Homes of the world's most powerful celebrities in 2013
Every year Forbes releases its Celebrity 100 list, a ranking of America’s top stars as measured by earnings and fame. With the help of Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Zillow and others, we’ve dug through listings and property records to uncover where these actors, singers, athletes and public personalities bed down for the night. We included homes bought and sold in the past year as well as a few long-term nests. Perhaps not surprisingly, most are located in the Los Angeles area.
The hottest neighborhoods among the Tinseltown elite are Beverly Hills’ Trousdale Estates and Hollywood Hills’ Bird Streets, two side-by-side communities perched high in the hills above Sunset Boulevard. “The reason that they are so much in demand right now is the view,” says Sally Forster Jones, an L.A.-based Coldwell Banker Previews International real estate agent who has helped broker deals for the likes of Barbra Streisand, Candy Spelling, Jessica Biel and Arnold Schwarznegger. “Celebrities, particularly, really want a drop-dead view and they will go to any lengths to get it. Price is less material than having the view.”
Here are the top 10:
1. Oprah Winfrey
Celebrity 100 Rank: No. 1
Pictured Home: Promised Land, Montecito, Calif.
Sale Price: $50 million in 2001
Current Market Value: $88 million
The media billionaire’s 23,000-square-foot Georgian-style manse sits on more than 40 acres, boasting a tea house, more than 600 rose bushes and an upscale outhouse.
2. Madonna
Celebrity 100 Rank: No. 5
Pictured Home: French country-Style Estate, Beverly Hills, Calif.
List Price: $22.5 million
Listed With: Sotheby’s International Realty
The pop powerhouse put her Beverly Hills compound on the Multiple Listing Services in January after reportedly shopping it quietly as a pocket listing. The property spans 1.25 acres and has a 17,000-square foot home with nine bedrooms, multiple offices, staff quarters, a two-story dining room, a gym and a resort-style pool. She recently sold a duplex co-op apartment in Manhattan’s Harperly Hall building for $16 million, a 32% discount off of the initial $23.5 million asking price. She currently resides in a triple-wide Georgian townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side purchased for $32.5 million in 2009.
3. Taylor Swift
Celebrity 100 Rank: No. 6
Pictured Home: Oceanfront Mansion, Watch Hill, R.I.
Sale Price: estimated $17 million in 2013
The country-pop princess has kept busy with real estate. In April news broke that Swift had purchased a Cape Cod-style Rhode Island beach home, spanning five acres and 700 feet of beachfront, all-cash. Earlier this year she flipped another beach estate in Hyannis Port, Mass. for about $5.7 million — a decent profit on the $4.8 million she shelled out for the Cape Cod retreat in November. Other properties include a Cape Cod-style home in Beverly Hills, Calif. that the songstress bought in 2012 for $4 million and two properties in Nashville, Tenn. area.
4. Jon Bon Jovi
Celebrity 100 Rank: No. 7 (for the entire Bon Jovi Band)
Pictured Home: New Museum Penthouse, New York, N.Y.
List Price: $42 million
Listed With: Corcoran Group
The rock star purchased his Manhattan penthouse, located in SoHo, in 2007 and reportedly poured millions into renovations. The 7,452-square foot spread has five bedrooms, five and a half baths, wood-burning fireplaces, multiple terraces and floor-to-ceiling windows offering 360-degree views of the city.
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