It was a good 2015 for the high-end property market, and entertainment celebrities and financially fortunate sorts did not just watch that opportunity slip away and got busy changing their residential portfolios. Variety has the details on who cashed in and who will keep making profits this 2016.
First, Jason Statham who sold his 1920s Mediterranean located in the Hollywood foothills to "Big Bang Theory" star John Galecki for $9.2 million. He made quite a fortune from that sale given that he bought the property from Ben Stiller for only $.735 million in 2011.
Then there's Tobey Maguire making nearly $2 million in only about a year from the sale of his six-bedroom LA estate for $10.4 million to nutrition bar moguls Ronald and Shannan Penna. Meanwhile, Jonah Hill is making real estate waves in two coasts: selling his Los Angeles abode for a profit of $650,000 and his New York City pied-a-terre at $400,000 more than its asking price.
It's also a pretty good deal for 'Pretty Woman' Julia Roberts when she bid adieu to her 2,400-square-foot condo in Greenwich Village, making $850,000 more than its asking price of $4.5 million.
Now, if you ask who the biggest winner is among the celebrity real estate players, it would be Michelle Williams. Buying a townhouse in Brooklyn's Boerum Hill in 2005, she made easy $5.2 million after selling the ivory-encrusted estate for $8.8 million - $1.3 million more than the $7.5 million asking price.
But will these celebrity property players continue with their burning desire to deal multi-million dollar homes given Kiplinger's and Forbes forecast of increased home prices this 2016? Probably not.
After the undeniable success of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," it would not come as a surprise if J.J. Abrams, after moving into his $15 million Pacific Palisades mansion not even two years ago, would drop big bucks for an A-list estate this 2016. What could that multi-million mansion be? Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner's sprawling compound above Mandeville Canyon is up there in the considerations. According to some insiders, the property is open to be toured by potential buyers who won't bat an eyelash at the $45 million asking price.
British chanteuse Adele is also on a hunt checking posh properties in the Los Angeles area over the past year, and Sumner Redstone's 15,000-plus-square-foot contemporary set between Sylvester Stallone and Paul Reiser's estates in extravagant Beverly Park enclave in Beverly Hills could be the suitable luxe for the award-winning singer.
And how else to wrap it all up but through show host and serial house-flipper Ellen Degeneres. Known for her star-studded real estate portfolio, and that she rarely hangs on to a property for more than a couple years, 2016 will sure be a year for Degeneres to clean sweep her string of estates. Possibly giving Degeneres fortunes are her Montecito estate, some swanky LA condos, and her newly renovated 1960s contemporary in Beverly Hills that she bagged in an off-market deal late last year.
