The top of the U.S. housing market kept setting eye-popping numbers this summer. A famed Bel Air estate in Los Angeles known as Casa Encantada sold for $130 million in July, making it the most expensive U.S. home sale of the month and the second-priciest of 2026 so far, according to a Redfin analysis published this week.
Every one of the month’s 10 most expensive sales closed for at least $40 million β a reminder that the ultra-luxury tier continues to transact briskly even as the broader market cools under the weight of high mortgage rates. Cash dominates at these price points, insulating the segment from the financing costs that have sidelined many ordinary buyers β a divide visible in data showing 8% of U.S. homes are now worth $1 million or more.
California leads the way
Southern California claimed the top four spots. Casa Encantada, at 10644 Bellagio Road, led the list at $130 million. It was followed by a beachfront Malibu mansion at $55 million, an architectural home in Corona del Mar at $48.5 million, and a Beverly Hills compound at $47.8 million.
Two Manhattan townhouses ranked next, at $47 million and $45 million, followed by three oceanfront Florida estates and a sprawling Arizona compound. The Arizona property, in Paradise Valley, sold for $40.2 million and, complete with an indoor go-kart track, became the priciest home sale in that state’s history.
July’s 10 most expensive sales
According to Redfin, the month’s priciest closings were: Casa Encantada in Los Angeles ($130 million); a Malibu oceanfront home ($55 million); a Corona del Mar home ($48.5 million); a Beverly Hills compound ($47.8 million); a Manhattan townhouse on West 57th Street ($47 million); a second Manhattan townhouse on West 69th Street ($45 million); a Hillsboro Beach, Florida, estate ($42 million); the Paradise Valley, Arizona, compound ($40.2 million); a Naples, Florida, estate ($40.2 million); and a Miami Beach home ($40 million).
A record year at the very top
The $130 million sale trails only a $170 million deal in Indian Creek, Florida, in March for the title of most expensive U.S. home sale of 2026. Florida has featured heavily on the year’s leaderboard, with multiple ultra-luxury sales in Palm Beach County towns such as Manalapan, alongside marquee deals in Los Angeles, Montecito and Manhattan; Florida’s high-end markets have been among the year’s most active.
The concentration of top sales in coastal California and South Florida reflects where the world’s wealthiest buyers continue to park capital β trophy properties in supply-constrained enclaves that rarely change hands.
What it means: The ultra-luxury market operates on a different logic than the rest of housing. Buyers at the $40 million-and-up level are largely rate-insensitive, paying cash and treating trophy homes as stores of wealth, so this tier can stay active even as affordability constraints freeze activity below it. The persistence of nine-figure sales points to continued strength among the very wealthiest buyers, and the geographic clustering underscores how a handful of markets β Los Angeles, Manhattan and South Florida chief among them β dominate the top of the U.S. residential market.
