Hot Property: Outta this world
It’s not every week one reports on a $350-million home listing. In fact, this is the first time we’ve ever been able to do that. Chartwell, the estate of late Univision chairman Jerrold Perenchio, has come on the market as the most expensive residential listing in the U.S.
Set on 10 acres in Bel-Air, the 25,000-square-foot main house is surrounded by manicured gardens, a guesthouse, a swimming pool and a pool house.
But it’s not the only mega-manse moving to market. Owlwood, the onetime Holmby Hills home of superstar Cher, among others, has re-entered the fray at $180 million — twice what it sold for last year.
Too rich for your blood? Keep reading. We’ve stacked this week’s notable properties in order of descending price.
Once you’re done checking out these star-studded transactions, visit and like our Facebook page, where you can find Hot Property stories and updates throughout the week. That’s also a fine place to leave a tip about a celebrity home deal.
– Neal J. Leitereg and Lauren Beale
Shaving his price point
What price can you put on a dream?
For Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Costner, the amount just dropped from $60 million to $55 million. That’s the dollar figure he’s now asking for his 10-acre oceanfront spread in Carpinteria.
Costner purchased the freeway-close acreage about a decade ago with the vision of building his forever home there, but his plans have changed.
Set behind fences secured by cameras, the gently rolling bluff features 500 feet of oceanfront, a path to the beach and panoramic Pacific views. The Santa Barbara Mountains and islands are also visible from the equestrian property.
The actor has used the site for sports, a wedding and family enjoyment.
Costner, 62, won best picture and best director Oscars for “Dances With Wolves” (1990). This year he appeared in “Hidden Figures.”
The price of paradise
Oscar-winning director Mel Gibson discovered his 400-acre beachfront jungle getaway while scouting locations for his 2006 film “Apocalypto.”
Now the actor-director, known to roam the property with machete in hand, has put the retreat in Costa Rica up for sale at $29.75 million. He listed it three years ago at the same price.
Called Playa Barrigona, the estate includes three hilltop villas, a dining pavilion and more than two miles of coastline.
The courtyard-style main house features indoor and outdoor dining and living areas, seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms. All the houses have swimming pools.
The neighbors include sea turtles, ocelots and howler monkeys.
Gibson, 61, won best picture and best director Oscars for “Braveheart” (1995).
He judged it satisfactory
Adam Levine of Maroon 5 and “The Voice” singing competition show has bought an estate in Holmby Hills for $18 million.
Built in 1966, the French Regency-style home sits on more than an acre of grounds along the Los Angeles Country Club.
Features of the 9,200-square-foot house include a garden-view breakfast solarium, five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms.
A poolhouse, swimming pool, two-story guesthouse, three-car garage and gated motor court are within the fenced and gated grounds.
His own scene stealer
Jerry Zucker, the director of such film spoofs as “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun,” has his longtime home in Brentwood on the market for $15.475 million.
Set behind gates in Mandeville Canyon, the 1.6-acre estate centers on a traditional-style home designed by Santa Monica architect John Byers. The 1939 house was later refinished by White House interior designer Michael S. Smith, who expanded the floor plan to 10,000 square feet.
Beyond the red front door, the stately two-story includes formal living and dining rooms, a center-island kitchen, a billiard room, an office/den, a gym, six bedrooms and 12 bathrooms.
Outside, mature trees provide cover for a large paver patio and alfresco dining area. A detached guest house, a greenhouse, a swimming pool, lawns and gardens complete the grounds.
Multimillion-dollar buffer zone
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has expanded his footprint in Beverly Hills, buying a 1956 house on a half-acre lot that backs up to the Spanish-style estate he bought in 2007 for $24.45 million. Purchase price was $12.9 million.
Talk about a real-world firewall. The two properties total about 2.5 acres.
Tax records show the four-bedroom home has 4,586 square feet of interior space on one level.
Mature trees, patio space and a swimming pool fill the backyard. A motor court with two gated entrances marks the access to the property.
Bezos, 53, has a net worth of about $85 billion.
In case you missed it
When money’s no object, what must-have amenity do wealthy homeowners include? Safe, or panic, rooms are gaining ground on L.A.’s Westside. “You need to already be safe when you go to bed,” said Al Corbi, founder of Strategically Armored and Fortified Environments, which builds the heavily reinforced and secure spaces inside clients’ homes. “On average, it takes from seven to 10 seconds for a bad guy to travel from the break-in point to the master bedroom.”
From the archives
Ten years ago, then-Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt bought a Malibu house for close to its $33.5-million asking price from actors Courteney Cox Arquette and David Arquette. The architectural trophy home — known as the Segel residence — was designed by noted modernist John Lautner.
Twenty years ago, actress Julie Andrews and her husband, director-producer-writer Blake Edwards, sold their Brentwood home for about $5 million. The couple had owned the traditional-style house for seven years.
What we’re reading
A onetime home of notorious gangster Al Capone is for sale in Brooklyn, N.Y., at $2.449 million, reports Realtor.com. The main townhouse of the 2,980-square-foot structure has three bedrooms and 2.5 baths.
Facebook’s new Dynamic Ads for Real Estate allows real estate brokerages to target Facebook and Instagram users who have already searched on their sites. The ads will show relevant listings. Be careful what you look for — you could be seeing a lot of it in the future.
The sleepy California town of Nipton is under contract for sale to American Green, a cannabis investment firm, for $2 million. The Desert Sun’s Rosalie Murphy looks at what this means for the future of the 80-acre community and its residents.
