Newsletter: Hot Property: Attention-grabbers
The high-end housing market hasn’t been this entertaining to watch since the last upturn. Luxury homes are being bought for eye-popping prices with large amounts of cash, and apparently imagination is the only limit to amenities. Nowhere is this more apparent than in L.A.’s ultra-expensive celebrity-studded neighborhoods.
– Lauren Beale and Neal J. Leitereg
Fun features
Actress Sela Ward's mansion in Bel-Air is as personalized as they come. Rebuilt into a French country estate during her 12 years there, the eight-acre spread has a miniature golf course, a pond with a beach and a stone-walled amphitheater built into a hillside. Asking price: $39.995 million.
Sela Ward has listed her Bel-Air compound for sale at $39.995 million. (Simon Berlyn | Inset: CBS)
Estate powered by reruns
Prolific TV producer and writer Norman Lear is ready to end his run at the 10-acre Brentwood estate he has called home for 27 years. That’s understandable at 93. His well-used screening room and office complex have made this a true live-work environment of note. Also impressive is the 35-car garage. Asking price: $55 million.
Norman Lear has listed his estate in Brentwood at $55 million. (Everett Fenton Gidley / EFG3.com)
Goosing the marketing
Interest in the enigmatic Howard Hughes never seems to wane. So when the owners of Summertide reintroduced the tycoon entrepreneur and filmmaker’s onetime Lake Tahoe retreat to the market last week, they didn’t lower the price -- just threw in a plot twist. The 5.5-acre bay-front property and original log home are being touted for their redevelopment potential into multiple home sites. Asking price: $19.5 million
Summertide, once owned by Howard Hughes, is for sale along Lake Tahoe’s Crystal Bay. 
Summertide, once owned by Howard Hughes, is for sale along Lake Tahoe's Crystal Bay. (Peter Tye)
Jenny from the (price chop) block
Homeowners and their agents hate to see a listing become “tired” -- lingering on the market without a taker. When that happens, however, a price adjustment and some sprucing up are often in order. Joining the club of rebooting sellers is singer-actress and former “American Idol” judge Jennifer Lopez, who has put her work-live estate in Hidden Hills back up for sale at a $2.5-million discount. Among the stellar features are her recording studio, a dance studio/gym and a 20-seat theater. Asking price: $14.5 million.
Jennifer Lopez has put her home in Hidden Hills back on the market at $14.5 million. (Simon Berlyn)
They all slept there
Local real estate agents love to throw around the phrase "celebrity pedigree" as a virtual amenity of sorts. This 1927 Hacienda-style home in the Beverly Crest area has it in spades. Among those to have lived at or owned the one-acre place: Oscar-winning actress Katharine Hepburn, early “Frankenstein” star Boris Karloff, Eric Burdon of ’60s rock band The Animals and the current sellers, “Friends” writers and producers Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan. Sales price: $7.4 million.
Katharine Hepburn lived at the 1927 Hacienda-style home before actor Boris Karloff. (John Chimon | Inset: AP Photo / Turner Classic Films)
(Short-term) house of hip-hop
A luxury L.A. home with a view has become the summer accessory of choice for off-season sports stars and celebrities, with many opting to lease rather than buy. This renovated contemporary in Los Feliz was briefly occupied by rapper French Montana, who paid a cool $40,000 to rent the 5,800-square-foot pad for the month of July. A glassed-in sky bridge, an intimate home theater and jetliner views highlight this new-to-the-market home. Asking price: $4.995 million.
A glassed-in bridge, connecting the home's upper levels, runs above the formal living room in this house recently leased by French Montana. (Sean Garrison / Shooting LA | Inset: Getty Images)
Hot Down Under
Los Angeles isn't the only market bringing the heat. In Sydney, Australia, actress Cate Blanchett and her husband, playwright Andrew Upton, needed just three weeks to sell their renovated home. Originally built in 1877, the sandstone-faced house known as Bulwarra catches the eye with clean lines, natural tones and a floating staircase framed in jet-black steel. Sales price: $14.1 million.
Cate Blanchett sold her home in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, for $14.1 million in about three weeks. (Paul Gosney | Inset: Getty Images)
Out of the archives
Ten years ago, actor Vince Vaughn parted with a 1930s Mediterranean-style home in Los Feliz for close to $4 million. He’s provided fodder for many a column, buying and selling all over the Los Angeles area during the intervening decade. Just last month, he listed his Colonial-style home in La Cañada Flintridge for $5.299 million.
Twenty years ago, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, as he was called for a time after he changed his name to “an unpronounceable double-gender love symbol,” put his Beverly Hills estate on the market at $3.5 million. He would eventually sell the nearly 7,700-square-foot gated house for $2.2 million. It’s the only home he is known to have ever owned in the Los Angeles area.
What we’re reading
The price on New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's former home in Queens was reduced to $2.67 million, Newsday reports. The imposing six-bedroom, four-bathroom house is likened to the Great Neck residence of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
For you armchair voyeurs, the Washington Post offered a peek inside the former Hollywood homes of Madonna, Tyler Perry and Jeff Bridges.
And finally, the battle between restaurateur Dana Hollister and singer Katy Perry over a Los Feliz convent owned by a small order of nuns took another turn this week. Los Angeles Times reporter Stephen Ceasar reports that Hollister will vacate the property while continuing to pay rent to the nuns as the dispute plays out in court. A hearing to determine who actually has the authority to sell the property is set to begin in October.
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