Recession Over! Laguna Beach Million-Dollar Home Sales Jumped in 2012

There was a huge jump in the number of million-dollar homes sold in 2012, according to numbers released this week by DataQuick, a company that primarily compiles real estate statistics.

The totals for California: 27,000 homes sold last year that were valued at least $1 million, a 27 percent increase over 2011, when 195 $1 million (and up) homes were purchased.

Laguna Beach ranked tenth overall in the number of big-ticket homes sold in the state. ZIP code 92651, which encompasses the entire city, saw 307 homes sold that went for at least $1 million.

The single most expensive Laguna Beach home sold last year went for $20 million, a six-bedroom, 10-bathroom behemoth at 3 Montage Way. Quite a cheap little shack, considering it was originally listed at $32.5 million, according to the Orange County Register.

Here's the ranking of richest ZIP codes in the state, based on the number of $1 million sales, followed by the number that were sold in 2012:

1. 94010 Hillsborough 422
2. 90266 Manhattan Beach 372
3. 94025 Menlo Park 370
4. 95070 Saratoga 364
5. 92660 Newport Beach 362
6. 92037 La Jolla 345
7. 90049 Brentwood 344
8. 90210 Beverly Hills 330
9. 94024 Los Altos 311
10. 92651 Laguna Beach 307
11. 90272 Pacific Palisades 303
12. 95014 Cupertino 297
13. 90274 Rolling Hills Estates 262
14. 92625 Corona Del Mar 256
15. 94022 Los Altos 255
16. 94539 Fremont 240
17. 92657 Newport Beach 228
18. 92130 Del Mar 225
19. 90265 Malibu 219
20. 94306 Palo Alto 218
21. 94941 Mill Valley 215
22. 94114 San Francisco 213
23. 95032 Los Gatos 213
24. 94062 Woodside 208
25. 90275 Rancho Palos Verdes 205