Hot Property Newsletter: Revving back up?
Traditional real estate thinking is that the housing market holiday stall lasts until the Super Bowl. But there’s still turnover in the meantime. This week’s offerings include places with ties to the music world, film history and the sports scene.
Our Home of the Week in Alhambra struts its English Tudor Revival style with classic elements such as ornamental half-timbering, gables and leaded-glass windows. Antique fixtures and a vintage kitchen stove add period character inside the 1927 house, priced at $1.595 million.
Once you’re done reading about these deals, visit and like our Facebook page, where you can find Hot Property stories and updates throughout the week.
— Neal J. Leitereg and Lauren Beale
She got you, buyer
Singer and actress Cher has sold a home in the Beverly Hills Post Office area for slightly more than $2.07 million.
Built in 1957, the country English-style house sits on more than half an acre of grounds with a meditation garden and a koi pond fed by a man-made waterfall.
The four-bedroom, two-story dwelling has about 3,100 square feet of living space, reclaimed wood floors and exposed beams. There are fireplaces in the living room, the office/den and the master suite. A breakfast booth adjoins the eat-in kitchen.
Cher, 72, gained fame with the hit “I Got You Babe” as part of the 1960s duo Sonny and Cher. She won an Oscar for her role in “Moonstruck” (1987) and starred last year in the romantic musical comedy “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.”
Rocky Mountain high point
A Colorado property once owned by the late folk singer John Denver has come on the market in Aspen at $11 million.
Built in the early 1970s, the retreat retains its original stained glass and four wood-burning fireplaces. The 7,735 square feet of open-plan living space includes three wet bars, an office, a workout room, five bedrooms, five bathrooms and two powder rooms.
Views take in the forest, mountains and nearby ski slopes.
Denver, who died in 1997 at 53 while piloting an experimental aircraft, wrote the song “Starwood in Aspen” about the mountain home. Among his approximately 300 recorded songs were the hits “Take Me Home, Country Roads, ” “Rocky Mountain High” and “Sunshine on My Shoulders.”
Styled with slipcovers
A Colonial-style house in Brentwood for lease at $25,000 a month is owned by author, designer and entrepreneur Rachel Ashwell — who wrote the book “Shabby Chic.” Yes, that explains all the slipcovered furniture in the listing photos.
The 1931 home is entered through gardens planted with lavender, roses and herbs. The inside, studded with beaded chandeliers, features an open-plan living room, a dining room that can seat eight and a media room. The 3,276 square feet of living space also includes five bedrooms and three bathrooms.
A balcony off the master suite overlooks the saline swimming pool and spa.
Ashwell, 59, moved to L.A. from London, opened a home furnishings store in Santa Monica in 1989 and filled it with flea-market finds. The trend-setter went on to host the show “Rachel Ashwell’s Shabby Chic” from 1999 to 2003 and has written numerous books.
$3.4 million in green
The onetime home of visual effects film pioneer Carroll Dunning has sold in Hollywood Hills for $3.4 million.
Dunning, co-founder of the Dunningcolor Corp., developed an early processing technique for adding backgrounds to scenes filmed inside a studio in front of a green screen. It was first used in the 1933 monster-adventure classic “King Kong.”
The renovated four-story house retains its arched windows, wrought-iron fixtures and hardwood floors. The 4,775 square feet of interior space includes a living room with a tile fireplace, a formal dining room, an office, five bedrooms and five bathrooms.
Terraced patios, pathways, manicured gardens, a sunken fire pit and a saltwater swimming pool complete the grounds.
A goalie with a goal
Hockey goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has put his custom home in Las Vegas on the market for $2.5 million.
The Tuscan-vibe contemporary, built in 2015, features a little over 6,000 square feet of interior including an open-plan kitchen, a den with a fireplace, an office, five bedrooms and 4.75 bathrooms.
Outside, steps lead down to a sunken conversation area with a fire pit. Also on the property is a detached casita.
Fleury, the first overall pick in the 2003 NHL entry draft, spent his first 13 seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The 34-year-old joined the Las Vegas Golden Knights in 2017 and last year led the team to the Stanley Cup Final.
Her favorite room
“Grey’s Anatomy” actress Kelly McCreary shares a 1,400-square-foot Los Angeles apartment with fiancé and show director Pete Chatmon. The living room, her favored spot, is one of the only rooms in the house where they added new things as a couple, rather than intermingling their previous possessions.
“My schedule often changes on a day-to-day basis, so my time alone is during the day and this room gets such amazing sunlight,” she says.
From the archives
Ten years ago, actress Beverly D’Angelo listed a 1920s Spanish-style house in Beverly Hills at $2.185 million. The five-bedroom, 4,045-square-foot house had a two-story entryway, arched doorways and a step-down formal living room with beamed ceilings.
Twenty years ago, former sitcom star Ellen DeGeneres and her then-partner, actress Anne Heche, put their Hancock Park home on the market at $3.5 million.
What we’re reading
After Rick Knudsen won $180 million in the California Mega Millions lottery five years ago, he went on a real estate buying spree. Now he’s ready to sell his 50-acre Eagle Crest Mountain Estate in the Yucaipa/Oak Glen area, a buffalo ranch on an adjacent 155 acres, another 640-acre mountainous property and a nearby steakhouse and saloon — all for $26 million — reports the San Bernardino Sun.
ICYMI: California is legions ahead of the rest of the country in terms of priciest ZIP Codes for 2018 home sales. The state took 82 of the 117 most expensive spots or roughly 70% of the list compiled by real estate database PropertyShark, reported the Times’ Jack Flemming. The Bay Area city of Atherton led the way.
