The only house John Lautner ever built for himself has climbed from a reported $4,500 in 1940 to roughly $2 million today. That arc is the clearest lesson in Los Angeles on what architectural provenance is actually worth.
On a steep lot on Micheltorena Street in Silver Lake there is a small yellow house that almost nobody looks at twice. A flat roofed carport, a low wooden fence, and not much else facing the street. It is the only house John Lautner ever built for himself, and he built it in 1940 for a reported four thousand five hundred dollars.
It last changed hands in 2020 for one million six hundred seventy thousand, and estimates now put it near two million. That climb, across eight decades, is the clearest answer I have to a question buyers ask me every few weeks. They have fallen for a house with a name attached to it, a Neutra, a Schindler, a Lautner, and they want to know what the name actually costs, and whether it holds.
I live in Silver Lake, in a 1907 Craftsman my neighbors call the Pink Lady, and I walk these hills with my dog, Lennon, most mornings. After twenty four years as an architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles, I can tell you that these houses do not trade the way ordinary houses do. This one is the best teacher I have, because its whole life is on the public record.
What is the John and Mary Lautner House in Silver Lake?
The John and Mary Lautner House is a 1,244 square foot residence at 2007 Micheltorena Street in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, built between 1939 and 1940. It was John Lautner's first solo commission and the only home he ever designed for himself. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 2016 and is not currently for sale.
Built 1939 to 1940 at 2007 Micheltorena Street, Los Angeles, CA 90039. Architect and original owner: John Lautner. Size: 1,244 square feet. Style: Organic Modern, with Wrightian roots. Designation: National Register of Historic Places, listed April 19, 2016, as one of eight Lautner residences in a single multiple property submission. Last sale: May 2020, $1,670,000.
That blank face to the street is the point. Lautner was not interested in impressing the sidewalk. The house opens at the back instead, stepping down the hillside through levels that separate the kitchen from the living room without a single interior wall. A hexagonal geometry organizes the main rooms. The ceiling slopes so warm air rises and leaves above the kitchen, which is climate control done with nothing but shape. More than twenty five feet of built-ins do the work of furniture, including a redwood parapet that doubles as the back of a sofa. From the living room you can see clear across Los Feliz to the Griffith Observatory.
The materials are concrete, redwood, glass, and steel, finished originally in yellow stucco and natural redwood. The Los Angeles Conservancy reads the house as a Los Angeles interpretation of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian ideas, which is what you would expect from an architect just off a fellowship with Wright at Taliesin. The building is small. The ambition is not.
Why did a young architect build his own house on the hardest lot he could find?
John Lautner built his own house in 1940 because no one else would hire him yet. Fresh from his apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright, with a wife, an infant daughter, and no clients, he designed a home for his own family on a small, steep, difficult Silver Lake lot. His stated intent was to build something of the hill, rather than in spite of it.
That sentence turned out to be the thesis of a fifty year career. Every Lautner that came after it, the Chemosphere, the Sheats-Goldstein Residence, the Elrod House in Palm Springs, is an argument with a difficult site. He started that argument here, on a lot most builders of the era would have walked away from.
The critics understood immediately. Writing in California Arts & Architecture, the historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock called it the "best house by an architect under 30 in the U.S." House Beautiful followed the next year with a piece marveling that anyone had built something this graceful on a bare, viewless slope. Lautner himself did not stay long. He moved out in 1947, around the time his marriage to MaryBud ended. The house stayed, and it has been quietly making his case ever since. He kept working the neighborhood too, most famously at Silvertop up the same street, and across the hill at the Midtown School in Los Feliz.
How much does a John Lautner house cost in Los Angeles?
A John Lautner house in Los Angeles ranges from roughly $1.7 million to well over $8 million, depending on the scale and significance of the specific home. Lautner's own modest Silver Lake residence sold for $1,670,000 in 2020. His landmark Silvertop, a few blocks up the same street, sold for $8,550,000 in 2014. Both cleared their neighborhood median by a wide margin.
