A Castle by the Sea After a decades-long renovation, a historic home in Laguna Beach hits the market

In 1973, Roger Jones convinced his landlord to sell him the guest house he lived in and the accompanying beachfront home for $420,000—a hefty sum for a 33-year-old electronic-parts salesman making $35,000 a year. “I was as scared as hell,” says Mr. Jones.

The gamble paid off. Added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1984, the 5,000-square-foot house named Villa Rockledge, perched on the edge of a rock hillside, appears to float above the private beach 50 feet below and offers ocean views from every room—even some bathrooms and closets. The main room of the house is vast, with 22-foot-tall cathedral ceilings supported by logs as big as telephone poles that have been treated with an unusual mixture of cement and buttermilk to create a grey sheen. Many of the details have been restored: Solid redwood doors are dotted with brass extrusions cast in rough star-shapes that look like barnacles. The kitchen walls are covered with original canary-yellow tiling, while modern appliances are discreetly hidden behind wood panels. A 5-foot-wide ship’s wheel hangs from one of the beams like a chandelier.

After spending decades restoring their Laguna Beach home, Roger Jones and his wife Sherrill have put the property on the market. Tour the home, which was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1984.

In May, Mr. Jones, now 69, decided to sell this home, which he’s painstakingly researched and slowly renovated over the past three decades, for $34.5 million. He says the upkeep and maintenance are too costly for his kids and adds that he and his wife are getting too old to live in a large home. “I’ve always had good luck just buying and selling [real estate] and rolling the dice,” he says, adding he’s hoping to invest the proceeds in a new film venture.

How lucky he’ll be this time remains to be seen. This week the listing agent, Susan Weir of Prudential California Realty, lowered the price of the home and its accompanying guest house to $29.9 million. “I do think it’ll eventually sell. I just don’t think its going to sell for $30 million,” says Sotheby’s International Realty agent Chris Guziak, who said that based on recent transactions in the area he thought the home would likely sell for “at least 25% less” than its current asking price.

Built by hand in 1918, the home was designed by Arthur Benton and built by Frank Miller. Considered a leading figure in promoting Mission-style architecture, Mr. Miller also developed the Mission Inn, a historic hotel in Riverside, Calif., where Nancy and Ronald Reagan honeymooned and Pat and Richard Nixon were married.

“I always felt like I was in a castle when I was there,” says Huell Howser, host of “California’s Gold,” a local PBS history and travel show and a former guest-house tenant. Rockledge “ranks up there as one of the most beautiful homes anywhere on the coast of California.”

One of the priciest homes for sale in Laguna Beach, the property sits in a lofty price category where its value can only be determined by the inclinations of the few deep-pocketed buyers who can afford it. Little question, though, that the home has a distinctive history, one that’s been burnished by a couple who were much devoted to it for many years.

When Mr. Jones and his wife, Sherill, bought the house, they found the previous owners had covered up bathroom windows that faced the ocean with storage cabinets and plastered exposed-beam ceilings in the bedrooms and sitting rooms with drywall to hide wiring and plumbing. The reddish brick exterior had been painted over with five layers of white paint.

Enamored of all things “oldy-woldy,” as Mr. Jones says, the couple began restoring the estate while tracking down the sons, grandsons, grandnieces and nephews of the original builders, Messrs. Benton and Miller. Mr. Miller’s niece gave them photos that offered clues about what elements of the house were original. The general contractor’s son—reached a few months before he died—recorded colorful stories about his role setting dynamite while hanging by a rope in order to level the site.

In the beginning, the couple was so strapped they remained in their apartment, renting the home and the other five units to make their mortgage, which they only obtained via seller financing. The work was arduous. In 1978, Mr. Jones began the search in England for 120 oak-framed leaded windows to replace the louvered windows a prior owner had put in. It took five years to get the woodworker, a helper and the windows flown to California for installation.

“It’s kind of nice to give something its own personality back,” says Ms. Jones. Mr. Jones penned “The History of Villa Rockledge,” published in 1991.
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To complement Villa Rockledge’s history, the Joneses have filled the home with antiques from around the world. Mr. Jones’ library is filled with 18th-century leather-bound volumes of Shakespeare and older history tomes. The living-room floor is covered by a 24-foot-long Persian rug, and an ornately carved china cabinet from England dominates the north wall. Mr. Jones carefully wiped the table when a water glass begins to sweat and drew vertical sunshades and heavy curtains to keep sunlight off the Persian rug.

“It’s been a labor of love,” he says. But, he says, “It’s time to move on and let somebody else enjoy it.”

When the house sells, Mr. Jones says he probably won’t stick around town for long. Retired from his day job, he sold his company of electronic-part sales representatives in 2005. But he continues to pursue his other vocation; Owner of four houses, he’s bought and sold 15 others over the last 40 years.

“Once you sell a property like this, it’s hard to be around it,” he says. He and his wife plan to spend more time in a woodsy lakeside retreat they’ve just completed in Washington state.

