Hot Property Newsletter: The temperature’s rising and so are some high-end home prices
Like so many dominoes, home sales price records continue to fall one after another this summer. The latest to topple previous records is not on L.A.’s exclusive Westside but in Ventura County, where the Thousand Oaks estate of an entertainment mogul sold for $35 million.
Our newly renovated Home of the Week in the Hollywood Hills blends elements of traditional and Japanese-style architecture. Paper-paned shoji doors filter natural light within the nearly 6,300 square feet of living space. The asking price: $7.9 million.
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– Neal J. Leitereg, Jack Flemming and Lauren Beale
One for the books
The Thousand Oaks compound of entertainment mogul Thomas Tull and wife Alba Tull has sold for $35 million, making it the highest priced residential sale ever in Ventura County.
The previous high-water mark for the county was set by a home that sold in 2017 for $20 million.
The founder and former chief executive of Legendary Entertainment and his wife began assembling the 33-acre compound nearly a decade ago.
At its heart is a 32,000-square-foot chateau inspired by 18th-century French architecture. An 11,000-square-foot guest house and a two-story photo studio/auto museum are among roughly a dozen other structures on the estate.
The stone-clad main residence includes three levels of living space filled with custom millwork, domed ceilings and rich wood paneling. A lower wing holds a sports collectibles museum, and a sports lounge/viewing room is Pittsburgh Steelers-themed, a nod to Thomas Tull’s part-ownership in the football franchise.
There are 12 bedrooms, 32 bathrooms and more than 50,000 square feet of indoor living space across the entire compound.
It’s a knockout
Legendary boxer Sugar Ray Leonard has listed his grand villa in Pacific Palisades at $51.995 million.
Covering nearly two park-like acres, the estate has a 16,700-square-foot mansion, a two-story guesthouse, a swimming pool, a tennis court and a putting green.
Winding paths navigate the verdant grounds, stopping by a deck perched over the tennis court and a poolside kitchen.
Leonard, 63, is considered one of the greatest boxers of all time. From 1977-97, he won 36 of his 40 fights en route to world titles in five different weight divisions as well as an Olympic gold medal.
He’s asking retail
John O’Hurley’s Beverly Hills home has made the catalog — or make that the MLS. The actor, who gained fame for his role as clothier J. Peterman on the sitcom “Seinfeld,” is asking $6.5 million for the gated 1923 Mediterranean-style villa and guesthouse on more than a third of an acre of grounds.
The portico entry opens to 5,391 square feet of updated interiors featuring Venetian plaster, high ceilings, custom wrought-iron doors and detailed stonework. The five bedrooms and nine bathrooms include a master suite with two balconies, two bathrooms and walk-in closets.
The lower-level media room and wet bar access an outdoor entertaining area with an irregularly shaped saltwater swimming pool and a spa.
O’Hurley, 64, hosted “Family Feud” from 2006-10 and has scores of voice acting credits.
Groucho Marx smoked here
A Hollywood Regency-inspired traditional once owned by the late Groucho Marx — he of the sibling comedy team the Marx Brothers — has sold in Hollywood Hills West for $3.679 million.
The cigar-chomping, mustachioed comic actor bought the 1930s two-story home in 1946, the same year he starred in “A Night in Casablanca.”
Entered through a two-story foyer with a herringbone-patterned wood floors, the 3,700 square feet of living space include a formal living room with ornate molding and a fireplace, a formal dining room, four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms.
French doors open to a brick patio, a swimming pool and a spa. There’s also a changing room with a steam shower and a sauna.
Marx, who died in 1977 at 86, started on vaudeville and was in 13 Marx Brothers films. He hosted the radio and television show “You Bet Your Life.”
Legendary schusser’s Utah getaway
A home held in a family trust of the late alpine skier Stein Eriksen is for sale in Park City, Utah, at $6.8 million.
Set along the fairway of a golf course, the 7,838-square-foot hideaway takes in unobstructed pasture, mountain and ski run views.
The main level, on the second floor and reached by a wrought-iron rail staircase, includes the master suite and a living room and a media room that share a two-sided a fireplace. The ground floor has three apartments for a total of five bedrooms and 5.75 bathrooms.
Eriksen, who died in 2015 at 88, was the top slalom racer in Norway in 1949, winning gold and silver medals for his country at the 1952 Olympic Games in Oslo. Good-looking and charismatic, he became one of the sport’s early superstars.
His favorite room
Screenwriter-producer James Vanderbilt, who penned 2012’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” and Netflix’s current “Murder Mystery,” makes his Malibu home office in a two-story, 900-square-foot guesthouse. The light-hued lower floor has a designated writing space, memorabilia and a sunken entertaining area.
From the archives
Ten years ago, NBA player and former Laker Kwame Brown had listed his super-sized house in Playa del Rey at $2.975 million. The contemporary, with four bedrooms and five bathrooms in a roomy 6,329 square feet, had a breakfast bar large enough to seat a starting lineup. “My favorite part is the movie room in the basement,” Brown told The Times. The media room had a built-in projector, a screen and a wet bar.
Twenty years ago, supermodel Cindy Crawford and her husband, businessman Rande Gerber, purchased a Malibu home to remodel for just under $5 million.
Also 20 years ago, jockey Chris Antley, who rode Charismatic to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness that year (1999), purchased a 3,000-square-foot Pasadena home for its asking price of just under $1.2 million.
What we’re reading
Airbnb has all sorts of places for short-term rental nationwide, but this Chicago offering is a standout, reports CBSnews.com. The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile sleeps two and comes equipped with a sitting area, a mini-fridge stocked with franks and free parking. All for $136 a night.
Not into neighbors? A Greek island is paying families about $500 to live there, reports House & Garden. The island of Antikythira, between Crete and Kythira, has a year-round population of just 24 and is hoping to attract several young families with children to revive the island. They are particularly interested in bakers, builders and fishermen.
