Brangelina Compound Grows – Celebrity Real Estate News for January 22 2010

This week has has some spectacular Juicy Celebrity Real Estate News including the Brangelina Compound, a George Bush teardown, a Detroit Lion in a lion's den of trouble, and Christina  Aguilera selling her home. All of these great stories are provided by Zillow.com.

We last reported on the expanding Brangelina compound last winter and it looks like Brad Pitt was in the purchasing mood again. The always-on-top-of-things Big Time Listings reported that Pitt bought another house, which turns out to be the critical piece to unify all five of his properties in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Pitt’s most recent purchase is a home that was built in 1920 and is rather small with only two bedrooms on 0.25-acres. Turns out Pitt got quite the deal – the home was originally listed for $2 million.

Pitt’s other properties, which are all adjacent to each other, include:

5769 Briarcliff Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90068

On the other side of the Briarcliff residence, along Valley Oak Drive are:
5742 Valley Oak Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90068
5750 Valley Oak Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90068
5752 Valley Oak Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90068

According to Big Time Listings, all of the properties together results in more than 1.8 acres of land.

Song-bird Christina Aguilera’s home is back on the market, after a brief absence, for $6.25 million. The home was originally listed for $7,995,000 back in April 2008, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The 6,500 square foot home, built in 1960, is located in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles; it has 5 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. There is also  a “private screening room” which seats 18, plus a gym, pool, 12-person spa and fireplace.

She bought the home in 2003 for $5 million after it was remodeled by designer Steve Hermann.

And of course, there is a view of the ocean.

This past November, workers from Billy Nabors Wrecking pulled up to 10151 Daria Pl, Dallas, TX 75229 and tore the house down. The house belonged to former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, who also own the house next door at 10141 Daria Pl, Dallas, TX 75229;  the 10141 address is the home the Bushes moved into last February.

Dallas Dirt’s Candy Evans speculates why the Bushes tore it down:

The former first family apparently wants to expand their present yard. Realtors familiar with the home, which was listed last year for $1.6 million, say it is not all that desirable for building anyhow,  since a creek runs along the northern edge, and it really needed to be scraped.

WFAA.com interviewed a worker from Billy Nabors Wrecking who said he believes the lot will stay vacant and the Bushes simply wanted a bigger yard.

Neighbors of the Bushes in Preston Hollow include Mark Cuban (owner of NBA’s Dallas Mavericks), H. Ross Perot (billionaire and former Independent candidate for president), and Tom Hicks (co-owner of NHL’s Dallas Stars and Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers).

It’s heartbreaking to hear stories of foreclosure, but when it’s a celebrity foreclosure, you wonder how it can happen. Former Detroit Lions lineman Luther Elliss, 36, who was paid almost $11.6 million from 2000-04, already lost his Utah home to foreclosure and now Elliss is prepared to walk away from his Oakland Township home.

According to The Detroit News, Elliss has filed bankruptcy, his savings are gone and he is relying on area churches and friends to help him land in a safe place. Evidently, Elliss made some poor investment choices and had liabilities that included mortgage debts on two homes (one in Utah and one in the Detroit area), an office building, delinquent taxes, credit card charges, legal fees and tuition at a Christian school. The married father of 11 had this to say about his predicament:

“The Lions did a good job, they put on financial programs that we had to attend talking about investing and saving money, gave statistics on how many of us would be broke,” Elliss said. “Guys were saying, ‘It’s not going to be me, I’m too smart for that.’ And here I am, one of those guys.”

Here’s a data point that is shocking: A recent Sports Illustrated article “How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke” reported that 78 percent of former NFL players will either file for bankruptcy or experience financial distress within two year of retirement and within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke.