Newsletter: Hot Property: One for the record books
No matter how you slice or dice the numbers, 2016 was a notable year for Los Angeles area residential real estate sales. Among the high-water marks was the $100-million sale of the Playboy mansion — Hugh Hefner included.
The nearly $20 billion in home sales countywide was a 7% increase for the one-year period ending November 2016 compared with the same period a year earlier.
And 2017 is off to a sizzling start, as evidenced by this week’s compilation of celebrity deals.
– Neal J. Leitereg and Lauren Beale
He takes that $9.9 million
British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams has officially checked out of the Mulholland Estates area of Sherman Oaks, selling his house in the guard-gated community for $9.9 million.
Of course there’s a recording studio. It’s in an office that adjoins the master suite, one of the home’s seven bedrooms.
Outdoors amenities include a built-in barbecue, a fireplace and a swimming pool with a waterfall feature. Views from the three-quarter-acre site take in the mountains and cityscape.
Williams, 42, gained fame in the 1990s as a member of the pop group Take That. He is among the bestselling musicians in Britain and has sold 70 million albums worldwide.
Williams sold his home in gated Mulholland Estates for $9.9 million. (Don Lewis | Inset: Getty Images)
Breaking out of his web
Actor-producer Tobey Maguire has sold his home in Santa Monica for $3.325 million.
The property includes a reimagined 1920s bungalow, a separate studio and a detached garage used as a gym. The Spanish-style bungalow was renovated and expanded to more than 2,400 square feet.
The house includes a formal living room, an updated kitchen, a dining area, three bedrooms and three bathrooms. Large picture windows, skylights and vaulted ceilings are among the interior details.
The 1,200-square-foot studio has sliding wood doors that open to a large workspace with exposed beams and polished concrete floors. Skylights and a band of windows bring natural light into the second floor.
The 41-year-old Maguire is known for his roles in “The Great Gatsby” (2013) and “Seabiscuit” (2003) as well as three installments of the “Spider-Man” franchise.
Maguire sold his home in Santa Monica for $3.325 million, $330,000 over his asking price. (David Blank | Los Angeles Times)
A princely sum?
A pair of properties owned by the late singer-songwriter Prince at the time of his death has been sold in Chanhassen, a suburb of Minneapolis.
The larger was a 1.82-acre parcel of land that sold for $240,000. The other property, nearly half an acre in size, sold just before Christmas for $150,000.
Two of Prince’s remaining properties, a 1.5-acre wooded lot on Lake Riley and a 1960s ranch-style home, are pending sale.
At the time of his death, Prince owned a mix of homes, vacant lots and commercial buildings valued at $22 million. The musician, who died in April at 57, was among the bestselling pop artists of all time. He won seven Grammys, and an Oscar for original score for the film “Purple Rain” (1984).
Two properties owned by late pop icon Prince have sold in Minnesota. (Matt Kent / WireImage)
Conducting some business
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor and music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has put his home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles on the market for $3.095 million.
Built in the early 1920s, the Four Square-style house sits up from the street and has steps leading to a covered landing.
The 3,600 square feet of updated and restored interiors feature pocket doors that open to separate living and dining rooms and an updated kitchen. Three bedrooms, each with an adjoining bathroom and walk-in closet, are on the second floor.
A trellis-topped patio opens to a lap swimming pool. Lawns, hedges and a detached two-car garage complete the grounds.
Dudamel, 35, has been music director of the L.A. Phil since 2009 and is under contract through the 2021-2022 season.
Dudamel put his home in Los Feliz back on the market for $3.095 million. He bought the house two years ago for $2.775 million. (Redfin.com | Los Angeles Times)
Keeping up with Rob
The Calabasas home of Rob Kardashian, of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” fame, has come on the market at $2.675 million.
Kardashian bought the home in a gated community last year for $2.285 million through a trust that holds other real estate for the Kardashian-Jenner family.
The two-story traditional, built in 2005, has contemporary curb appeal with gray siding, white trim and black shutters. The 4,256 square feet of living space include family and dining rooms, a center-island kitchen, a library, four bedrooms and five bathrooms.
Outdoors, there’s a built-in barbecue, a fire pit and a swimming pool with a waterfall feature.
Kardashian, 29, in November welcomed his first child with model-entrepreneur Blac Chyna. The on-again, off-again couple appear on the E! reality series “Rob & Chyna.”
The two-story traditional sits in a gated Calabasas community and has an outdoor kitchen and a swimming pool. (Ewing Sotheby’s International Realty)
A place to display his medals
Four-time Olympic medal winner Steve Lewis has bought a new home in Redondo Beach for $1.69 million.
Built last year, the four-story contemporary has an open-plan living and dining room with 18-foot-tall ceilings. In the kitchen, modern fixtures top an island with seating for four.
The 3,100-square-foot living space also includes a bonus level with a wet bar. Four bedrooms and 4.25 bathrooms include a master suite with another fireplace and a retreat.
Lewis, 47, ran for three Olympic gold medals and one silver in track and field in the 1988 and 1992 Games. The UCLA alum was inducted into the Bruins’ Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004.
Lewis paid $1.69 million for the home in Redondo Beach. (Redfin.com | Associated Press)
From the archives
Ten years ago, Omar Epps, who played Dr. Eric Foreman on Fox’s hit TV series “House,” bought a Mediterranean-style house in Sherman Oaks for $2.2 million. We like the headline: “His home away from ‘House.’”
Twenty years ago, singer Neil Diamond purchased a Beverly Hills home for $4.7 million, closing just before New Year’s Day. The Grammy-winning singer/songwriter had been leasing in the L.A. area. He gave up an interest in his longtime Holmby Hills residence in 1995 as part of his $150-million divorce settlement.
Thirty years ago, the mansion that newspaper czar William Randolph Hearst once bought for film star Marion Davies was for sale at $25 million, making it one of the highest-priced houses on the U.S. market.
What we’re reading
— The circa-1880 waterfront home of author E.L. Doctorow in Sag Harbor Village, N.Y., has sold for $2.5 million. According to a Newsday report about “The March,” a novel centered on General William Tecumseh Sherman’s “March to the Sea” during the Civil War, Doctorow wrote in the attic of the four-bedroom house.
— A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Los Angeles-based nonprofit Eviction Defense Network could open Airbnb to legal challenges from tenants who believe they have been illegally evicted to bring in higher-paying short-term renters.
— Home equity sharing — it’s back. Or did it ever leave? San Francisco-based Unison, a newcomer to the mass mortgage market, will match owner down payment funds in exchange for what amounts to an ownership stake in a house.
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