David Lynch LA House
wallpaper.comJennifer Lynch is very active on Reddit and explained why it’s selling for anyone interested. [0]
[0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/davidlynch/comments/1nhb6q9/comment...
Hopefully something like the Getty can scrounge up $15m from the couch cushions. Would be a nice museum of some sort.
Thanks it was a nice read.
Great read, thank you!
Zillow listing: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7017-Senalda-Rd-Los-Angel...
Love this compound and all the hiking paths up around in the surrounding hills. Truly an peaceful property to immerse yourself in work and entertaining! Property taxes are gonna spike for the new buyer though due to prop 13 so make sure to factor that into your offer vs the $15k a year in the listing...
Hopefully whoever buys this gem doesn't tear it down to build some modern boxy McMansion.
> Truly a peaceful property
What you don’t realize if you’ve never spent time around those ridiculous properties is the amount of upkeep everything takes if you don’t want the indoors to become gross and dusty and the outdoors a wild jungle.
When you have that kind of surface area, you’re not taking care of all the cleaning and maintenance yourself in a few hours once a week. There are countless gardeners/cleaners/repair workers/etc on the property. Nothing peaceful about it.
And you have to also be okay with the labor dynamics of employing such an army of personnel which in LA is… interesting.
Does it not come with an army of weirdly mundane hopeful monsters who will reveal themselves to you one by one if you buy it?
The lady in the radiator is anything but mundane. :)
I have 2000sqm of land and I feel like 1. the CEO of garden operations, 2. a sitting duck in terms of money and invoicing.
> Too much land to manually manicure a lawn on top of > too little land for john deere to be of any practical help I feel you.
That's why you have multiple properties and household manager.
Most of the maintenance is done when the owners is not in residence”.
If you're dropping $15m you aren't worried about property taxes regardless of how much they do or do not increase.
It's probably just a general comment for folks who don't understand CA property taxes. I've lived here my whole home-buying life, so it never crosses my mind to look at the Zillow property tax figure when doing my mental maths on whether I can afford something, but if you lived in an area where the figure in Zillow actually means something to the buyer, you might be in for a surprise in CA.
Here, it's just an easy 1%, so the math isn't hard. I'm not sure if other states have highly variable rates on a county-by-county basis, or if other states also tend to have consistent rates within their borders.
In Illinois, how property is valued and taxed seems pretty obscure, and may involve witchcraft.
The rate on my tax bill is 6.03%. But that's on a "net taxable value" that's about 40% of what I paid for the place 15 years ago, and maybe 25% of what I could get for the place now. So the rate is effectively 2.5% of what I paid, or 1.4% of what I could get. The total tax has also gone up 26% since 2020, increasing by more each year, but I don't know whether they've raised the rate each year or the valuation.
It's probably possible to find out how it works, but there's not much point. It is what it is, so you pay it or leave. No one lives in Illinois for the tax rates.
Property tax would be roughly $200k/yr, forever. That’s a nontrivial expense for anyone below billionaire levels.
Ah yes, the ZIRP induces decompression of assets prices - hopefully for people buying into the extreme ongoing expenses, we will see serious inflation over the next years.
If there is not inflation and value compressions kicks in, then there are some people who will be ... burdened.
Looking at the full set of photos in the Zillow link that esalman posted, sorry, but that kitchen has gotta go.
Incredible kitchen! With the narrow tall doors, brass knobs, and nice touch with the all-pistachio countertops.
Unless you’re also a chain smoker everything inside that house probably needs to go
Maybe a David Lynch mega-fan who has $ 15 million to spare will buy it and convert at least part of it into a (nicotine-heavy) museum? But the neighbors would probably object, as they always do when tourists dare to stray into hallowed Hollywood Hills...
Interestingly, this article made me learn that Frank Lloyd Wright had a son who also was an architect, and that son also had a son that became an architect.
I dunno, I just find that a little bit cool and interesting.
I was lucky enough to stay in a beach house designed by either the son or grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright. So many amazing architectural details including natural cooling towers. I was young then and didn't really get to appreciate it the house since I was spending my time on the water. But I did take photos and see something interesting every time it rotates through my iPhoto library.
I guess I really don't understand LA house pricing. I see shacks listed for a million, or is that only SF?
This is 2.3 acres with 3 homes on it and its 15 million.
Although looks like it needs some work.
LA is huge and just like SF has neighborhoods so does LA except sprawled over way more acreage. LA is slightly cheaper than SF because it’s so large geographically - in SF you can drive across the city in 30 minutes. LA is several hours across.
