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Billionaire buys most expensive home ever sold in Southern Nevada

Updated June 29, 2021 - 1:22 pm

Las Vegas’ housing market has left another record in the dust.

Billionaire Anthony Hsieh, founder of mortgage firm LoanDepot, bought a newly built mansion in the Henderson foothills for $25 million, the most expensive home purchase ever recorded in Southern Nevada.

The sale, by luxury homebuilder Blue Heron, closed Friday, property records indicate.

The three-story, 15,000-square-foot home – dubbed “Vegas Modern 001” – includes two infinity saltwater pools, a glass wine-storage wall, a sky lounge with panoramic views, a DJ booth, seven fire features, a 13.5-foot LED media wall, automatic pocket doors and an elevator, according to listing materials.

The house, according to Blue Heron, “is a design-lovers dream and Instagram paradise.”

Like numerous other homes in the valley in recent months, it also sold fast.

It put up for sale May 29 at $28 million and went under contract with the buyer June 5, its listing history on Zillow shows.

LoanDepot spokeswoman Rebecca Anderson confirmed to the Review-Journal that Hsieh, 56, bought the house, but she referred further comment about the deal to Blue Heron.

She also said that Hsieh is not related to the late tech mogul Tony Hsieh, who died in November at age 46 from injuries suffered in a house fire.

‘Experience center’

Southern Nevada has seen a drop in home sales lately, but overall, the market has moved rapidly over the past several months as cheap borrowing costs let buyers lock in lower monthly payments and stretch their budgets.

Amid the surge of demand, house hunters have showered properties with offers and routinely paid over the asking price, and builders have put buyers on waiting lists.

Luxury homes comprise a fraction of all sales in Southern Nevada, given their big asking prices, but mansions have moved from one owner to the next at an accelerated pace lately as well.

All told, 759 homes have sold for at least $1 million this year, nearly matching the entire 2020 total of 766 sales and well above the 531 sales booked in 2019, according to trade association Las Vegas Realtors, which pulls data from its resale-heavy listing service.

Blue Heron founder Tyler Jones said Monday that the $25 million house was built “as an experience center” to show the firm’s capabilities and design philosophy to prospective clients, and that it features an on-site sales office.

He also confirmed that Hsieh leased the house back to Blue Heron, allowing the firm to keep using it as a “show” home.

Hsieh’s purchase price shot past Southern Nevada’s previous record of $17.55 million, set in 2016 by David Copperfield.

The famed magician bought a four-story, steel-and-concrete Summerlin mansion that came with a gym, a nightclub, a golf simulation room, two commercial elevators, a movie theater and two guest homes.

All-time highs

Las Vegas’ housing market has broken multiple other records lately.

As reported by LVR, the median sales price of previously owned single-family homes has been setting records practically every month. The median sale price of newly built single-family homes in Southern Nevada reached an all-time high in May, surpassing the previous record, set in April, according to Home Builders Research.

Moreover, a nearly 13,000-square-foot penthouse in The Martin high-rise near the Strip traded for $16.25 million, the most expensive condo sale in Nevada history, the unit’s listing brokerage announced in early June.

Blue Heron said this month that “VM001,” at 685 Dragon Peak Drive, in the wealthy MacDonald Highlands community, was the most expensive new-construction listing ever in Las Vegas.

It announced the record-high sale Monday.

Listing agent Kristen Routh-Silberman, of Synergy Sotheby’s International Realty, said the house had more than 10 qualified showings “within the first week.”

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.

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