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CA Home + Design – Who Wants a Neutra? – November 16, 2011

Who Wants a Neutra  L.A. Has Plenty for Sale   California Home   Design

 

Who Wants a Neutra? L.A. Has Plenty for Sale

After the happy ending for Neutra’s Kronish House in Beverly Hills, which was threatened with a teardown and is now (hopefully) on the road towards restoration, it seems the market is flooded with a few Neutras for sale. Neutra’s 1955 Staller House in Bel Air, owned by producer Gary Levinsohn remains on the market since the summer, despite a price reduction in October.

The four-bedroom, seven-bath home, with a remodel by Lorcan O’Herlihy, also features a 4,200 bottle refrigerated wine tasting room, office, pool, and Neutra’s signature walls of glass. After an initial listing price of $10.9 million, it’s now asking $8.5 million.

Even further west in the Palisades, Neutra’s Troxell House has just gone back on the market, after it was listed last October and even went into escrow in August of this year after a price reduction in March to $4.19 million. It looks like escrow fell through since the four-bedroom home owned by Japanese film director Kazuaki Kiriya was re-listed last week. New asking price: $3.95 million.

Yet as these luxury home linger on the market, a smaller Eastside duplex that just hit the MLS is already listing as pending and looking for backup offers. Silver Lake’s Koblick duplex, a 1,620 square foot home built in 1937 for an art professor near the Reservoir, consists of a two-bedroom, one bath upper unit currently renting for $1,890 per month (according toCurbed LA) and a one-bedroom, one-bath lower unit renting for $1,080 per month. Current asking price is $849,000.

 

And still on the market after three years (please somebody, buy this!) is Schindler’s How House in Silver Lake, with gardens that were also designed by Richard Neutra. Owned by serial mid-century home collector Michael Lafetra, the house hit the market in 2008 for a staggering $4.995 million. After multiple pricechops, the 1925 house has re-entered the atmosphere at $1.695 million. Still a premium for Silver Lake, but LaFetra did a pristine restoration on the house before putting it on the market. We’re guessing even with that asking price, LaFetra may be just breaking even on the property (and that’s not counting the years he’s been paying property taxes on the empty home). Here’s hoping it falls into good hands.