Its pretty easy to understand actually, and all of metropolitan California is the same way- A normal, dual income, middle class working family has an income of ~$250K-$500K (Doctor + teacher, Lawyer and a Doctor, Business exec and Accountant, etc) and they're going to spend upwards of ~40% of their income on their house. thats going to have them spending $6K-$11K. Now they can handle a $1M home no problem. 3 bed 2 bath shitbox from the 70s sure thing... Anything to live in California. Same house in Kansas City is $300K but whatever. However, for them to go after a $2.5M+ property you need real money, a $5M house even more... you aren't working a normal person job to spend the estimated lifetime earnings of most Americans on a house... it just aint happening. So anything after ~$5M is a VASTLY better deal then the rat race housing.
All of these dynamics can be figured out pretty easy thanks to prop 13, Californias insane income taxes, and the job market... if you can figure out a way to buy a house, hold on to it for dear life, never move, and work your entire life to pay for it. The only thing more consistent than people in the northeast wanting to move to California are death and taxes, which coincidentally prop 13 covers. lol
Nitpick, but
> A normal, dual income, middle class working family
> (Doctor + teacher, Lawyer and a Doctor, Business exec and Accountant, etc)
That’s not the middle class.
That's the traditional middle class. "American Middle Class" is a clever political trick. It was created to remove "working class" from the vocabulary so that people could no longer identify as such.
If we use only lifestyle indicators, such as making enough money to save and retire comfortably, having enough money to go on vacations and to restaurants frequently, and being able to buy a house, the middle class is shrinking.
Lol. Doctors and lawyers are the very definition of middle class!
Middle class is people who trade labor for money, but who sometimes have a (full or partial) ownership stake in the business they work for. They are what marxists might call the "petit bourgeoisie".
> Doctors and lawyers are the very definition of middle class!
Doctors and lawyers are often middle class (petit bourgeois) but also can be part of the better paid, highly educated segment of the working class (proletarian intelligentsia). Economic class isn’t about job title or even really strictly income, though it correlates to both.
I think we agree.
The main point I was making is that doctors and lawyers (and tech workers!) are not members of some "upper" or "capitalist" (depending on which terms you prefer) class, irrespective of their income, because the value they collect is primarily a result of their labor.
The petit bourgeoisie and the haut bourgeoisie are both capitalist classes, though the petit bourgeoisie is a hybrid capitalist class (in the traditional formulation, dependent on ability to apply their own labor to their capital in order to live without liquidating capital [0]) rather than a pure capitalist classs like the haut bourgeiosie. And while the petit bourgeoisie is a “middle” class in the sense of being situated between the proletariat and the haut bourgeoisie, both bourgeois classes are “upper” classes in the sense that in capitalist society they together represent an elite minority of the population, most of which working class.
The sense in which they are a “middle class is quite distinct from the usual American sense of “middle class” which is usually an income-defined band centered around median income which is overwhelming part of the working class in the scheme in which the petit bourgeoisie are the “middle class”.
[0] But I think most people who use the scheme now would recognize more diversity, including the form probably most common to modern white-collar professionals, where rather than applying their own labor to their own capital, a lot of the petit bourgeiosie both rents labor out to other capitalists in the manner typical of the proletariat and has capital to which rented labor is applied in the manner of the haut bourgeoisie, with both being significant to their interaction with the economy (distinguishing them from workers with incidental capital holdings or capitalists who incidentally have a “paid job” which they could take or leave without meaningfully impacting their lifestyle or overall engagement in the economy.)
Am I crazy or reading the wrong info or are you being hyperbolic when you say California has "insane" income taxes?
As an example, the effective rate when making $200k is 25% including federal taxes. That's great. You get to live in a productive and supportive society. The only issue I see is that housing is expensive and $150k, as much as it can support a comfortable lifestyle, would be insufficient to ALSO buy a home. But what we're talking about here is a separate issue from housing.
(your state taxes when making $100k would only be $2k, to preempt that retort)
The tone around "high taxes" are set by the uber-rich. Hilariously, most of them borrow against their shares to fund their lifestyles (where the interest is tax-deductible!) if they're even still resident in CA.
That being said, California is an ungovernable mess where state-constitutional amendments dictate a huge percentage of taxation and spending. It'd otherwise be a great place to live if real estate prices were somehow brought into line, but alas...