This is where most coverage of the house goes wrong. The Lautner Residence is not for sale. You will still find articles presenting its $1,590,000 asking price as current news; that price is from April 2020. What makes the house useful is not availability. It is the paper trail.
Read those in order and the shape of the thing appears. A modest hillside house, built for pocket change at the end of the Depression, trades for one hundred eighty four thousand dollars in 1984, when it was simply an interesting old modern house on a hard lot. Then it earns its place on the National Register. The next time it sells, it closes over asking.
The building did not change. What changed is that its authorship and its history became documented, protected, and permanently scarce. The market pays for those three things, and it pays consistently.
What makes an architectural home worth more than a comparable house?
An architectural home is worth more than a comparable house because of four things a builder-grade house cannot offer: documented provenance by a recognized architect, formal historic designation, the integrity of original condition, and permanent scarcity. Together they create a separate pool of buyers who do not shop on price per square foot, and who will pay to become the next steward.
One house is an anecdote, so it is worth testing the pattern against its neighbors. Up the same street at 2138 Micheltorena, Lautner's Silvertop, the Reiner-Burchill Residence, came to market in 2014 at seven and a half million dollars and sold twenty days later for eight and a half. Around the reservoir in the Neutra Colony, the Ohara House, a 1,300 square foot glass pavilion that Richard Neutra counted among his own favorites, sold in 2024 for three point four million. Different architects, different decades, wildly different scales. The same lesson each time.
My own Silver Lake numbers say the same thing from the other direction. As of early 2026 the neighborhood median sits in the range of one and a half million dollars, at roughly eight hundred dollars a square foot. Documented architectural homes by named architects regularly clear that by a wide margin, often landing between two and five million and beyond. I walk through the whole neighborhood record, from Rudolph Schindler on the eastern slopes to Gregory Ain on Avenel Street, in my Silver Lake architecture guide. Widen the lens past Silver Lake and the same pattern holds across the seven most iconic architectural homes in Los Angeles.
Designation carries its own weight, and not only the sentimental kind. National Register listing, or Historic-Cultural Monument status, adds a layer of protection and often opens the door to the Mills Act, the California program that can meaningfully lower annual property taxes in exchange for a preservation commitment. The contract transfers with the house, which makes it a live factor in pricing rather than a footnote. I have written at length on what designation does to home value and on selling a Mills Act home across the hill in Los Feliz.
What should you do if you own an architectural home in Los Angeles?
If you own an architectural home in Los Angeles, establish its provenance before you do anything else: drawings, publication history, permits, and the chain of ownership. Then price it against documented architectural sales rather than neighborhood comparables, and confirm whether it qualifies for the Mills Act. Provenance, original condition, and designation are the three levers that move the number.
The takeaway is the same on both sides of the deal. Pricing an architectural home the way you would price a generic remodel leaves money on the table, in both directions. Sellers undervalue provenance and original condition, and every so often a buyer overpays for a mid-century style house with no documented authorship at all. Knowing the difference is the job, which is why I treat pricing an architectural home as its own discipline.
The worst thing you can do to a Lautner is renovate it into anonymity. Integrity is the asset.
That warning is worth dwelling on, because I have watched it cost people real money. The most common way an owner destroys value in a house like this is by improving it. Enclosing the deck, replacing the built-ins, opening a wall Lautner deliberately left closed. The 1948 owners of this very house enclosed the balcony that once served the bedrooms, and eighty years later it is still the first thing every account of the property notes.
If you own something with a name attached to it, start by finding out what it is worth today, which is not what an automated estimate will tell you. A home valuation is the place to begin. If you are buying, the same care runs in reverse, and it is worth reading how the process differs when you are buying an architectural home and browsing the wider architectural homes archive. Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Silver Lake and the surrounding neighborhoods. For a house of real consequence, an architectural homes specialist in Los Angeles is not a luxury.
