Last year, Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch listed for $100 million. In January, another one of California’s most famous estates went on the market for twice the price. Currently the most expensive listing in the United States, the 20,000-square-foot, Tudor-style Charing Cross Road address is expensive, even for the exclusive Holmby Hills neighborhood in Los Angeles. Like Neverland, the Playboy Mansion comes with the kind of fame that its sellers hope will yield great fortune.

In the largest real-estat…