I feel like the Canadian style "just let it happen" approach to crime is a bit of a negative as well
Damn, only 25%? Luxury!
It certainly looks interesting. You would definitely be living in his style. Compelling as his films were, I'm not 100% convinced I'd want to live in his house that clearly has some very personal motifs.
Also you are never going to get the stale smoke out of there!
I worked on a house occupied by heavy smokers for a couple decades (then they died).
Nicotine yellow everything.
We pumped it full of ozone. That did a good job destinking. Then we painted everything with killz.
We also sterilized the basement with uv deathlights.
Nice to see a Festool miter saw in his shop, Lynch knew what he was doing.
There was an auction of a lot of his memorabilia a few months ago, it included a lot of Festool stuff. He was an avid woodworker (the sale also included furniture he made). I like how the work table where you can see the miter saw is made of the most utilitarian plywood, it feels like he was working until his last days
Anyone know anything about those fluted V-shaped panels everywhere? They look like very heavy cast iron.
My thought was: "Wow, he must've gotten a great deal on those, or else ordered far too many and was stuck finding places for them..."
The house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's son. Maybe he was influenced by the concrete blocks from the Millard House. https://www.architecturelab.net/millard-house-frank-lloyd-wr...
I don't but wanted to say that I love the continuity of them used in different spaces. The whole place really looks like a single vision put together and not a bunch of disparate rooms.
They remind me of the floor of the black lodge in Twin Peaks.
I'm guessing he liked it, visually.
And just maybe it symbolized something for him. Low maybe.
TFA says “The facade’s cement chevrons catch the sun” but I’m not sure about the ones inside.
Yeah the outdoor ones definitely look like cement. The indoor ones are probably too. Though they have a patina that makes them look like worn iron.
Lynch made those himself out of grey plaster. They didn't show much of Lynch's studio, but that's where he spent most of his time hanging out, making sculptures and paintings and building things. He was hands on guy who kept himself busy, compulsively so.
Maybe they would catch rainwater too - mosquito breading area
I wonder if and how the compound was affected by the recent fires at the hills. Because I heard he died of eventual complications of the fire to his lungs (he also was a chain smoker). But on these photos I see no damage at all. Good. Because you rarely see good modernist architecture, most owners just destroy it by stupidity. As seen on the website with other houses. Also the real estate industry is complicit.
I like the contrast between the kitchen and the home theatre, I guess he was not much of a chef haha
Definitely not much of a chef!
> When I get up, I have a cappuccino - that's breakfast. I don't have any food till lunch. I get into phases where I'll have the same thing every day. Lately I've been having feta cheese, olive oil and vinegar, tomatoes, and some tuna fish mixed together. Before that I was having tuna fish on lettuce and cottage cheese, but I got tired of that in about three months. I once had the same thing for lunch every day for seven years - a Bob's Big Boy chocolate shake and coffee at 2:30 every afternoon.
Even though I know nothing about him, this makes complete sense and isn't surprising at all. Also, this is the diet of someone who has no problems with gaining too much weight. Basically intermittent fasting through breakfast and low carb at lunch.
Also, I think a lot of us can relate to this:
>If left alone, my natural waking hours would probably be I 0 A.M. till 3 A.M
You may be right but it’s worth noting that many mid century kitchens - including my own - were less focused on hospitality in the kitchen and more on efficiency. In some cases this was because homes had hired help.
My MCM kitchen is large enough to host but the cooking area is like this galley. I love to cook. Having lived in a home with with a huge open kitchen, I vastly prefer this galley style. It really does save time. When you’re doing a few things at once, a large kitchen with a lot of space between stations is a liability.
I wonder if the price would be significantly different if it wasn't David Lynch's house.
Looking at other houses in the neighborhood, it's probably about 10-15% because it's the Lynch residence, and the rest of it is the extent of the land, the number of houses, and, of course, the place where it is.
By way of contrast, this is listed for 2.5x the money on the other side of the canyon:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1851-N-Stanley-Ave-Los-An...
Beyond stunning, worth its asking price imo.
Just goes to show - I think that looks ghastly.
Looks great for people who don't want to pick and design their own home, pick furniture, design their living spaces.
Maybe that's also because it has a view, while the Lynch compound doesn't really have a view of the city. It has some views, all right.. beautiful trees and nature, and some valley. It's tucked away. Some people like that.
I'll bet the seller makes a hell of a Caucasian!
(Although I guess it isn't really Jackie Treehorn's place, given that the listing says it was built in 2023.)
