Newsletter: Hot Property: Familiar refrains
Once again we’ve got tunes stuck in our heads. We’re hankering to watch some old movies. And we’d like nothing better than to sit on the couch and grab the remote — in the interest of research, of course.
Welcome to our world of uncommon occupational hazards. But what better reporting beat is there than one where entertainment, people and properties collide?
– Lauren Beale and Neal Leitereg
Time in a bottle
Singer-guitarist Neil Young penned “Old Man” in the early 1970s after he met the caretaker of a ranch he had just bought in California. “Live alone in a paradise,” sang the then-divorced songwriter.
Now he has sold his slice of Hawaiian paradise for $20 million. Set on the Big Island, the three-acre compound includes a Hawaiian-style main house dating to the 1920s and two two-bedroom guest cottages. It also has two greenhouses, a swimming pool with a pool house and a variety of tropical fruit trees.
Neil Young has sold his three-house compound on the Big Island of Hawaii for $20 million. (David Tonnes | Inset: Los Angeles Times)
Some earth to move
Do the songs “I Feel the Earth Move” and “It’s Too Late” take you back to the '70s? Singer-songwriter Carole King, who had hits with both those songs, has her ranch in Stanley, Idaho, for sale at $9.9 million.
A two-story log lodge sits at the heart of the 128-acre spread that has belonged to King for more than three decades. Guest cabins, equestrian facilities and pools — plus lots of wilderness — add to the charm.
The 128-acre Robinson Bar Ranch has been owned by Carole King for more than 30 years. (Hall and Hall)
We’ve got mail
Which romantic comedy springs to mind at the mention of film star Meg Ryan? Let's see, there's “You’ve Got Mail,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “When Harry Met Sally…”
Her former Bel-Air estate made our Throwback Thursday feature this week. The 1930s Mediterranean and its newly restored interiors are for sale at $24.99 million. The actress unloaded the three-quarter-acre property three years ago for $11 million and change.
Classic Pacino
And while you’ve got the popcorn made, check out “Scarface,” the 1983 mob movie starring Al Pacino.
The Montecito mansion that gained fame as the filming location for the wedding scene just sold for $12,261,500. The Mediterranean Revival house on 10 acres was marketed last year for $35 million — nearly three times what it brought.
We have liftoff
A diligent public records search uncovered this little gem for fans of the television drama “The Astronaut Wives Club.” Series mainstay Bret Harrison has bought a two-story Cape Cod-inspired two-story in Sherman Oaks for $1.585 million. Yes, there’s a swimming pool for practicing splashdowns.
Bret Harrison has paid $1.585 million for a newly built five-bedroom house in Sherman Oaks. (Realtor.com | Screen Gems)
Getting slap happy
We must confess a predilection for pratfalls. If “America’s Funniest Home Videos” brings on the belly laughs, you may be interested to know that current host Alfonso Ribeiro has been on the move.
He recently bought a Granada Hills home for $1,937,500. Hope he likes to party. Outdoors there’s a built-in barbecue, a brick pizza oven, an ice maker, a keg hookup and a brick fireplace with sitting area.
Alfonso Ribeiro paid about $1.94 million for a Granada Hills home with a resort-style swimming pool and swim-up bar. (Chad Jones | Chris Haston)
Blasts from the past
Ten years ago: Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner and his wife, Kris Kardashian, listed their French Country-style manor for sale in a gated Calabasas community at $2.7 million. With 10 children between them, the 4,600-square-foot house was not big enough. The headline: “More room to store the javelins.”
Twenty years ago: 25-year-old actors Kirk Cameron and Chelsea Noble put their Beverly Hills-area home on the market at just under $1.5 million. The gated 1940s house had formerly belonged to actress Anjelica Huston, who bought it from actor Richard Chamberlain. Among features of note was a black-bottom swimming pool -- quite in vogue at the time.
Thirty years ago: Talk-show host and media mogul Merv Griffin dropped $10.5 million on the corner of Sunset and Vine. His Merv Griffin Enterprises bought what was then a shopping and food mart on the northwest corner, adding to its land holdings in Hollywood. “He's bullish that Hollywood's seedy neighborhoods will be redeveloped,” wrote reporter Ruth Ryon.
What we’re reading
— Television host and serial home buyer Ellen DeGeneres talked to The Times about the dozen or so houses she has owned throughout Southern California. Photos of the properties she decorated or remodeled are in her new book “Home.”
— There’s nothing like a change in the weather to refresh the spirit. We were thinking snow this week as the white stuff blanketed Yosemite National Park and the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. Just for grins, we checked out the website Zillow. We found 90 homes for sale in Mammoth Lakes ranging in price from $154,000 for a two-bedroom, one-bathroom cabin to $6.5 million for a five-bedroom, five-bathroom stone-and-log lodge.
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