In 2013, Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni bought an ocean-view California home for $6.9 million; two years later, he sold it for $9.5 million

Not every story that makes the rounds on NBA headlines occurs on the court. Sometimes the true story is found right outside the door. In 2013, Mike D'Antoni, the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, bought an ocean-view home in Manhattan Beach, California, for $6.9 million. Two years later, in the middle of a steadily climbing national housing market, he turned around and sold it for $9.5 million. According to the Los Angeles Times, he would make a profit of nearly $2.6 million on the sale, a tidy sum that few homeowners dream about finding themselves in such a short time frame. To American millennials who find home pricing out of reach in most big cities, it's inspirational news and maddening in equal measure.

A quick flip by a coach in a coastal dream town

D'Antoni, a two-time NBA Coach of the Year, bought the three-story contemporary home shortly after landing the Lakers job. The property, in a tight-knit, upscale, and famously expensive part of California's South Bay, offered an unimpeded Pacific view from the second-floor walk-out, spanning from Catalina Island to Malibu.


By the time his Lakers tenure ended, so did his stay in California. D'Antoni put the home up for sale in early 2015 with an asking price of $9.8 million before closing at $9.5 million. Either figure reflects a significant jump from the original $6.9 million purchase.

The math behind the sale is more interesting than it seems

To put the figures in context, during the roughly two-year period that D'Antoni owned the property in Manhattan Beach, the general trend of the housing market across the country was healthy but modest. Per S&P Dow Jones Indices, which publishes the popular Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the national index was gaining ground at an annual rate of about 4 to 5 percent through 2015. The value of D'Antoni's home, on the other hand, appreciated at several times the rate of increase.

Although it speaks volumes about the value of the locale where the home was located, this outperformance isn't a sign of particular acumen as an investor on D'Antoni's part. Coastal, inventory-starved areas such as Manhattan Beach, California, tend to be outperforming much of the rest of the country. A small set of cash buyers seeking ocean-view real estate may have helped push the prices for such a property much further than the national averages.

Athletes and the coaches' love affair with the real estate

D'Antoni isn't an outlier among the athletic ranks in that he buys homes as investments. According to Forbes, real estate has always been a popular haven for the income of pro sports players and their coaches' earnings as their preferred form of wealth, thanks to the favorable tax consequences it affords compared to stocks. While a professional athlete may buy multiple properties with their millions in salary, it's a much more daunting prospect for a young millennial starting their career in America's big cities.

Where to start? The value of the home D'Antoni bought is a great inspiration to young millennials looking to get started in the market. But it also carries a harsh lesson: starting capital determines how quickly a sale can happen, and most buyers simply don’t have access to that kind of cash up front.

The takeaway

None of this means that buying coastal property makes a good investment strategy. Luxury-home values can easily peak, and timing a sale well often proves just as important as picking the right location or property. As much as D'Antoni's sale is impressive, it's still only an anomaly in housing markets where price increases tend to be much more steady and predictable.