From left: Michael Jackson and Neverland Ranch, and Elizabeth Taylor (Credit: Getty Images)
Red Carpet preening at the Oscars and teary testimony from Michael Cohen offered stiff competition for celebrities hoping to make big splashes in the Los Angeles real estate market.
And once again the week was characterized by new listings and steep discounts in the ever-slowing luxury market.
Following some bad press from a new HBO documentary, the sellers of Michael Jackson’s famous Neverland Ranch have re-listed the 2,700-acre spread at less than a third of its original asking price. The ranch is now on the market for $31 million, down from $100 million in 2015. A fund managed by Colony Capital and Jackson’s estate are selling the property, located about 40 miles from Santa Barbara. The late singer paid $19.5 million for the home in 1987. Colony then poured in millions to renovate the property after Jackson died in 2009.
A Hidden Hills property spanning 7.4 acres has hit the market for sale for $25 million, potentially setting a new record in the celebrity enclave. The property includes a 14,500-square-foot residence with six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a movie theatre and gym. There’s also a 65-foot swimming pool and spa, a barn, two sports courts, and a pair of par-three golf holes, the Los Angeles Times reported. If sold at that price, the deal would top the most expensive deal in the gated community — Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s $19.7 million purchase in 2014.
In Beverly Hills Post Office, the former home of the late actress Elizabeth Taylor is being shopped around for $12 million. The current seller, retired attorney Marvin Gross, first listed the home for nearly $16 million last year. Spanning 7,760 square feet, the single-story residence includes six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and a swimming pool. Taylor lived in the home with her second husband, Michael Wilding, in the 1950s.
Disgraced casino mogul Steve Wynn is now officially the owner of a 6,500-square-foot Bel Air-mansion that was formerly owned by “Girls Gone Wild” creator Joe Francis. The two entrepreneurs had been involved in a legal squabble over the property since 2012, when a jury ordered Francis pay Wynn $19 million for slanderously claiming Wynn had threatened to kill him. Wynn, who stepped down from his eponymous company amid sexual misconduct allegations, had taken possession of the home through a foreclosure. The 0.89-acre property, which is valued at $6.7 million, has five bedrooms and seven baths.
The owner of James Franco’s former home is shopping the West Hollywood villa for nearly $7 million. Located directly below the Chateau Marmont, the 5,200-square-foot home has four bedrooms and five bathrooms. An individual named Alba di Angeli is selling the home, which she bought for $3.3 million in 2010. Franco, a Hollywood actor, lived in the home for four years before that, Yolanda’s Little Black Book reported.