Out West, $32 Million Buys the One Thing No Florida Waterfront Can Offer: Height

A four-bedroom house on Belvedere Island, in Marin County north of San Francisco, is for sale at $32 million, and what it is really selling is altitude. The house is set on a cliff over the water, a line no agent from Jupiter Island to Port Royal has ever been able to put in a brochure. The Golden Gate Bridge is in the window of nearly every room. Palm Beach has the Atlantic, Naples has the Gulf sunset, and Miami has the skyline, but all three serve their views at sea level, give or take a seawall. This one serves its view from above, which is the single trick our coast cannot perform no matter how high the ceilings go. For a reader who has spent a season here, the appeal translates easily: it is a house where the water is the whole point of the address, with the added advantage of looking down on it.

With reporting from Robb Report.