Most of us can’t imagine spending $12 million on a house. Really large, really expensive homes just aren’t in our budgets. But more and more people in the Washington region are spending significant amounts on their residences, and, as a result, the market for luxury homes in this area has picked up.

Last year was robust for high-end real estate here. Twenty-nine homes sold for more than $5 million. That was an increase of more than 40 percent from 2012, when 17 sales topped $5 million or more. Just 10 years ago, that number was five.

With the help of MRIS, the Rockville-based multiple listing service, we looked at the most expensive homes sold last year in this area. It’s no surprise where most of them are located. McLean and Georgetown were well represented. McLean had the two most expensive homes in the region, while five Georgetown homes made the list. Maryland didn’t crack the top 10. Its top sale fell more than $500,000 short of making the overall list.

“People feel more confident in the value of real estate,” said Dana Landry, principal broker of Washington Fine Properties, whose firm represented eight homes on the top 10 list. “That’s the big shift. . . . Every time we sell another house, it builds confidence for the next person to buy a house. Buyers don’t want to be foolish. But if they feel that other people are doing it, then it builds confidence. I would say there’s an extreme confidence in the Washington, D.C., market.”

One property that would have made the list because of its price but was not included was the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s home on Chain Bridge Road in McLean, which sold for $9.5 million. Because the house was a tear-down and the price paid was more for the land than the home, we chose to leave it off the list.

“We had a wider audience in these price ranges this year than we have in the past, and that led to the successes that we all enjoyed,” said Eileen McGrath, who along with Jamie Peva sold two of the properties on the list. “We had a broader market to market to.”

McGrath is hopeful that the surge in buying in the high-end market will trickle down to the mid-range market.

“The upper brackets moved at a pretty swift pace,” she said. “That’s our hope for the spring market, that the next range down will start doing the same.”

 

624 Chain Bridge Rd., McLean

1. 624 Chain Bridge Rd., McLean
$12 million (original list price $15 million)
Bedrooms/bathrooms: six/10
Approximate square footage: 11,625
Lot size: 3.2 acres
Listing agent: Michael Anastasia, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty

Designed by Maryland architect Richard Foster and constructed by the Galileo Group from 2009 to 2011, the exterior of the home is a tribute to the Renaissance palaces built during the 15th and 16th centuries in the northern part of Spain. The 36-room house is filled with Iberian influences. Besides an elevator, sweeping views of the Potomac River, a home theater and a custom outdoor playground for kids, the home’s most unusual feature is a 30-foot concrete encased tunnel that leads from the lower level to the second lot. 

 

1288 Ballantrae Farm Dr., McLean

2. 1288 Ballantrae Farm Dr., McLean
$9.3 million (original list price $11.5 million)
Bedrooms/bathrooms: five/six
Approximate square footage: 8,000
Lot size: 6.5 acres
Listing agent: Mark McFadden, Washington Fine Properties

Built in 1925, this colonial revival stone house was the former home of Joe Robert, who died in 2011. The real estate investor and founder of Fight Night lived in the home for 20 years. In addition to the main house, there is a four-bedroom guesthouse and three-bedroom historic farmhouse on the estate. The grounds include a swimming pool, stacked stone tennis court, koi pond and stone patios.
 

3044 O St. NW

3. 3044 O St. NW
$8.6 million (original list price $9.25 million)
Bedrooms/bathrooms: nine/seven
Approximate square footage: 11,000
Lot size: 0.21 acres
Listing agents: William F.X. Moody, Robert Hryniewicki and Adam Rackliffe, Washington Fine Properties

Built in 1870, this Queen Anne-style mansion in Georgetown has been on the market only four times in its 143-year history. The four-level house has been called home by some of Washington’s most distinguished families, including Jacqueline Kennedy’s mother, Janet Lee Bouvier, who along with Hugh Auchincloss purchased the property during John F. Kennedy’s presidency. Armistead Peter, previous owner of Tudor Place and a descendant of Georgetown’s first mayor, Robert Peter, and his wife, Martha Custis Kennon, great-great-granddaughter of former first lady Martha Washington, were the home’s first owners. Laughlin Phillips, a former CIA officer and founder of Washingtonian magazine, lived there as well. The house has 12 fireplaces and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
 

