Filed under: Estates

Even in one of the hottest real estate markets in the United Says people are starting to feel the pinch of the foreclosure crisis. The AP has a story on the falling housing prices in one of the most beautiful and high-priced areas in the country. In January, home sales fell more than 55 percent from the year before. The number of houses at any stage of foreclosure jumped by 152.9 percent. So far the very pricey wine towns of Calistoga, Yountville, St. Helena and Rutherford are still doing well but the city of Napa and the town of American Canyon have been hard hit, finding that the newer housing developments are particularly vulnerable both to lack of sales and forecloures.

Part of the worry for Napa is that its exponential growth has been fueled by wine tourism which might begin to wane in the current economic climate. Currently condos, offices and retail stores are under construction, designed to appeal to the tourists and part-time residents. While the general wisdom seems to be that recessions don’t cause people to halt drinking wine, it may cause them to cut back on winery tours which would impact other luxury retail businesses which have come to the area in the past couple of years.

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Filed under: Estates

If there were real estate staging awards (and really there should be, I might just need to create them) then today’s listing might be nominated in the “most obvious” category. This three-bedroom New York condo loft at 76 Crosby is the one of those white New York box condos and instead of using colorful furniture to warm the place up a bit the stagers used white sofas, white flowers, white towels in the restroom. Also, I think the Barcelona lounge chair should be stricken from the stager’s playbook. The condo’s walls are blindingly white but the bathrooms are dark stone and tile caves of bathing retreat. The opaque glass wall in the living room also gives me pause, it makes the space seem rather narrow. The apartment is over 5, 262 square feet of space but the photos don’t seem to show that to best effect. Coincidentally, when I was googling around for more information on this building I saw that Curbed covered this place yesterday pointing out that both Gawker head Nick Denton and cheery Television personality Kelly Ripa inhabit the same building. I also found an old sold listing at Corcoran with a very similar staging job. This one is listed at $9.4 million.

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Filed under: Estates

Earlier this year I mentioned the listing for the Land’s End Inn in Provincetown, MA. Now another inn has gone on the market in another Massachusetts resort area, Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard. This classic white clapboard home is an 1890s Captain’s Home which was renovated in 1993 and operated as The Tuscany Inn. Now it is a private residence with L’Etoile restaurant on the main floor. There are eight guest rooms, eight and a half baths, two dining rooms with seating for forty people, terrace dining seats and a bar area. The building has a restaurant kitchen with basement wine storage. There are jarbor views from the second and third floors. Unfortunately the listing photos for this one are even worse than the bad ones we saw for the Land’s End property so you’ll have to use your imagination to conjure up an Edgartown summer evening. It is listed at $8.7 million.

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Filed under: Estates

It’s tempting when an actor plays a beloved character on television to assume that the actor and the character are the same. Today’s estate is proof of the difference between a character and the actor who played him. This Tudor home in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles would never do for Jack McFarland from “Will & Grace” but it’s perfect for Sean Hayes, the actor who played him. You’re not getting flamboyance here. The Real Estalker Mama, who first had this story, found it a bit stuffy and it’s a fair criticism. It’s definitely not the Frankie Muniz style pop art funhouse, it’s the home of a person who is settled in. But oh we should all be able to settle in like this. One of the Real Estalker Mama’s commenters mentioned that it seemed like a Midwestern luxury home and it does remind me of something one might see in Winnetka, Illinois. The wood-paneled office, the formal dining room and the grand staircase all give it the feel of the lovely home you must leave behind in order to become a Hollywood star.

The four-bedroom home has all sorts of lovely spaces. There is a marble and wood master lavatory that’s almost living room sized. The yard features a charming pool area and an outdoor fireplace and pleasing area. The Real Estalker Mama reports that Hayes bought the home in 2001 when it was listed at $1.575 million so no matter what he’s going to make some money on the deal. As well he should (although maybe not quite as much he’s hoping for with an $8.95 million listing).

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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

From the NY Post’s Gimme Shelter:
–As we saw on Friday, Tommy Hilfiger has put his Greenwich, Connecticut home on the market for $27.9 million.
–An oceanfront estate with a $65 million asking price has just gone to contract on exclusive Gin Lane in Southampton.
–It’s official, Parker Posey has sold her one-bedroom co-op for $1.3 million and bought a two bedroom on lower Fifth Avenue for around the same price.
–Retired Goldman Sachs manager turned bed-and-breakfast proprietor Robert Mnuchin, and his wife, Adriana, have spent $20 million for a full floor co-op at 944 Fifth Ave.

From the NY Observer’s Manhattan Transfers:
–Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb has shut on his famous $45 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West. No mortgage records were filed with the deed, which suggests that Mr. Loeb paid cash to satisfy the most expensive sales price ever on Central Park West.
–Even though he passed away in Monaco last March, the British skyscraper developer Howard Ronson has added to his real estate portfolio. His limited liability corporation just paid $11 million, according to public deeds, for the Berwind Manor’s glass penthouse. It’s not clear if his widow controls his real estate deals now, but his brokers stated it was Ronson’s idea to purchase the mansion piecemeal.
–Lawyer Aaron Charney who sued his firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, last year alleging homophobia and collected a settlement, has bought a penthouse. He and a partner just paid $1.495 million for a penthouse at the newly converted condo at 93rd Street and Broadway.
–Developer Bruce Ratner has paid $6.9 million at 128 East 62nd Street.
–A $38 million Upper East Side mansion designed by Stanford White in 1903 has gone to contract. Rumor has it that the buyer is Thomas Montag, the former co-head of securities trading at Goldman Sachs.