Write to Sara Lin at sara.lin@wsj.com

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An Avalanche of Price Cuts

By NANCY KEATES

The hard sell has hit high-end ski areas.

"ANOTHER PRICE REDUCTION!" shrieked a recent email to Aspen, Colo., real-estate agents in bold red 48-point font, advertising the fact that a large home in the exclusive community of Starwood was now asking $9.95 million, 38% less than its original $15.95 million asking price. "CONTRARY TO RUMORS, 101 STEIN IS NOT UNDER CONTRACT!" screamed another, in lime-green size 24 font, about a ski-in, ski-out townhouse now asking $4.8 million, down from $7.4 million. But the biggest shocker, says Aspen broker Pamala Steadman, was the email reporting the markdown of a mansion on Red Mountain—a prestigious area of a prestigious town—to $19.9 million from $28 million.
Prices Slashed on Ski-Resort Homes

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Mason & Morse Real Estate

An Aspen townhouse cut its price to $4.8 million from $7.4 million

Fall has long been considered a good time to hunt for good ski deals, from season passes to condominium rentals. But this year, the biggest discounting isn't just on lift tickets and goggles; it's on custom-built homes with views and slopeside condos with Jacuzzi tubs. "This is really unheard of," says Ms. Steadman. "Sellers are finally getting desperate."

Like the rest of the luxury real-estate market, elite ski areas initially held up better at the beginning of the housing downturn, seemingly immune from the rash of foreclosures sweeping across less-affluent communities. That was even more true at ski resorts, where land use restrictions limit inventory and buyers are often less reliant on credit. For a while, sellers just took their homes off the market.

But this summer the high-end finally hit a wall, because of the lack of financing for large "jumbo" mortgages as well as the fact that federal rescue measures only applied to lower-priced properties. According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of homes over $1 million fell 1.2% in September from a year earlier. The crunch was then exacerbated at ski resorts, where a number of projects begun before the housing bust have just been completed, says Rod Slifer, principal of Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate in Vail, Colo. "That's put extra pressure on prices," he says.

In Sun Valley, Idaho, a favorite spot for CEOs, a 12,000-square-foot home on 10 acres with a guest house and six-stall barn was reduced for the second time this month to $7.9 million, more than half off its original asking price of $17.9 million. Nearby, a newer six-bedroom home on 2.5 acres is at $6.5 million, down from $8.5 million. "Prices are much lower now," says Suzanne Williams, an agent in Ketchum, Idaho. According to the Sawtooth Board of Realtors MLS statistics, for September 2009 there were 14 home sales with a median price of $465,000 compared to 20 sales with a median price of $830,000 in September 2008.

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Carol Dopkin Real Estate

This estate asks $9.95 million.
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Prices also fell sharply this summer in Jackson Hole, Wyo., known for its steep slopes and rugged feel. According to the Teton Board of Realtors MLS, nine homes sold with a median price of $800,000 this past September, compared to 12 sales and a median price of $1.3 million in September 2008 and 19 sales and a median price of $1.04 million in 2007.

Park City, Utah, a popular destination with a mix of high and moderately priced homes, has shown some signs of stabilization. The number of homes sold as of August of this year was the same, 50, as it was by August 2008, an improvement over the winter. But pricey Upper Deer Valley is still struggling. "I'm willing to go another year," says Craig Mogel, a developer in Deer Valley who initially listed a home he built at $9.95 million in the fall of 2007 and reduced the price by $1 million a year later.

Nowhere is the fire sale hotter than in Aspen, where four homes were sold in September of 2009 with a total value of $24.2 million, down from 11 homes sold in September 2007 with a total value of $71.8 million, according to MLS statistics from the Aspen Board of Realtors. "There are unbelievable bargains now," says Carol Dopkin, of Carol Dopkin Real Estate.

Ms. Dopkin is representing the house in Starwood that's down to $9.95 million. It is a top-to-bottom eight-year renovation of a 9,900-square-foot, seven-bedroom home on six acres with a four-stall barn and a guest house. Owner Debi Roblin Cook, who lives in Hawaii, says the current price is less than the amount she and her recently deceased husband put into the redo. "There's been some interest, but it's like people almost want you to give it away," she says, declining to say whether she would further reduce the price if the home fails to sell. She says she did get an offer a few years ago for $16 million which she now regrets rejecting.

Some agents think the market will pick up in the winter, traditionally high season. Developer and real-estate agent Sallie Golden and her partner finished a 6,000-square-foot home on 910 W. North St. in Aspen's West End in September. When the property sat unsold at $10 million, she dropped the price to $6.8 million. She received three serious offers and finally closed on a deal last week.

Meanwhile, the emails directed to brokers (and their clients) keep on coming. In October a brand new, four-bedroom, four-bathroom condo in the heart of Aspen originally at $8 million fell to $5.5 million. "PRICE REDUCTION!" the 24-point font bellowed. "FURNISHED!"

Write to Nancy Keates at nancy.keates@wsj.com

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