deed recorded with the Orange County Clerk-Recorder. The deed itself does not establish whether Roys is the actual buyer, the Register's reporting notes. Buyer's agent John Stanaland, who represented the purchaser alongside Logan Montgomery, said only that the buyer is local.
In Orange County's luxury market, buyers come from Los Angeles and other U.S. cities, while secondary-home shoppers make up a large portion of the buyer pool.
A Bluff-Top Setting Near a Future Olympic Surf Break
The roughly 450 feet of coastal frontage backs up to a stretch of coastline above the beachfront rail line. The property overlooks the Trestles surf break.
Designed by James Glover and completed in 2007, the compound includes a main residence and guest unit totaling seven bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, with a primary suite tucked into a separate wing. Main living areas open to gardens and terraces, while the grounds include wide lawns, secluded courtyards and tiered terraces, a wine cellar and prep kitchen, and a nine-car garage.
Redlich made about $11 million in upgrades, including a transformed kitchen.
How It Compares Across Orange County's Luxury Market
San Clemente's new record is modest next to recent deals elsewhere in the county. A Laguna Beach estate sold for nearly $82.6 million on Oct. 14, the second-most expensive home sale ever in Orange County, according to ocregister.com. That sale closed 26% below its $112 million asking price, still well short of the county's all-time record: a $110 million beachfront mansion in guard-gated Emerald Bay.
San Clemente's own luxury market has a shorter history of headline-grabbing sales. A 12,854-square-foot Cotton Point Estates property sold for about $34 million in 2021 and was reported at the time as the city's highest-price home transaction on record, according to ocbj.com. That earlier sale and the Redlich-era record appear to describe the same climb in valuation that has now culminated in this week's $33.875 million deal.
