At 1010 West Friar Court, a 1963 mid-century home goes on the market in one of Palm Springs’ most storied neighbourhoods, just as the desert’s high season begins.

Before he designed houses for the desert, Charles DuBois designed worlds for the screen. During the Second World War, when residential building slowed, the Los Angeles architect worked as a senior set designer at MGM. He brought that sense of theatre to Palm Springs in the late 1950s, where his steep A-frame “Swiss Miss” houses became one of the most recognisable silhouettes of desert modernism. One of his later homes, 1010 West Friar Court in Vista Las Palmas, is now for sale at $2,588,000. source

The house

Built in 1963 by the Alexander Construction Company, the three-bedroom, two-bath house covers just over 2,000 square feet. It sits on a gated lot of almost a third of an acre at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. It’s raised above the street, screened by tall mature hedges, and faces the San Jacinto Mountains.

The architecture is classic DuBois. Inside there are vaulted tongue-and-groove beamed ceilings, skylights and clerestory windows in every bedroom. A wide stacked-stone fireplace anchors the great room, and French doors open the living spaces to the garden. The house has since been carefully renovated, with a chef’s kitchen, updated bathrooms, and solar panels with battery storage. It keeps the details that define the period: the stone, the wood and the light.

Outside is where the house becomes a resort. There’s an oversized saltwater pool, a covered lanai with a full wet bar, a gazebo with a fire pit, several patios, and a newly installed spa with a waterfall just outside the primary suite. A large natural boulder sits in the rear garden like a sculpture. Neighbouring homes have no view into the back or side yards, which is a rare kind of privacy in a neighbourhood this sought-after.

The location: the Summit

Vista Las Palmas sits at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains, between North Palm Canyon Drive and the hills, a few minutes from downtown Palm Springs. It was developed from the late 1950s by George and Robert Alexander, with architects William Krisel and Charles DuBois, and today it has around 330 mid-century homes: butterfly roofs, post-and-beam pavilions and DuBois’s A-frames.

1010 West Friar Court belongs to its final chapter, the Las Palmas Summit. This small enclave was developed by the Alexanders’ partner Joe Dunas, with DuBois as architect, and completed in 1962–63. It was marketed with Hawaiian flair as the place “where island living meets desert living.” Set higher than the rest of the neighbourhood, it is widely seen as its most desirable section, with larger lots and the best mountain views.

A neighbourhood with a guest list

Vista Las Palmas owes much of its legend to Hollywood. In the 1950s and ’60s it became a desert refuge for the stars. Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Kirk Douglas, Debbie Reynolds, Dinah Shore, Joan Collins and George Hamilton all lived there, and the Rat Pack were regulars. Its most famous address, Robert Alexander’s “House of Tomorrow” on Ladera Circle, was where Elvis and Priscilla Presley spent their honeymoon in 1967. So the architect of 1010 West Friar Court, a former MGM set designer, built for a neighbourhood that was full of the actors he had once designed sets for.

Bought at the peak, reimagined for the next buyer

The current owners bought 1010 West Friar Court in January 2022 for $2,025,000, at the height of the pandemic boom, when Palm Springs was attracting remote workers and second-home buyers from all over California. Even then, the house didn’t sell at its asking price. It had been listed in November 2021 at $2,498,000, reduced to $2,250,000, and finally sold about 19% below its original ask, a sign that even in a frenzied market, buyers at this level were negotiating.

Almost five years later, it’s back at $2,588,000, about 28% above what the owners paid, or roughly 5% a year. In between, the house has been reimagined: a new spa with a waterfall, solar with battery storage, updated lighting and a full refresh that keeps its DuBois character. The asking price is a bet that those improvements, and the scarcity of Summit homes, can outpace a citywide market that has barely moved since.

The financial backdrop has changed too. In January 2022, a 30-year mortgage cost around 3.5%. Today it’s closer to 7%. At 20% down, the monthly payment on the 2022 purchase would have been around $7,300. The same structure at today’s price and rates comes to about $14,500, almost double. That explains why the luxury tier is increasingly driven by cash buyers, and why homes like this one take longer to find the right owner.

For context, the house’s longer history is even more striking. It sold for $290,000 in 1998 and $980,000 in 2006. Measured against its 1998 price, the current asking price is almost nine times higher.

The market right now

The listing arrives in a calmer market than the one in which it last sold. Across Palm Springs, the median sale price is around $660,000 to $680,000, roughly flat to slightly down on last year. Homes take about two months to sell and usually receive a single offer. After the bidding wars of 2021–22, the city has moved to a more balanced market, with more inventory, more room to negotiate, and inspections and contingencies back in contracts.

The luxury tier behaves differently. Over $1 million, buyers are often paying cash and are selective, and the homes that move fastest are turnkey, authentically mid-century and energy-efficient. This house ticks all three boxes. Nearby comparable sales in 2026 ranged from about $1.8 million to $3.1 million, including $2.6 million for a home on Via Vadera, a few streets away.

What may come next

The timing works in the house’s favour. Palm Springs’ high season begins in the autumn, as second-home buyers from Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Canada and beyond return to the desert. It peaks in February with Modernism Week, when design enthusiasts from around the world tour homes like this one.

Two other trends are shaping the market. Mortgage rates remain high, which gives cash buyers the upper hand at this level. And the city’s tighter vacation-rental rules, including a cap on the share of short-term rentals per neighbourhood, have shifted demand towards buyers who want to live in their homes, not rent them out. For a private, gated house on the Summit, that may be an advantage: it’s designed for owners, not for guests.

Good to Know

The listing

  • Address: 1010 West Friar Court, Palm Springs, CA 92262
  • Price: $2,588,000
  • Size: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,017 sq ft
  • Lot: 0.29 acres, gated, in a cul-de-sac
  • Built: 1963, by the Alexander Construction Company
  • Architect: Charles DuBois
  • Neighbourhood: Vista Las Palmas, Las Palmas Summit
  • Listed by: Marco Colantonio, Equity Union

Fun facts

  • Same year, same mountain: the house was built in 1963, the year the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway opened on the San Jacinto Mountains it looks out on.
  • From Hollywood sets to desert homes: before Palm Springs, Charles DuBois was a senior set designer at MGM.
  • Swiss Miss and “Alohaus”: DuBois’s steep A-frame houses earned both nicknames, one for their Alpine-chalet look and one for their Polynesian touches. Only about 15 are said to remain.
  • Aloha, desert: Las Palmas Summit was originally sold with a Hawaiian theme, promising island living in the middle of the desert.
  • The quietest corner in town: the property scores 9.8 out of 10 for silence, meaning there’s virtually no noise nearby.
  • Sun all year: up to 9.6 hours of direct sunlight a day in June, and still 6 in December.

Urban legends (take them with a grain of desert sand)

  • The King’s hideaway: Elvis and Priscilla Presley spent their honeymoon at Robert Alexander’s “House of Tomorrow”, a few streets away. Some visitors swear the King has never really left.
  • Marilyn by the pool: Palm Springs legend says Marilyn Monroe was discovered by a Hollywood agent at a hotel pool in town, long before she became a Vista Las Palmas regular.
  • Rat Pack nights: locals still tell stories of Sinatra, Dean Martin and friends moving from house to house in Vista Las Palmas until sunrise. No one can say which houses, and no one who was there is talking.

 

 

Before designing homes in Palm Springs, Charles DuBois worked as a set designer at MGM, the studio famous for its roaring lion. Decades later, his house still has a lion by the pool. It just seems to have left its head, and its roar, back in Hollywood.