Luxe Living

2012 brought us oodles and oodles of celebrity real estate news and tidbits. From salacious to snooze-worthy, if it was happening in celebrity real estate, you could read about it on Trulia Luxe Living.

This year in celebrity real estate wasn’t positive for everyone. Some stars were actually losing money on their big ticket real estate items. Let’s take a look at some of the losers:

Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russell in Malibu

The longtime Hollywood lovebirds aren’t loving the $5 million-dollar price cut they had to make on their Bali-style Malibu mansion. For many years, Goldie and Kurt put their Malibu beach house on the summer rental market with an asking price of $95,000 per month. In the summer of 2011, the longtime duo  not only lowered their monthly asking price to $80,000 per month, they also placed the beachfront property on the open market with an asking price of $14,749,000. Two scorching summers and many months passed and no buyer stepped up to the plate. It’s still lingering on the market.

Matthew Perry in the Hollywood Hills

Matthew Perry has been trying to “unfriend” this home for the better part of a year.  After hitting the market in October 2011, Perry took it off the market and then relisted the home for $5,295,000 – a price reduction of $400,000. It’s still waiting for a buyer to come in and make an offer.

Kimora Lee Simmons in Beverly Hills

The usually fabulous Kimora Lee Simmons, faced a not-so-fabulous situation when it came time to unload her relatively modest Beverly Hills estate for $4,650,000. The Style Network star of her own reality show, “Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane” purchased the “country home” around the height of the market in 2007 and is now taking a dose of a different kind of reality – that of a down real estate economy. Like many sellers in today’s struggling market, Kimora sold at a loss and was forced to slash 21 percent of her original $5.9 million buying price.

Meg Ryan in Bel Air

In 2008, Ryan had her Bel Air home listed for an optimistic $19,500,000. With no buyers at that price, the asking fell to $14,200,000 and was eventually converted to a $40,000-a-month lease. Ms. Ryan tried her luck again in the real estate game in April 2012 by listing her 6 bedroom, 7 bathroom, 6,877 square foot home for a new, improved and much lower asking price of $11,400,000. It eventually sold for $11,000,000.

Hulk Hogan in Bellaire, Florida

Maybe Hogan doesn’t know best after all, at least when it comes to real estate. Former Wrestlemania super-star, Hulk Hogan (real name: Terry Bollea) sold his 17,145 square foot Tudor-style mansion in Bellaire, FL for $6.2 million. The property has been on and off the market since 2006 and was originally listed for $25 million, then discounted to $9.24 million in July 2011.

Lauren Conrad in the Hollywood Hills

Lauren purchased the home for a very star-like sum of $2,360,000 in early 2008. Her neighbors weren’t big fans of Conrad or the caravans of tour buses that rolled by the home on a regular basis, so Lauren fled for a another residence higher in the hills (naturally), and rented the home out for a while, before putting it on the market for $2.25M. It eventually sold for $2M and Conrad lost almost $400,000 on the deal.

Reese Witherspoon in Ojai, California

Reese Witherspoon is trying to let go of her Tennessee-style Ojai, CA estate. She listed it with a bang, asking for a cool $10 million. Within weeks, Witherspoon lowered the price to a more realistic asking price of $8.9M. It’s still awaiting a buyer.

Since we’re not all doom and gloom over here, there’s one beacon of hope in the celebrity real estate game this year:

Ellen Degeneres & Portia de Rossi 

The married duo sold the Malibu beach home that they purchased from Brad Pitt  for $12M in December 2011. They sold the home in June 2012 for $13M to cosmetics entrepreneur Victoria Jackson. That’s a nice profit after less than a year of ownership. Oh, and they also sold their other monster estate to Ryan Seacrest for $37M. Not too shabby, ladies.

Ellen and Portia have just taken another ride on the real estate merry-go-round. The married duo have just sold the Malibu beach home that they purchased from Brad Pitt 7 short months ago. According to The Real Estalker and public records, Ellen and Portia purchased the home for $12M in December 2011 and sold the home in June 2012 for $13M to cosmetics entrepreneur Victoria Jackson. That’s a nice profit after less than a year of ownership.

What’s the skinny on Ellen and Portia’s dearly departed Malibu manse? The ‘house that Brad built‘ is fully equipped with its own private beach entrance. The combined living space is made up of two separate homes overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Point Mugu State Park and features stunning panoramic views throughout. The grounds include a tennis court, pool, and lavish landscaping, allowing for privacy. The property boasts a very modern design with glass walls, sleek ceiling, over sized chandeliers, and stainless steel appliances.

According to gossip machine TMZ, Hollywood’s hardest-working businessman Ryan Seacrest has officially swooped in on Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi’s former Beverly Hills digs for $37M. DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi first listed the property back in October 2011 and shortly thereafter moved into Brad Pitt’s more private bachelor pad. Hollywood sure does keep it in the family!

Seacrest is currently searching for a new owner for his former Los Angeles estate, which is listed for $11.985 million.

The multi-talented Seacrest has completely taken over Hollywood since his American Idol hosting debut in 2002. He is currently an on-air personality for two Los Angeles radio shows, an executive producer for eight television reality shows -most notably heading the Kardashian television take over,- a host on the ever-popular E! News, and touching young children’s lives daily with The Ryan Seacrest Foundation. If that wasn’t enough, Seacrest has also just recently signed back on to host American Idol Season 12, as well as taken on a spot on the Today Show as a guest correspondent.

It’s no wonder Ryan can afford to buy this ginormous 2.87 acre compound!

The full property consists of a main house, two additional guest cottages and an extra three-bedroom house. The entire 15,000 square foot property was featured on Architectural Digest in November 2011 and gives a great sneak peak at the history behind its evolution. According to the article, Degeneres purchased the main home fully furnished from Will & Grace cocreator Max Mutchnick after falling in love with it when invited over for an American Idol viewing party – how ironic is that!

Degeneres and de Rossi added their own flare to the residence by purchasing the two neighboring properties, installing a koi pond, scattering dozens of trees for privacy, and toning down the formal décor to give the reclaimed-wood floors and wooden beams a more relax feel. It is unknown if Seacrest purchased the compound fully furnished but by the look and sound of it, various LA talents have made their artistic marks on it, so we hope he was able to keep as-is!