Jackie Treehorn’s place is the Sheats-Goldstein residence. Both the residence and the owner are worth going down the Wikipedia rabbit hole.
Goldstein appears to be quite an interesting "dude." He's exactly what people mean when they point out that Lynch, while well-off compared to most, was not particularly wealthy by Hollywood standards.
i lived about a half mile from this house in the same neighborhood -- it could be a lot more expensive if it had the view some properties around there have.
note that mulholland dr is just up the street from the house. this overlook is worth a visit: https://maps.app.goo.gl/muMirzaSJsEt9YnR7
Do you have generational wealth? Seems like a paradise out there..
One of the oddities of California is that you frequently see shabby, cheaply constructed houses of no significance selling for millions of dollars.
That is because some mid-century developer built it as middle-class housing. A middle-class family moved in and had kids. They continued to live there while property values soared. So the kids grew up in neighborhood where all the houses cost millions of dollars.
I used to know an elderly coupled who lived in one of the nicer parts of Malibu. Both were school teachers. They bought the house when Malibu was cheap because of the "horrible" commute along scenic Highway 1 and the lack of sewers in Malibu. Before the fires, their house was probably worth over $10 million (thanks, prop 13!).
When they passed, the kids couldn't afford to keep the house (even with the feudal property tax system in California, which allows inheritance of low property tax assessments like some kind of medieval title of nobility) because the kids were also just normal middle class people.
So, to answer your question: In some sense, yes, almost by definition, the family of person you're responding to does have generational wealth (in the form of the house). But in a different sense, no, because it's quite likely that they have nowhere near the amount liquid assets implied by the phrase "generational wealth".
Really appreciate the thoughtful response and made me see things in a different light. Cheers.
It's also (partly) a Frank Lloyd Wright house, that alone would justify a very high price
The WSJ recently ran an article about Johnny Carson's house that was for sale for $110m:
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/luxury-homes/johnny-carsons-...
The house and grounds are beautiful.
Scrolling down reveals a picture of it when Carson lived in it. Kind of a dump.
Take away ‘David Lynch’ and you’re left with a 1970s real estate listing nobody would click on …
To each their own I guess but I think this is a beautiful home. My home was built at the same time (1965) and seems to share a lot of characteristics to David’s home, although my house is much smaller.
You’d be surprised how hard it is find houses like this. Many of them have been gutted and rehabbed into “open” floor plans, with a lot of white paint and white barn doors.
This is unfortunate because house builders back then really knew how to create distinctive spaces.
This home has a lot of beautiful light, feels very airy and open, and yet feels very distinctive and characteristic.
Probably the biggest drawback and challenge will be, as other commenters have pointed out, that Lynch smoked packs a day and getting that out will be tough.
Otherwise there absolutely buyers who would love this home.
Would love to see a video walkthrough of the property (not that I have a spare $15m...)
So what about that non-spare $15m..? I mean it's Lynch's house. You never know there might a red room and all that somewhere hidden. Just saying.
Between preserving a 'compound' (presumably by a wealth private person) and converting it back to three properties and homes, I'd want to see the latter.
Actually didn't know Frank had an architect son.
Personally I prefer the Millard House which is similar and probably an inspiration. The Millard House is the archetype Minecraft House.
What a dreary sad anachronistic description.
I mean looking at the structures it's kind of warranted.
His houses lend themselves to being recreated in Minecraft.
Personally I have always liked his style and Falling Water was my favourite house when I was young.
its more that it just shows a vast ignorance of history and society to call it a 'Minecraft house.' It's like calling the Pyramids of Giza 'the Minecraft pyramids."
It belays a level of stupidity that is difficult to ignore. The reality is its an Incan Pyramid inspired home.
I'm sure that a lot of the people you're describing as "stupid" here would love to know about the true inspiration behind the building style. Maybe this is an opportunity to share information, rather than to lament the uncultured brutishness of the masses?
It’s in the comment. Really my guy?
My accountant told me of a newly minted Microsoft millionaire who decided to spend it all on a house. His advice was he would not be able to pay the taxes or upkeep on the house.
His client didn't listen, and in two years was forced to liquidate the house.
What you pay for a house is only the beginning of what you're going to pay.
It looks like he was smoking four cigarettes at once in there
it's raining....
It looks nothing like the ending of Blue Velvet.
They will have a difficult time finding a buyer for this extremely unique property. One really needs rare eclectic taste.
In my personal opinion, this house ugly AF