2861 Woodland Dr. NW

4. 2861 Woodland Dr. NW
$7.95 million (original list price $7.95 million)
Bedrooms/bathrooms: seven/seven
Approximate square footage: 6,930
Lot size: 0.3 acre
Listing agents: Ellen Morrell, Matthew McCormick and Ben Roth, Washington Fine Properties

Located in the Massachusetts Avenue Heights neighborhood, this 1929 Georgian mansion is the former home of William McChesney Martin Jr. and his family. McChesney was the ninth and longest-serving chairman of the Federal Reserve, serving from 1951 to 1970. The distinguished residence has elegant entertaining rooms, 10-foot ceilings, intricate crown molding, an exercise gym and a temperature-controlled wine room. The private grounds include a flagstone terrace and stone retaining walls.
 

1405 34th St. NW

5. 1405 34th St. NW
$7.85 million (original list price $8.99 million)
Bedrooms/bathrooms: eight/eight
Approximate square footage: 11,000
Lot size: 0.3 acre
Listing agents: Eileen McGrath and Jamie Peva, Washington Fine Properties

Few private homes in this area have been featured in as many magazines and books as this Georgetown mansion. The Ambassador Bruce House, as it is most often known, is a two-bay, side-hall plan residence built circa 1815 by Clement and Walter Smith. The original house was later extended with telescoping 20th-century colonial revival additions. Ambassador David K.E. Bruce and his wife, Evangeline Bell Bruce, were its most famous owners. There are seven wood-burning fireplaces, a 34-foot ballroom, a guest house, a greenhouse and parking for multiple cars. The smokehouse is one of the oldest structures in Georgetown. The formal gardens were designed by Rose Greely in 1955.
 

1248 30th St. NW

6. 1248 30th St. NW
$7.6 million (original list price $8.99 million)
Bedrooms/bathrooms: five/eight
Approximate square footage: 8,000
Lot size: 0.3 acre
Listing agents: Eileen McGrath and Jamie Peva, Washington Fine Properties

One of the four boundary stones that marked the borders of Georgetown when it was formed in 1751 is in the back yard of this 1799 house. The former owners are like a Who’s Who of American history. John Laird, a wealthy tobacco warehouse owner, built the home. His son-in-law James Dunlop, a law partner of Francis Scott Key, was the chief justice of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia until Abraham Lincoln removed him for being a Southern sympathizer. Lincoln’s oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, bought the home in 1915. Helen Burgess, the granddaughter of J.P. Morgan and a descendant of Alexander Hamilton, moved there in 1936.
 

3249 N St. NW

7. 3249 N St. NW
$7.55 million
Bedrooms/bathrooms: six/six
Approximate square footage: 5,580
Lot size: 0.1 acre
Listing agent: Nancy Taylor Bubes, Washington Fine Properties

This federal style home in Georgetown has a double parlor, large formal dining room, paneled library, home theater, in-law suite and a master suite with a private balcony.
 

576 Innsbruck Ave., Great Falls

8. 576 Innsbruck Ave., Great Falls
$7.4 million (original list price $8.75 million)
Bedrooms/bathrooms: six/nine
Approximate square footage: 20,150
Lot size: five acres
Listing agent: Penny Yerks, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty

Architect David Cooper and Bowa Builders created the Cotswolds-inspired estate known as Alderley, a nod to Alderley Edge, the affluent village in Cheshire, England. Built in 2007, it later was recognized by the Fairfax County Exceptional Design Awards.
 

3053 P St. NW

9. 3053 P St. NW
$7 million (original list price $8 million)
Bedrooms/bathrooms: nine/nine
Approximate square footage: 10,000
Lot size: 0.2 acre
Listing agent: Mark McFadden, Washington Fine Properties

Built in 1875, this Victorian home is on a private corner lot in Georgetown’s East Village. It has an elevator, two-bedroom staff apartment, a large walled garden with terraces, a swimming pool and parking for six cars.
 

2520 30th St. NW

10. 2520 30th St. NW
$6.425 million (original list price $6.75 million)
Bedrooms/bathrooms: six/six
Approximate square footage: 9,300
Lot size: 0.7 acre
Listing agent: Margot Wilson, Washington Fine Properties

The European-style residence in the Massachusetts Avenue Heights neighborhood is perfect for entertaining with its grand salon and formal dining room, which can seat 30. There’s an oval library, exercise room, flagstone patio and landscaped gardens.