Hot Property: The beat goes on
We’re putting the band back together, Hot Property style. This week’s celebrity cycle marches to the beat of rockers, pop stars and top-tier musical acts, who tuned up plenty of real estate fodder around the country. Read on for our curated curtain call.
— Lauren Beale and Neal J. Leitereg
Musical chairs
Of note, the Southern California music scene is alive and well if musician real estate deals are a barometer.
Maroon 5 bassist Mickey Madden has offered up his hip place in Los Feliz for sale at $2.995 million. The super-cool 1960s crib has walls of glass and hallways around the perimeter that seem to bring the outdoors inside. He gets an A-plus for his architectural taste.
Singer-songwriter Kesha listed a charming Spanish-style home in Venice for sale at $1.849 million. Beyond the vine-covered archway entrance, the 1920s home has graceful coved ceilings and rustic wood plank floors.
Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Beck is flipping out of a nondescript Santa Monica home he bought earlier in the year. He and his actress wife, Marissa Ribisi, appear to have made liberal use of white paint throughout the 2,521 square feet of interiors.
Over on the East Coast, a Miami Beach spread once owned by Jennifer Lopez hit the right note with another musical talent. Singer Phil Collins paid $33 million for the waterfront estate, which features a contemporary European-style mansion and a boat dock along Biscayne Bay.
‘Transporting’ around L.A.
Jason Statham has been doing his best “Fast and Furious” impression on the Los Angeles real estate scene. He’s been involved with three properties totaling about $25 million, including two purchases.
The action star made a splash in April in Beverly Hills, buying a contemporary showplace from fashion designer Jenni Kayne and her husband, real estate agent Richard Ehrlich, for $12.995 million.
A month later, he moved on to Hollywood Hills West, where he bought a dapper Midcentury Modern man cave for $2.7 million.
On the sell side, Statham this week listed a 1929 Mediterranean in Hollywood Hills. The gated compound, once owned by actor Ben Stiller, is priced to move at $8.99 million.
Making headlines
USC Trojans football Coach Steve Sarkisian, who in April announced that he and his wife are in the process of divorcing, is looking to make a break from his loaded estate in Rolling Hills to the tune of $9.5 million.
Actors Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas, who are also estranged, sold their marital home in Hancock Park for $15.947 million, a record price for the area.
And how about this high-end flip: Hospitality mogul Sam Nazarian bought a Bel-Air home from Paramount Chief Executive Brad Grey for $25 million and promptly put it back on the market for $33.5 million — a 34% uptick in sticker price.
What we’re reading
Summer’s not even official yet, and our reading has turned to water woes. Mountain House, an upscale master-planned community of 15,000 residents in San Joaquin County, is facing loss of all water.
Who controls a homeowner’s right to not water his lawn? A reader in a community governed by homeowners associations is being threatened by the board for trying to save water.
And check out the side effects the drought is creating. More snakes, spiders and scorpions are finding their way inside homes in search of water, according to Mother Jones. The rain shortage may even bring the ever-elusive Sasquatch out of hiding.
