Hot Property Newsletter: Longing for simpler days?
This week’s collection is sprinkled with several houses known for their “celebrity pedigree.” What’s that, you say? These are places still associated with former owners of note. Our near and far examples include homes once belonging to an epic-making actress, a talk-show giant and a beloved ’60s sitcom goofball.
Speaking of the 1960s, you’d never know our Home of the Week was once a ranch-style house built in that era. The remodeled and expanded Studio City residence has been modernized inside and out to include a pivoting 5-foot-wide front door, a glass-enclosed wine wall and a remote-controlled backyard waterfall. The asking price is $2.895 million. Take the video tour at Fox 11.
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– Neal J. Leitereg and Lauren Beale
One for the win column
Nine-time NBA All-Star Chris Paul, who was traded by the Clippers to the Houston Rockets last summer, has sold his mansion in a gated Calabasas community for $11.05 million. He bought the place three years ago for $8.995 million.
With about 10,400 square feet of living space, the Mediterranean-style mansion is more than twice the size of a regulation NBA court. Among the features are a wood-paneled library/den, a golf simulator, a movie theater, six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.
The home, built in 2006, sits on close to two acres with a swimming pool and spa, a lighted tennis/sports court and a guest house.
The 33-year-old point guard averaged 18.6 points and 7.9 assists per game for the Rockets last year, helping the team reach the Western Conference finals.
Over the last year, he has sold others homes in Bel-Air and Woodland Hills.
Home of the original Bond girl
In an apparent flip, the onetime home of “Dr. No” Bond girl Ursula Andress in the Beverly Hills Post Office area has sold for $3.1 million.
The actress and model had sold the single-story contemporary last year for $2.28 million. She had owned the gated property since 1991, when she paid $965,000.
The house, built in 1960, looks like new with freshly painted light-toned walls throughout the 2,747 square feet of interiors. A sleek kitchen with a center island, a family room with a wet bar, three bedrooms and three bathrooms are among the living spaces.
Patio space frames the oval swimming pool.
The Swiss-born actress, now 82, won a Golden Globe for her role as Honey Ryder in the first James Bond film “Dr. No” (1962). She was the first of a series of Bond girls. Among the bombshell’s many other credits are “She” (1961), “The Blue Max” (1966) and “Clash of the Titans” (1981).
Back at the ranch
A Santa Ynez ranch where talk show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres left her stamp is for sale at $12.5 million.
The nearly 120-acre spread centers on a Mediterranean-style house built in 1993 and set at the end of a long gated driveway. The 3,545 square feet of living space includes two bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms in the main house.
An entertainment pavilion sits off the tennis court. Other structures include a three-bedroom, three-bathroom guest house, a manager’s house and barns. There are paddocks, riding arenas and pastures.
A swimming pool, a well and an acre of olive trees complete the grounds.
DeGeneres, 60, owned the property through a trust from 2005, when she paid $6 million, until the end of 2006. She sold for $11.65 million.
They split with home
The marital home that recently divorced actors Nikki Cox and Jay Mohr owned through a trust has sold in Pacific Palisades for $3.8 million.
The 2005 Monterey Colonial-style house, which was built in 2005, has 3,777 square feet of living space on two levels. There are a bonus room/office, a den, four bedrooms and five bathrooms.
The property previously changed hands in 2011 for $1.245 million.
Cox, 40, has been in such series as “Las Vegas” (2003-07), “The Jake Effect” (2006) and “Nikki” (2000-02).
“Saturday Night Live” alum Mohr, 48, has appeared on “Gary Unmarried” (2008-10) and “Ghost Whisperer” (2006–08). His film credits include “Pay It Forward” (2000) and “Jerry Maguire” (1996).
‘Surprise, surprise, surprise!’
Here’s a home that will have you uttering catchphrases made famous by the late “Gomer Pyle” actor Jim Nabors. His Honolulu estate is for sale at $14.888 million.
Set among palms on more than half an acre, the breezy spread features a Plantation-style house dating to 1950, a swimming pool, a cabana with a wet bar and 170 feet of frontage on Ke’ahamoe Bay.
The two-story home has five bedrooms and six bathrooms in nearly 5,900 square feet of living space.
Nabors, who died in last year at 87, became one of television’s most beloved personalities in the 1960s playing the naive Gomer Pyle on “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”
His favorite room
Have fond memories of Disneyland’s Enchanted Tiki Room? That was the inspiration for singer-actor Drake Bell in deciding how to decorate a spare room in his 1,500-square-foot Los Feliz-area home. A reflection of his childhood room, the space incorporates bamboo wall and ceiling coverings, a thatched roof overhang for a bar area and tropical floral prints.
Bell’s dad helped him with the bamboo and thatch work on the walls and ceiling.
From the archives
Ten years ago, actor Kelsey Grammer listed an English Country-style estate in Holmby Hills for $19.9 million. He had owned the home for about a year, buying it for $13.7 million. The 10,567-square-foot mansion sat on nearly an acre.
Twenty years ago, Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster listed a Woodland Hills condo for sale at $219,000. The contemporary townhouse had two bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms in slightly more than 1,300 square feet.
Thirty years ago, actor George C. Scott purchased the home of radio personality/TV host Wink Martindale in the Serra Retreat area of Malibu for $2.5 million.
What we’re reading
If you think home prices are high where you live, Bloomberg News takes a look at what’s happening in Hong Kong, one of the world’s priciest housing markets. There, scofflaws have begun living in industrial buildings, trading comfort and convenience for cheap rent.
The San Jose Diocese has bought its bishop a $2.3-million retirement home, reports the Mercury News. Now, some Catholics are questioning whether the five-bedroom, 3,269-square-foot Tuscan-style house is really a necessary expenditure.