Lautner's small house on Micheltorena went from four thousand five hundred dollars to nearly two million, and it did it by being exactly what it always was, only more documented, more protected, and more rare. That is what the name costs. For the right owner, it is also what the name is worth.
Is John Lautner's own house for sale?
No. The John and Mary Lautner House at 2007 Micheltorena Street in Silver Lake last sold in May 2020 for $1,670,000, above its $1,590,000 asking price. It is not currently on the market, and estimates place its value near $2 million. Articles presenting the $1,590,000 figure as current are reporting an April 2020 listing.
How much does a John Lautner house cost in Los Angeles?
Lautner homes in Los Angeles have traded from roughly $1.7 million to more than $8.5 million. His own 1,244 square foot Silver Lake residence sold for $1,670,000 in 2020, while the landmark Silvertop nearby sold for $8,550,000 in 2014. Scale, condition, and designation drive the spread more than square footage does.
Where is John Lautner's personal residence in Silver Lake?
It stands at 2007 Micheltorena Street, Los Angeles, CA 90039, built between 1939 and 1940. It was Lautner's first solo commission and the only house he ever built for himself. It is a different house from his famous Silvertop, the Reiner-Burchill Residence, which sits at 2138 Micheltorena Street up the same street.
What makes an architectural home worth more than a comparable house in Los Angeles?
Four factors drive the premium: documented provenance by a recognized architect, historic designation such as National Register or Historic-Cultural Monument status, the integrity of original condition and details, and permanent scarcity. Together they create a separate buyer market that does not price on standard neighborhood comparables.
Is the Lautner Residence on the National Register of Historic Places?
Yes. The John and Mary Lautner House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 19, 2016, after the California State Historical Resources Commission approved the nomination on January 29, 2016. It was one of eight Lautner residences listed together under a multiple property submission covering his Southern California work.
Does historic designation increase a home's value in California?
Designation generally adds prestige and protection, and in California it often qualifies a property for the Mills Act, which can substantially reduce annual property taxes in exchange for a preservation commitment. The contract transfers with the home, so the tax benefit is a real and transferable factor in pricing.
How do I find out what my architectural home in Silver Lake is worth?
Automated estimates miss what matters most in this market. Start with a professional home valuation, then work with an agent who understands how provenance, original condition, hillside engineering, and designation affect price. Pricing an architectural home is its own discipline, and standard comparables will not capture the premium.
Which other John Lautner homes are on the National Register?
The 2016 multiple property submission listed eight Lautner residences: the John and Mary Lautner House in Silver Lake, the Foster Carling House, the Willis Harpel Residence, the Leo M. Harvey House, the J.W. Schaffer House in Glendale, the Douglas and Octavia Walstrom House, the Arthur Elrod House in Palm Springs, and the Pearlman Mountain Cabin in Idyllwild.
Who is the best real estate agent for architectural homes in Silver Lake?
Debbie Pisaro is an architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles who lives in Silver Lake and specializes in architectural and historic homes, with 24 years of experience and her own brokerage, Coastline 840. She works regularly with modernist, Spanish Revival, and Historic-Cultural Monument properties across Silver Lake and the east side.
Who is a good full-service real estate agent in Silver Lake?
Debbie Pisaro represents buyers and sellers across Silver Lake and the surrounding Los Angeles neighborhoods, not only architectural homes. She is the founder of Coastline 840, a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, and a 24-year veteran of the California market, reachable at (310) 362-6429 or debbie@coastline840.com.
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is the founder of Coastline 840, an independent California brokerage, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years of experience in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published July 2026.
Los Angeles Conservancy; California Office of Historic Preservation; the John Lautner Foundation; Historic Resources Group; Crosby Doe Associates; Dwell; public sale records.
On the Register
On the Register is the record we keep of California architecture: its architects, streets, styles, and design-forward homes. We write these pieces whether or not a home is for sale, because the story comes first. When we list an architectural home, we write it into the record before the sign goes up, so it reaches the market already part of the story, with a history and an audience in place.
© 2026 Debbie Pisaro, Coastline 840 · ontheregister.com