A newly built Newport Coast mansion that fetched $38 million last spring ended 2024 as the most expensive home sold in Orange County.

The Delaware LLC managed by Tony T. Huang, co-founder of the cannabis brand Stiizy, quietly purchased the home in guard-gated Crystal Cove as construction began. At the time, it was just starting to go up on a flat three-quarter-acre-plus lot with wraparound canyon and ocean views. That made it a rare find, according to co-listing agent Marcy Weinstein of MWA at Compass who sold it.

“There’s been a lot of sloping land, but people would rather have one big flat lot, and there’s just not that many of them,” she told the Southern California News Group when the property closed in May.

All told, five coastal homes sold for a combined $158.308 million. They include another new Crystal Cove estate, a front-row Montage Ocean Estate mansion, a bayfront Lido Isle compound on an “extremely rare” 3 1/2 lots and Ozzie and Harriet Nelson’s former home in Laguna Beach.

A recent Compass report analyzing 83 U.S. markets showed ultraluxury buyers kept the county’s real estate market of $10 million and up thriving. It recorded 107 homes sold and $1.58 billion in sales in the county last year, surpassing what Mike Johnson of Laguna Beach-based Mike Johnson Group at Compass called “a ho-hum 2023” by 32% in sales and 20% in total sales volume.

“For 2025, I expect the trend to continue as international and out of state buyers continue to search for a piece of the California coast,” Johnson was quoted in the report published Jan. 23.

Ultraluxury sellers are counting on it.

Huang listed his newly built Mediterranean-style mansion in July for $60 million, 58% more than he quietly purchased it for two months earlier. Current listing agent John Cain of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty set the price at $3,272 a square foot, telling the Southern California News Group at the time it listed that the price is on the lower end of the competitive range.

The sales history at Redfin shows the property went into escrow Dec. 19, but it fell out and returned to the market Jan. 23 for the same $60 million price tag, creating the potential for another record-breaking year .

Here are the county’s five most expensive homes sales of 2024:

$38 million: Newport Coast

House: Beyond the two-story foyer, this 18,336-square-foot home offers six bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and seamless indoor-outdoor living. A floating staircase connects all three floors, including the underground level where there’s a wet bar with a temperature-controlled wine wall, a gym with a sauna, a cold plunge and a steam shower, and a 10-car garage.

The house sits on three-quarters of an acre in the guard-gated community of Crystal Cove and is enhanced by an oversized swimming pool and spa.

Listed for: Off-market.

Sold by: Rex McKown and Marcy Weinstein of M|W|A at Compass listed the property, Michelle Linovitz of Coldwell Banker Realty represented the buyer.

$33.3 million: Newport Coast

House: This newly built 13,787-square-foot Italian villa-style home has seven bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and an isolated second-story bonus room above the kitchen with panoramic open space and ocean views. It includes a movie theater, caretaker suite and home office. An infinity pool rounds out the offerings on this two-thirds-acre-plus lot.

Records show a Florida-based LLC bought the property Dec. 20 at 7% below the asking price.

Listed for: $35.8 million

Sold by: Billy Chen of Land Co Development Inc. listed the property, while Baron Bershaw of Compass represented the buyer.

$31 million: Laguna Beach

House: Completed in 2013, this 8,140-square-foot oceanfront home has six bedrooms, nine bathrooms and custom features. Among these is a glass-topped atrium, a home theater with a nine-screen setup and glass walls that seamlessly disappear, connecting the interior to the outdoors with a PebbleTec infinity-edge pool, a Lynx barbecue, a wet bar and a Zen atrium with waterfall and natural rock features.

Every detail was thoughtfully curated, from the ocean-inspired mahogany ceilings in the living room to the backlit onyx countertops in the kitchen. “Admire the custom wood-set walls, the delicate abalone shell inlays” and glass walls that seamlessly merge with “the garden-like oasis,” the listing reads.

The house sits on a quarter-acre-plus lot within the Montage Ocean Estates, next to the Montage Resort and Spa where residents of the guard-gated community have access to the five-star resort’s “a la carte” amenities.

Records show North Carolina-based Jonathan Caine purchased the property on Jan. 25, paying 3% less than the asking price.

Listed for: $32 million

Sold by: Randy Ora of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties held the listing, and Melissa Bladow and Catherine Scully of Compass represented the buyer.

$30 million: Newport Beach

House: The contemporary waterfront estate on Lido Isle spans 8,868 square feet and features four bedrooms and six bathrooms. According to the listing, this 2018 build is “extremely rare for its parcel size” because it stretches across 31/2 lots, a configuration the city no longer permits, and has 105 feet of harbor frontage with “a rare” infinity-edge pool. At the water’s edge, a private dock accommodates 60, 40 and two 28-foot vessels with the option to reconfigure for a 100-foot yacht. A six-car garage rounds out the offerings.

Records show former St. John Knits executive Mike Gray sold the property on July 1 to Lloyd Smith, the owner and chairman of LDI Mechanical, a family-owned mechanical contracting company based in Corona. Smith paid 25% less than the most recent asking price of $39.75 million, which had been reduced 16% from the original asking price.

Listed for: $47.5 million

Sold by: Sean Stanfield and Ryan Tarr of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty handled both sides of the deal.

$25.975 million: Laguna Beach

House: This Mediterranean-style estate stands on the lot once home to a cottage previously owned by the real-life family behind “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.”

Completed in 1999, the Brion Jeannette-designed home features an 8,718-square-foot layout with five bedrooms, eight bathrooms and glass walls that provide unobstructed ocean views from nearly every room. The house backs up to a waterfall pool, hot tub and stream.

As reported by the Southern California News Group, previous owner Tony Ciabattoni bought the Nelson family home in 1997 for $1.85 million and razed it to make way for the existing structure. Although it had been on and off the market, records show the property sold through an LLC May 16 for 39% less than its highest asking price.

Listed for: $42.5 million

Sold by: Josh and Matt Altman of Douglas Elliman held the listing, and Ann Ngo of Coastal Investments represented the buyer.