BUYERS: Jay-Z and Beyoncé

LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA

PRICE: $88,000,000

SIZE: 6 buildings with (approx.) 30,000 square feet, 8 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms

YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: A few months ago the Page Six column of the NY Post reported longtime L.A. house hunters Jay-Z and Beyoncé made a pearl-clutching $120 million dollar offer against a staggering $135 million asking price but it turns out the deep pocketed couple actually paid the substantially lower amount of $88 million in an off-market deal for a sleekly flamboyant spec-built compound in the mega-prime East Gate area of L.A.’s perennially posh Bel Air. The sale price, a financially forbidding figure by any standard, may indeed be a paltry 65% of the original asking price but it’s nonetheless the sixth highest price ever paid for a single-family home in Los Angeles County and the highest price paid so far this year, topping the $85 million deal Dodgers owner Mark Walter made in May for David Geffen’s East Coast-style compound on Malibu’s Carbon Beach. Public records show the money-minting showbiz superstars carry a mind-numbing $52.8 million mortgage on the property that, as was calculated by the property gossip at the L.A. Times, translates at a 4% interest rate to 30 years of monthly payments of $252,075, an amount U.S. Census data indicates is more than 97% of Americans earn in an entire year.

The monumental, ultra-modern compound, designed by architect Paul McLean and spec built by Dean McKillen, son of Irish billionaire property developer Paddy McKillen, is hidden behind massive iron gates on about two hillside acres and comprises six sleek, glass-walled buildings that combined encompass around 30,000-square-feet of living space with a total of 8 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms. A sculptural circular staircase in the three-story main residence is lined with leather and vast banks of bulletproof floor-to-ceiling glass panels throughout the compound open electronically at the touch of a button. Another 10,000-square-feet of outdoor living space includes an outdoor lounge under a cantilevered roof along with four outdoor swimming pools, a full-sized basketball court, a spa and wellness center, garaging for 15-cars and separate staff quarters.

Over the last few years the spectacularly successful international entertainment industry royals, who according to the bean counters at Forbes have a combined net worth of $1.16 billion (and counting) and, hence, can comfortably afford a quarter million dollar per month mortgage payment, have hopped around to a handful of exuberantly high-priced rentals in some of L.A.’s fancier zip codes. Most recently they were shacked up on sprawling, 6.3-acre bluff-top Malibu estate for which they reportedly paid $400,000 per month. They additionally maintain an 8,309-square-foot penthouse in lower Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood that was acquired in 2004 for $6,850,000 and where they were married in April 2008.

Listing photos: Hilton & Hyland