The Biggest Celebrity Real Estate Losers of 2010

Filed under: Famous Homes, Celebrity Homes, Cool Homes

What do Scarlett Johansson, John Mayer and Chris Tucker have in common? They all lost big on real estate this year.

Many American homeowners lost their shirts, their shorts and even their homes when the U.S. economy fell off the wall like Humpty Dumpty. Two years later the government still struggles to put it all back together again while regular hardworking Americans and stars of all stripes continue to be pummeled by the steep devaluation of their real estate investments, many of which were purchased at the peak of the recent real estate bubble.


Even though they priced them far below what they paid, there were oodles of celebs who failed to sell their homes in 2010 and many who lost substantial amounts of money, even when they did manage to offload their properties. And still other famous folks, like Latoya Jackson, Timothy Busfield and hip-hop entrepreneur Damon Dash, found themselves forced into foreclosure on luxurious and expensive residences they could no longer afford.

One of the biggest losers in the 2010 celebrity real estate game was idiosyncratic and stunningly beautiful actress Scarlett Johansson who plunked down a very A-list $7 million to buy a huge house in May of 2007 in the star studded Outpost Estates section of Los Angeles. (This was before she wed Ryan Reynolds; she and Reynolds made headlines this week when they announced their marriage was over after just two years.) Her neighbors included Oscar nominated desperate housewife Felicity Huffman and Oscar winner Charlize Theron. Property records show Johansson caught a very serious and costly case of the real estate fickle and sold the 1930s Spanish hillside villa at a pocketbook punishing $3 million loss in June of 2010.

It was only in August of this year that Johansson and the equally beautiful Ryan Reynolds paid $2.9 million for a mid-century modern love nest in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. Now that they're headed to divorce court, could it be that they're facing another extreme financial real estate loss in 2011?

The biggest loser in the 2010 celebrity real estate game is Academy Award winner and notorious property collector Nic Cage whose extensive real estate woes became tabloid fodder. Cage claimed his financial bedevilment was due to financial malfeasance by his (now former) business manager Samuel J. Levin whom he sued for $20 million and settled with for undisclosed terms in the fall of 2010.

Before that happened the eccentric actor watched ten or more million bucks evaporate when many of his dozen or more homes around the world were sold off for far less than he paid. He lost several more posh properties into the angry maw of foreclosure. He sold a Bavarian schloss at a steep discount in 2009, lost more than a million American bucks on a castle he owned in the English countryside, and he sold an historic estate in Middletown, Rhode Island at a multi-million dollar loss. A large Las Vegas mansion slipped in to foreclosure as did two historic and fabled mansions he owned in New Orleans. The nail in Cage's real estate coffin in 2010 was when his legendary primary residence in the swank Bel Air section of Los Angeles - formerly owned by Dean Martin and Tom Jones - was seized by the bank.

Nic Cage is not the only famous person to endure bone-crushing blows to their bank accounts due ill-timed real estate transactions. Singer/songwriter and notorious self-promoter John Mayer recently put his house in the Pacific Palisades area of L.A. on the market for $1.325 million, a lot of money for most people to be sure, but $425,000 less than he paid for the property in the summer of 2006.

Young actor Adam Brody (from "The O.C.") also acquired a high-priced residence at the height of the raging real estate bubble. In April of 2006 he shelled out $2.25 million for a 1916 traditional in the foothills above Hollywood that he bought from Limp Bizkit front man Fred Durst. Four years later and Brody now has the house on the market with a price tag of $1.99 million, $235,000 less than he paid.

Nashville and its surrounding semi-rural suburbs burst at the seams with music stars, some of whom lost their real estate chaps in 2010. Texas-based American Idol Kelly Clarkson has her Nashville, TN pied a terre on the market for $1.449 million, about $40,000 less than she spent for the 4,900-square-foot house in August of 2007.

All Sheryl Crow wants to do is sell "Cross Creek Farm," her 160-acre spread outside Nashville in itty-bitty College Grove, TN. Crow coughed up a total of around $4.5 million to buy up the solar powered horse farm with its 10,000+ square foot mansion. In May of 2010 Crow hoisted the property on the market with an asking price of $7.5 million. The property did not sell and she arranged for a late November auction that carried a minimum bid of just $1 million. Unfortunately for Crow, the real estate gods where not smiling on her and the auction closed without the reserve price being met, which means Crow still owns her money pit in Tennessee.

Another celebrity sitting between a rock and a real estate hard place is comedian Chris Tucker who, like Nic Cage, found himself in a whole mess of tax problems in 2010. In June of 2007, Tucker shelled out a whopping $6 million for a 9,000-square-foot Monteverde, FL mansion. The heat from the IRS is probably one of the reasons Tucker opted to list the waterfront property in the summer of 2010 at a shocking short sale asking price of $2 million. As of mid-December the property appears to have been taken off the market, but, according to property records, is still owned by the cash strapped Tucker.

Back in Los Angeles, where the rich and famous famously buy and sell houses at an alarming rate, many were caught with their real estate pants down as a result of the continuing economic turmoil. Quirky multi-Grammy winning musician Beck took it on the real estate chin not once but twice in 2010. In January, he and his wife Marissa Ribisi sold a single story house in the Point Dume area of Malibu at a painful $400,000 loss. A few months later the unlucky in real estate couple sold a fully renovated Hancock Park area mansion for $5.6 million to "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice" writer/producer Shonda Rimes. The sale price reflected a heart stopping $1.15 million loss on the $6.75 million they paid for the 6 bedroom and 9 bath mansion just three years earlier.

With the economy still limping, unemployment disastrously high and the real estate markets, for the most part, still hobbling around on crutches, it's highly likely that, just like not-famous folks all over the country, even more celebrities will find themselves faced with some difficult real estate choices in 2011.

For more on celebrity homes, don't miss:
- Ryan Phillipe Selling His Home
- Gwyneth Paltrow Loves This Furniture Designer
- Is Oprah Moving?

 

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