Newsletter: Hot Property: Back to our record-breaking year
Our laser focus is riveted on L.A.’s mega-mansion market. So it is with great pleasure that this week we include a transaction at the $100-million mark. The complex deal includes stakes in other properties as opposed to being an all-cash purchase.
For good measure, we’re throwing in some star-powered listings and revolving-door sales involving musicians and actors whose names you will likely recognize. Grab your beverage of choice, get comfortable and enjoy.
– Neal J. Leitereg and Lauren Beale
Divorce drives home sales
Relocation, death and divorce have long been main reasons for home sales. Now the marital home of singer-songwriter and fashion designer Gwen Stefani and her former husband, musician Gavin Rossdale, is up for grabs at $35 million.
The contemporary estate, set in a small gated enclave just north of Beverly Hills, was once owned by actress-singer Jennifer Lopez. She reportedly married singer Marc Anthony on the grounds in 2004 before selling the property later that year for about $10.95 million.
Stefani and Rossdale, who divorced earlier this year, had bought the house in 2006 for $13.25 million.
The uncoupled couple decorated the 11,845 square feet of living space with a range of unusual patterns, color accents and modern decor.
The two-acre grounds include a covered lounge, a patio with a wet bar, and an infinity-edge swimming pool and spa. A lighted tennis court, a playground, a chicken coop, lawns and formal landscaping complete the picture.
The two-acre estate in a guard-gated community was formerly owned by Jennifer Lopez. (Westside Estate Agency)
Piston-powered purchase?
Tom Gores, the chairman and CEO of Platinum Equity and owner of the Detroit Pistons franchise, has bought a newly built spec home in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles as part of a $100-million deal involving multiple properties.
Gores traded some of his Los Angeles-area real estate holdings, in which he will retain an interest. Included are two undeveloped parcels totaling 3.2 acres in Bel-Air. They were recently listed for sale at $47.9 million.
The new house Gores acquired, an estate of more than two acres on the grounds of singer Barbra Streisand’s former Mon Rêve, had been listed for sale since April at $150 million. The sprawling contemporary has some 30,000 square feet of interior space, with 10 bedrooms and 20 bathrooms in the main residence and several guesthouses.
The master suite itself measures 5,300 square feet — roughly twice the size of the average U.S. home — and opens to a heated covered patio.
Among other $100-million worthy features are a theater complex, a spa with a cascading indoor water wall that flows into a lap swimming pool, a hair salon, a private hiking trail, two infinity pools and a 10-car garage.
The spec house sold for $100 million, tying with the Playboy Mansion for priciest residential sale ever in Los Angeles County. (Simon Berlyn)
Gone so soon
Actors Emily Blunt and John Krasinski have sold their second home in Hollywood Hills West this year. The renovated single-story went for $3.505 million.
The fenced and gated house, built in 1965, came to market in September and was purchased two years ago for $2.595 million. Even with the remodeling costs and commissions, there was likely meat left on the bone in terms of profits.
The roughly 3,500-square-foot house has vaulted ceilings with exposed beams, hardwood floors and contemporary fixtures. A swimming pool and spa, a covered patio, lawns and mature trees fill grounds of more than a third of an acre.
Blunt and Krasinski sold another home in Hollywood Hills West for $10,000 over the asking price. (Redfin | Inset: Los Angeles Times)
They’ve spent the Sabbath there
A Beverly Hills home leased by famed rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his wife and manager, Sharon, is for sale at $26.895 million.
The recently reconciled Osbournes have rented the Georgian traditional-style home for four years for an undisclosed amount.
Designed by then architect-to-the-stars Paul R. Williams in 1955, the two-story house sits on about an acre with mature trees, formal gardens, a cabana with a gym, a guest house and two staff quarters. The 5,389 square feet of living space include a grand marble-lined entry, a grand dining room with seating for 20 and a wood-paneled media room with a fireplace and a wet bar.
Ozzy Osbourne, 67, is the co-founder and lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. Sharon Osbourne, 64, is a co-host on the morning television show “The Talk.”
The Paul R. Williams-designed home, now for sale at $26.895 million, was rented by the Osbournes for the last four years. (DYS Photography | Los Angeles Times)
Where ‘Potter’ star is planted
Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the “Harry Potter” film franchise, has put his home in Hollywood Hills West on the market for $1.449 million.
The single-story home, built in 1923 and since updated, features an open floor plan of more than 1,700 square feet of living space. The master suite has one of two fireplaces and an upgraded bathroom. The home holds a total of two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
A detached guesthouse/studio and a swimming pool are also on the grounds.
Felton, 29, bought the house two years ago for $1.275 million, records show.
Felton listed his home in Hollywood Hills West for sale at $1.449 million. (Redfin | Los Angeles Times)
Short spin cycle for soap star
Robin Strasser of “One Life to Live” fame has sold a house in the gated Thousand Oaks area community of Newbury Park for $1.05 million. She bought the house last year for $975,000.
The two-story home features vaulted ceilings, hardwood floors and a step-down living room that opens to the dining room. A family room with a fireplace, an eat-in kitchen and a media room/den are also within the nearly 3,000 square feet of interior space.
We’re sold on the many large windows, which take in dramatic mountain and greenbelt views.
Strasser sold her home in the Newbury Park area of Thousand Oaks for $1.05 million. (Redfin | Capital Cities)
From the archives
Ten years ago, Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage put his Bel-Air home up for sale at $35 million. The Tudor estate, built in 1940, encompassed slightly more than an acre. Earlier owners of the 11,000-square-foot main house and guesthouse included singer Tom Jones and entertainer Dean Martin.
Twenty years ago, actor Dustin Hoffman moved into his 12,000-square-foot family home in Brentwood. The walled north-south tennis court was completed months before the house, and Hoffman would often show up to play tennis and walk the construction site.
What we’re reading
— Home prices continued their upward climb in August, according to the most recent report from Standard & Poor’s CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index. Year-over-year prices rose 5.1% nationwide. This Associated Press article didn’t include Los Angeles, so we’ve looked it up for you. The L.A. metropolitan area has seen a 5.8% bump.
— We’re real estate reporters, not architecture critics, so every once in a while we’ll learn something new when working the beat. This week Realtor.com introduced us to the dogtrot house, a single-story style with a long hallway running down the center. Traditionally log cabins, they are also known as breezeway, dog-run or possum-trot homes.
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