Hot Property Newsletter: No time like the present for luxury real estate deals
For home buyers and sellers, the time is right to wrap sales up before the end-of-the-year holiday slowdown. This week’s collection sees a mega-hit film producer and a singer-actress joining the fray.
Recent restoration and renovation work brought the 1920s Home of the Week in Pasadena into this century. Walls were removed within the Andalusian Spanish-style bungalow — and French doors added — to create a more open floor plan. The asking price of the 1,436-square-foot, two-bedroom home is $1.495 million.
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– Neal Leitereg and Lauren Beale
His high-priced sequel
Blockbuster film producer Joel Silver is looking for his second major home release in two years. He sold his Malibu estate last year for $38 million and has now listed his Brentwood home at $77.5 million.
The striking Mexican modernist residence of roughly 26,000 square feet includes a circular atrium, a dining room topped with a pyramid-like ceiling and a 30-foot-high family room with hydraulic doors.
Stone walls and mature trees provide cover for a sunken basketball court. Covered and uncovered patios surround the swimming pool.
An English maze garden completes the roughly 5-acre property.
Silver, 67, has been producing box-office hits since the 1970s, including the “Predator,” “Matrix,” “Die Hard” and “Lethal Weapon” franchises.
Her next key change
Actress-singer Lea Michele, known for the musical television series “Glee,” has listed her Brentwood home for sale at $3.15 million.
The 1950s contemporary sits on a little over half an acre with a swimming pool, an outdoor lounge, palm trees and fountains.
The 3,200 square feet of living space has vaulted ceilings, walls of steel-framed windows, four bedrooms and four bathrooms. Custom built-ins frame a concrete fireplace in the living room.
Michele, 33, got her start as a child actress on Broadway, appearing in productions of “Les Misérables” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” among others. The Emmy-nominated actress recently appeared in the ABC sitcom “The Mayor” as well as the Fox show “Scream Queens.”
Severing another tie
The marital home of musicians Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, who divorced in 2016, has sold in the 90210 ZIP code for $21.65 million.
The renovated contemporary, once owned by Jennifer Lopez, sits on about two acres. Besides the 11,845-square-foot main house, the property has an infinity-edge swimming pool, a lighted tennis court and a playground.
A theater, a gym and two offices are among the living areas. Including the guesthouse, there are seven bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.
Stefani, 49, gained fame as a co-founder and lead vocalist for the band No Doubt. She has won three Grammys and returned to the singing competition show “The Voice” this season as a coach.
The 53-year-old Rossdale is the front man and guitarist for the rock band Bush. The group has released six studio albums, most recently “Man on the Run” in 2014.
Loretta Young’s haunt
A Palm Springs home that was once owned by Academy Award-winning actress Loretta Young has come on the market at $1.475 million.
Mountains create a backdrop for the striking 1964 Midcentury Modern, which is entered through a breezeway flanked by rock gardens, fountains and palms. Walls of glass bring in views of the garden from the circular living room, which is topped by a round tray ceiling.
Terrazzo floors continue throughout much of the 3,510 square feet of living space. Among the three bedrooms and four bathrooms is a master bath with disappearing glass doors, a waterfall and an outdoor shower. Nearby sit a swimming pool and a separate spa grotto.
Young, who died at 87 in 2000, made close to 100 films, winning an Oscar for “The Farmer’s Daughter” (1947). She won an Emmy in 1955 for the dramatic series “The Loretta Young Show.”
Hoping it’s a hit in Tampa
Sports agent and former MLB outfielder Gary Sheffield has listed his Tampa, Fla., house for sale at $1.9 million.
Built in 2000, the 5,492 square feet of interiors have been recently renovated and feature neutral colors, hardwood floors and updated kitchen and bathrooms. Among the five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms is the upstairs master suite, which has a balcony and dual closets.
The two-story opens up to an outdoor courtyard with a swimming pool and a guest house/casita.
Sheffield, 50, played for eight teams from 1988 to 2009, including the San Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets. The nine-time All-Star hit his 500th home run as a Met in 2009.
Cottage packs a punch(line)
A New York beach house once owned by comic actor and filmmaker Mel Brooks and his wife, actress Anne Bancroft, has come on the market at $4.995 million.
Set on a waterfront lot in Southampton Village, the two-story shingle-style cottage dates to 1960. The 2,300-square-foot house contains four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.
Views from the house and 1.33-acre site take in the water. A deck with an outdoor shower overlooks Shinnecock Bay.
Mel Brooks, 93, is known for such films as “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Spaceballs” and “The Producers,” for which he won an Oscar.
Bancroft, who died at 73 in 2005, is remembered for her roles in “The Graduate,” “The Miracle Worker” and “Agnes of God,” among others. She won an Oscar for “The Miracle Worker.”
His favorite room
After an intense work day, actor Taylor Frey enjoys unwinding in his living room with a glass of wine and a movie. The simple, minimalist space within his West Hollywood apartment is purposely “a little sterile.” Frey, who appears in the horror film “It Chapter Two,” called the palette of beige, white and gray “a very clean slate to start and end my day.”
From the archives
Ten years ago, actress Jennifer Carpenter of the series “Dexter” listed her Hollywood Hills bachelorette pad for $695,000. The California bungalow, with two bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms, had been built in 1937 as a hunting lodge.
Twenty years ago, Dodgers play-by-play man Vin Scully sold his Lake Arrowhead retreat for about $500,000. Built in 1965, it had three bedrooms within some 2,000 square feet.
Thirty years ago, pop singer Julian Lennon was selling a mountaintop estate he had bought less than a year earlier. The former World War II bunker, built in the Santa Monica Mountains by the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a radar station, had been turned into a 4,000-square-foot residence, with a swimming pool and a large yard. He had paid $1,050,000 and sold for $1.5 million.
What we’re reading
A 200-square-foot studio in San Diego’s University Heights area, renting for $1,050 a month, caught the eye of some Reddit users who thought it was overvalued, reported the San Diego Union-Tribune. Prospective renters were required to have a credit score of at least 650, an income of 2.5 times the rental amount, no history of evictions and rental references.
Architectural Digest compiled a list of the 50 most beautiful small towns in the U.S. California locations making the grade included Booneville in the Anderson Valley wine-growing region, picturesque Carmel-by-the-Sea and the former logging community of Mendocino.