From The Wall Street Journal Online’s Private Properties:
–The ex-wife of technology entrepreneur Warren V. “Pete” Musser has decided to auction off her Philadelphia Main Line estate on April 19. Interior designer Hilary Grinker Musser is reportedly willing to accept as little as a quarter of its original $12.5 million asking price, the suggested opening bid of $3 million.
Columbia Law School professor Hans Smit, who’s listed a mansion, shown above, for $30 million, has turned down a $20 million offer. I can almost understand why, it’s an elegant 1909 French Renaissance-style marble home with all sorts of original details. Check out the listing here.

From Berg Properties Large Time Listings:
–Model/heiress Lydia Hearst pays $1.49 million for a two-bedroom condo in Mid-Town Manhattan.
–Billy Howerdel, a guitarist who founded and played in A Perfect Circle, has sold his four-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills for $1.875 million.

From the Real Estalker:
–Veronica Hearst’s 28,000-square-foot Villa Venezia mansion on 3.77 acres in Manalapan, Florida sold at a foreclosure auction in Florida this day for $22 million. Rumor has it that Greg Norman might be interested in picking it up.
–Russ Weiner, founder of Rockstar energy drinks has cut the price on his Hollywood Hills home from $22 million to $15.9 million. Check out the property website here. He has also dropped the price on his Franklin Hills home around $2 million, it’s down now to $2,995 million.
–(via the Telegraph) Indian billionaire Lakshi Mittal has put his mansion on Bishop’s Avenue in London on the market for

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Filed under: Estates

This one intrigues me because it’s a nice example of taking an existing building and creating a new structure. This home in the Ellsworth section of Sharon, Connecticut started with a Meeting Home, built in 1812. There’s a beautiful main room with original wide-plank floors, enormous windows, and a big working fireplace. The upper portion of the Meeting House has been converted to living/guest quarters with rustic details and marble bath. In the rest of the home there’s also a first floor master bedroom suite with massive master bath, additional second floor master bedroom suite, large home office, pantry/utility room, radiant heated floors and a three-car attached garage. The home is on 5.69 acres with stone walls and ponds. It is listed at $2.495 million.

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Filed under: Estates

I was going to leave this one for the Sunday Real Estate Round-Up but I couldn’t wait. Stone Hill in Greenwich, Connecticut is one of the homes belonging to Tommy Hilfiger. According to information from the NY Post the designer will be moving into the Plaza in Manhattan when his duplex is completed. Hilfiger purchased this new home in 2005 for $18 million and worked his decorator magic. The 20,000-square-foot home has seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, a huge great room, basketball court, spa with a waterfall, theater, gym and a big 2,000-bottle wine cellar.

I’m a tiny embarrassed by just how much I love the decor on this one. In general I’m not a fan of a home decorated to within an inch of its life but this one is an excellent product of the Ralph Lauren/Tommy Hilfiger luxe American style.The decorator did a great job incorporating the art and the home is luxurious without being overly formal. It’s similar in style to his Further Lane property (which he recently sold for $26.5 million) right down to the use of orange accents. This one is listed at $27.9 million.

[Thanks, Lana]

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Filed under: Estates

The Pink Palace isn’t pink any more but the mansion in Atlanta’s Buckhead area retains the name from the time when it was pink. The mansion was built in 1926 for the Rhodes Furniture family and is a six-bedroom stucco Italian Baroque-style home on four acres at the corner of West Paces Ferry and Tuxedo roads. The home was designed by Atlanta architects Neel Reid and Philip Schutze and has large public rooms designed for grand amusing. The murals are totally dazzling. What makes this one even more interesting is the renovation. it has been remodeled so that it runs on geothermal energy (turning a $6500 a month energy bill into an apartment-sized $150). They removed 18 layers of lead paint from the doors, windows and walls and all doors and door frames were removed, made square, and put back in. The attic on top of the sun room and family room was changed turning the ceilings/roofs into floors. The servants quarters were transformed into more massive living space. It’s an odd mix, you have rooms that are typically old South, grand and ornate, but you also have light-filled modern spaces with clean lines. The graceful renovation made the home modern and sustainable but managed to maintain its original style in the original rooms. At $20 million it’s the most pricey listing in Atlanta.

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Filed under: Estates

The location alone makes this one total estate of the day bait. Then we add in the names, the eight-bedroom home was built in 1890 by Gilded Age architect Stanford White and the exterior layout was designed by the king of landscape architects Fredrick Law Olmsted. The property in Larchmont, New York has a fantastic location on a private peninsula on nearly three acres. The views of Long Island, Westchester and New York City are nothing short of fantastic. The listing says a renovation took place in 1994 but this massive 21,000 square foot home looks care about it is need of a large scoop of loving care and a lot of cash to make it sparkle. It’s priced at $14 million.

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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

The date has finally been set, unless the situation drastically changes, Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch will be sold at auction on March 19 becoming what is likely the country’s most famous foreclosure. According to Fox News, Jackson received word Monday from Financial Title Company that unless he comes up with $24,525,906.61 by that date, a public auction will go forward in Santa Barbara in front of the county courthouse. The home and everything inside and around, personal property, the rides on the grounds, all of it is going.

Jackson hasn’t been spotted at Neverland since June 2005. In that time he’s lived in Bahrain, Ireland and Las Vegas among other pit stops on his global tour. It is assumed that Jackson will just do nothing and let the property go up for auction since he probably does not have the money even though he refinanced his $300 million loan from Fortress Investments with help from Sony Music, HSBC and Barclays Bank.

Jackson moved out of Neverland after he was acquitted of child molestation charges. He did pay around $600,000 in property taxes last month. If no one bids on Neverland then Fortress Investments will take possession of the property and will likely put it on the market through a Santa Barbara real estate agent.

UPDATE: CNN quotes a Jackson source as saying Michael is trying to work out the financing.

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