La Jolla and Rancho Santa Fe continued to be the place for the most expensive home sales in San Diego County in 2017.

The most expensive house to sell in the county was a beach front property in La Jolla for $12 million.

Built in 1993, 6106 Camino de la Costa features panoramic ocean views and its own private sandpit on the water. Property records say it was purchased by Neil Smit, former CEO of Comcast.

Real estate agent Russ Clark said the home is on a peninsula lot that maximized views of the ocean.

“You had views of Point Loma and Mission Beach,” he said, “so at night you could see lights reflecting on the water.”

The top five home sales in 2017 equaled $54.5 million. That’s down from $79.9 million total for the top five the previous year.

One of the most expensive homes to sell last year, 16568 La Gracia in Rancho Santa Fe, sold twice. Real estate agent Megan Luce said her clients bought the property in April but realized they weren’t there as much as their other properties so they decided to sell.

“I couldn’t believe they were selling so soon,” she said. “But, the property is breathtaking and I was excited to go into it again.”

Luce did not want to give the buyers’ names, and it is unclear from property records who they were. The home was purchased by Florida-based limited liability company, Covenant RJC, in April for $10.6 million. It was then sold to the Greenfield Trust out of Washington state for $10.85 million in December.

Another home in Rancho Santa Fe made the top five most expensive sales. In June, 6883 Alydar Corte sold for $11 million. The 12,500-square-foot property was on the market for 258 days, the longest of any of the sales.

Another La Jolla home also made the list, 8470 El Paseo Grande, which sold for $10.1 million. It featured a private courtyard, guest house and ocean views throughout.

Rounding out the list was 106 13th St. in Del Mar that sold for $10 million. The 2,300-square-foot remodeled cottage on the bluffs of Del Mar has three bathrooms and two bedrooms and was built in 1948.

The most expensive homes to sell in 2017 were much less than the top sales in 2016. The top seller in 2016, an ocean front home in Del Mar, went for $18 million.

Clark, the agent that sold 2017’s most expensive home, said the luxury market wasn’t slowing down, but just had a lack of inventory last year. Like some other agents, he believes affluent buyers will have more money to spend on real estate in the new year following tax changes recently approved in Congress — despite caps on property tax deductions.

“Their overall net income is going to go up dramatically under the new tax plan,” Clark said.

On the other end of the housing market, the cheapest home to sell in 2017 was a 924-square-foot house in Jacumba for $27,000. Built in 1945, it was in severe disrepair and the buyer was warned they would responsible for the removal of unusable property. One room on the property included old laundry, broken computers and abandoned Christmas decorations.

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