Hot Property Newsletter: Did you blink?
We’re declaring the holiday real estate doldrums officially over. This week’s lineup features heavyweights in the acting, singing and talk show hosting worlds. And for good measure, we’ve thrown in a pitcher, a 1960s sitcom favorite and the house that was the scene of a memorable television drama catfight.
Our Home of the Week is a newly built residence in Brentwood with a design twist. Two wings — one cylindrical, one box-like — give the contemporary-style home, priced at $17.8 million, an asymmetrical appearance.
Once you’re done reading about these deals, visit and like our Facebook page, where you can find Hot Property stories and updates throughout the week.
– Neal J. Leitereg, Jack Flemming and Lauren Beale
The place attracts power couples
Actors and former couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have sold their marital home in Pacific Palisades to singer Adam Levine and his wife, model Behati Prinsloo, for $31.95 million.
The ranch-style house has been a popular spot for entertainment elite since Gregory Peck and his first wife, Greta, made their home there in the 1940s and ’50s.
The low-slung house has about 8,800 square feet of living space, five bedrooms and eight bathrooms. Lawn, a swimming pool and a guest house make up the three acres of grounds. Also on the property is an office/gym/art studio.
The 46-year-old Affleck received an Oscar for best screenplay for the 1997 film “Good Will Hunting” and won another for “Argo,” the 2012 film he directed and starred in. Garner, 46, is known for her role on the television series “Alias.”
Levine, 39, is the lead vocalist and guitarist for the Grammy-winning pop-rock group Maroon 5; he has been a coach on “The Voice” TV singing competition since 2011. Prinsloo, 29, has been featured in ad campaigns for such luxury brands as Juicy Couture and Tommy Hilfiger.
Where he’ll be playing host
Trevor Noah, host of “The Daily Show,” has shelled out $20.5 million for an eye-catching estate in Bel-Air.
Set on 1.31 acres, the 10,044-square-foot home is entered through a pivoting front door. In addition to five bedrooms and seven bathrooms, the home has a wine cellar, a movie theater, a cigar room and a wet bar with a 500-gallon aquarium.
Out back, a grassy lawn approaches a 62-foot swimming pool with a cantilevered edge.
A native of South Africa, Noah has found success in comedy and television. After joining “The Daily Show” as a correspondent in 2014, he succeeded Jon Stewart as host the following year and inked a five-year extension in 2017.
Chelsea Handler’s rerun
It’s the time of year when homes come rushing back onto the market after taking the holidays off. Among those owners who have now returned to the fray is talk show host, comedian and producer Chelsea Handler, whose Bel-Air house is back up for sale at $10.95 million. A year ago it was priced at $11.5 million.
The two-story Midcentury Modern-influenced house has 5,572 square feet of updated living space, including a living room with a fireplace, a den with a fireplace, a family/game room, six bedrooms and seven bathrooms.
The more than half an acre of walled and gated grounds contains an outdoor lounge, an outdoor kitchen, a swimming pool and spa.
Handler, 43, is the former host of the talk shows “Chelsea Lately” (2007-14) and “Chelsea” (2016-17).
Shazam! Now that’s oceanfront
The waterside estate of late actor Jim Nabors, known for his 1960s TV role as Gomer Pyle, has sold in Hawaii for $12 million.
Set on the shores of Honolulu’s Ke’ahamoe Bay, the property centers on a plantation-style home of nearly 5,900 square feet with six bedrooms and seven bathrooms.
A covered lounge area opens directly to the swimming pool. Across from the pool is a cabana with a wet bar. Dotted with tall palms and tropical landscaping, the lot has 170 feet of beach frontage.
Nabors, who died in 2017 at 87, played the lovably naive Pyle on “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” He later reprised the character in the television movie “Return to Mayberry.”
No stranger to curveballs
Former Padres pitcher Jake Peavy has sold a house in a San Diego golf course community for $2.75 million. The property previously changed hands a decade earlier for $3.5 million.
Set in the gated Santaluz development, the 2009 single-story is entered through a courtyard in keeping with its Spanish style. The close to 7,000 square feet of living space includes a game room with a wet bar, six bedrooms and seven bathrooms.
The more than 1.5-acre property features a sport court, a putting green and a swimming pool.
Peavy, 37, has pitched for such big league teams as the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox and the San Francisco Giants. The former All-Star was the National League Cy Young Award winner in 2007.
Ready to cast a new owner
A Pasadena mansion that was a location for the ‘80s prime-time soap opera “Dynasty” is back on the market this year at $19.5 million. Arden Villa, as the gated estate is known, first came on the market in 2017 at $28 million.
The Palladian-inspired Italianate house is where characters played by Linda Evans and Joan Collins famously duked it out in the lily pond. Scenes from films including “Terms of Endearment” and “Billy Madison” were also filmed on the property.
Built in 1913, the four-story house retains period details including wainscoting, ceiling medallions and parquet floors. Including the 2,430-square-foot guest house, attic level and finished basement, there are 10 bedrooms, 11 bedrooms, game rooms, a wine cellar and office space within the 17,586 square feet of interiors.
Lawn, gardens, a tennis court and two swimming pools complete the three acres of manicured grounds.
His favorite room
Music producer Warren “Oak” Felder finds he is most creative in his 3,000-square-foot Sherman Oaks home when he enters “the spaceship,” a subterranean music studio that blends comfort with cutting-edge recording technology. Outfitted with two walls of books, soundproofing baffles and a relaxing couch, the room is a place “that helps inspiration strike.”
A faux-fur rug provides a comfortable place for his size-17 feet.
From the archives
Ten years ago, Olivia Newton-John sold her Malibu home for more than $10 million. The Mediterranean-style house had four bedrooms and seven bathrooms in 6,482 square feet. The 1.28-acre compound included a pool, a spa and a two-bedroom guesthouse.
Twenty years ago, David Cassidy, the former member of TV’s “Partridge Family,” bought a five-bedroom, 5,600-square-foot-plus home on more than an acre in Las Vegas for $850,000.
Thirty years ago, comedian Bob Hope, known to buy but never sell real estate, and his wife, Dolores, sold a vacant lot in the Hollywood Hills, overlooking Universal Studios.
What we’re reading
Some owners of homes along California golf courses are having bigger problems than just staying out of the bunker. The Wall Street Journal looks at a Poway community where the fairways are brown, the greens are gone and the buildings are being vandalized.
ICYMI: In a move to lessen the housing crunch, California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to cut state funding for cities that block homebuilding, the Los Angeles Times reported.
