Hey, Bill and Hillary You Coulda Been a ... Hot Property

Consider two visions of a post-presidential life for Bill and Hillary Clinton:

In New York, the Clintons can look forward to autumn in Central Park, ice skating at Rockefeller Center, a shot at the U.S. Senate.

And a spacious five-bedroom house on more than an acre in an upper-crust community for $1.7 million.

In Los Angeles, they could have enjoyed sunsets over the Pacific, star-studded Hollywood parties, distance from Kenneth Starr.

And a tear down on a cramped lot with no view or pool for the same price.

Just what would a house-hunting First Family have found had Bill and Hillary moved to Southern California instead of to Westchester County, N.Y.?

“They’d be really depressed if they came out here,” said David Offer, an agent with Prudential-John Aaroe & Associates in Brentwood.

“To get half an acre and a nice 5,000-square-foot house, they’d have to spend a minimum of $4 million. So it’s a good thing they bought where they did.”

Offer and other Westside Los Angeles agents scoffed at the chances of duplicating the price, size, amenities and privacy of the Clintons’ New York home in Southern California’s most prestigious communities.

Certainly, they got a lot of house for the money.

For $1.7 million, the Clintons snagged a five-bedroom 5,232-square-foot Dutch Colonial nestled in evergreens in Chappaqua, N.Y., a ritzy suburb of Manhattan from which Hillary Clinton presumably can launch her bid to represent New York in the U.S. Senate.

But wait, there’s more.

The 1899 house sits on 1.1 lushly landscaped acres at the end of a cul-de-sac. And it has a white-shingled exterior, a swimming pool, two fireplaces and a large porch with a row of white columns.

“Oh stop. . . . Don’t do this to me!” said Fred Sands Realtor Penny Negrin when asked how much the Clintons could have expected to pay for a comparable home in the Pacific Palisades. “It would easily run them between $5 million and $7 million.”

According to Negrin, in a suitably ex-presidential location like the Palisades’ Riviera neighborhood, $1.7 million would only land the Clintons a small tear-down.

“They could of course go out to the [San Fernando] Valley and get a bigger house for a much better value,” Negrin gently said. “But in the Palisades, it’s just so expensive.”

*

Speculation was rampant last summer that after they left the White House, the Clintons would settle in Pacific Palisades, a seaside community just north of Santa Monica, to be near their Hollywood pals.

One rumor even had actor Tom Hanks and director Steven Spielberg buying a multimillion-dollar tear-down for the first couple, similar to how friends of Ronald and Nancy Reagan purchased a house for them to live in after they left office.

The Reagan home, a 6,500-square-foot number on 1.2 acres in Bel-Air, was valued at $2.5 million back in the mid-1980s. The Reagans’ friends not only purchased the home, which was then leased back to the first couple, they also refurbished it to the Reagans’ taste before they moved in.

The Clintons also got a little help from a friend. Clinton’s chief fund-raiser, Terry McAuliffe, put up $1.35 million as a guarantee for the couple’s mortgage.

The Clintons themselves contributed about $350,000 for a down payment of just over 20%.

But even with $1.7 million to spend, Realtors would have nothing to show them in prime Bel-Air or Beverly Hills. And forget about Holmby Hills.

In the famous 90210 ZIP Code, that kind of money would buy the first couple a tear-down in a less-desirable part of Beverly Hills, according to Joe Babajian, chairman of Fred Sands Estates.

“It’s kind of sick what you can’t buy for $1.7 million over here,” said Babajian, whose specialty is the “Platinum Triangle,” the term agents use to refer to Beverly Hills, Bel-Air and Holmby Hills.

“I have clients saying they’ll spend $2 million for a nice little house, and I have a difficult time finding them something.”

So let’s keep looking, Mr. President.

Santa Monica north of Montana Avenue is very nice, but realty agents agreed that the area is a bit too densely populated for a former first family’s comfort.

They could have bought a house of about 3,000 to 3,500 square feet for their money there, possibly with a pool, but at one-fifth of an acre the lots are small and don’t offer presidential-caliber privacy.

Westside agents said the Clintons would probably be comfortable in Brentwood Park, where lots are bigger and more private than in Santa Monica--if they could afford it.

“I can find you an acre for three [million] but it won’t be the best,” said Randy Forbes Jr., also of Prudential-John Aaroe’s Brentwood office.

Almost nothing in Brentwood Park--northwest of the intersection of San Vicente Boulevard and Cliffwood Avenue--goes for less than $2 million, Forbes said.

And of course in Brentwood there’s the unpleasant possibility of running into the Lewinskys at the local market; perhaps Brentwood’s not such a great idea after all.

Now, if the house-hunters decided to head east to Pasadena or San Marino, their money would go further.

Most of the really large Pasadena estates were subdivided into smaller parcels long ago. But the first family could perhaps have found a 1920s Spanish Revival home on about three-quarters of an acre with four or five bedrooms in about 4500 to 5,000 square feet, said Coldwell Banker agent Boyd Smith.

“For $1.7 million, you will definitely have a swimming pool. You might have a guest house depending on the size of the property,” Smith said.

“If [Hillary Clinton had] come here a year earlier, she could have run for mayor of Pasadena,” Smith speculated. “And with that, she could ride in the Rose Parade.”

Meanwhile, in mansion-studded San Marino, a house built in 1933 was recently listed at $1.73 million and featured four bedrooms and bathrooms, a library with wet bar and fireplaces in about 4,000 square feet, but no pool or view.

But the Clintons could get even more for their money in the San Fernando Valley.

If the Secret Service had a say, they’d probably pick Hidden Hills, a 600-home gated community in the West Valley that is one of the wealthiest cities in the state.

Homes sit on spacious lots in Hidden Hills, so it’s not unusual for residents to have horses, instilling the community with a country feel.

“For $1.7 million they could get five bedrooms, five bathrooms, 5,500 square feet and a pool on over an acre,” said Jeri LaMarca, an agent at Coldwell Banker’s Woodland Hills office. “And it’s close to the freeway.”

But what if they wanted to be close to the ocean, say somewhere down in the South Bay? Once again, the Clintons would have encountered sticker shock.

*

Larry Arman, broker and owner of Re/Max Rolling Hills Realty, said he recently sold a one-story 3,000-square-foot home in Palos Verdes Estates for $1.5 million.

“It sat on a half-acre but needed some major work,” Arman said. “It would cost another $700,000 to $800,000 just to bring it up to speed.”

An alternative might be Rolling Hills. While homes in the $1.7-million range in a Rolling Hills neighborhood may look good on paper, Arman balked when asked if they would be suitable for a former first family to call home.

“Absolutely not . . . no way,” he said. “The Secret Service . . . it may be good for one of them but not a presidential family.”

If not the Palos Verdes Peninsula, then how about life in an ocean-view Orange County enclave?

If the Clintons had decided to nest in Newport Beach and wanted to be close to the water, on their budget they’d certainly have to sacrifice acreage, said agent Rob Geim of Coast Newport Properties in Newport Beach. For Buddy the first Labrador, frolicking in the yard would be history.

In fact, a three-bedroom house on Lido Isle on a 40-foot lot with neither yard nor view recently went into escrow at just under $1.7 million.

To get a parcel almost as big as the one in Westchester County, the Clintons would have had to spend $5 million to $7 million to build a home at Newport Coast, the Irvine Co.’s newest coastal development.

So, in which of the nicest neighborhoods--Newport Beach, Corona del Mar, Big Canyon, Newport Coast--might the Clintons feel most comfortable?

“Orange County might be a stretch to begin with,” Geim said. “I don’t think I can answer that.”