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A Swedish real estate agent has listed an unusual piece of property on the market for sale: a five-bedroom house, complete with medieval tomb and skeleton in the cellar.
The ’skeleton house’, located in central Visby on the Baltic Sea island of Gotland, was built in 1750 on the foundations of a Russian church. The kitchen lies on the presbytery, and the tomb containing the skeleton — visible through a glass panel — is in the cellar.
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A piece of furniture like this really does make a home special — with money, of course!
When this 18th century Florentine ebony chest - inlaid with amethyst quartz, agate, lapis lazuli and other stones – sold for US$36 million at a 2004 Christie’s auction, it broke its own record as the most expensive piece of furniture sold at auction.
The Badminton Cabinet, so named because it remained in Badminton, England, for over two centuries, had set the previous record in 1990 when Christie’s sold it to billionaire Barbara Piasecka Johnson (of the Johnson & Johnson fortune) for US$16.59 million. Johnson put it up for sale in 2004, when it was bought by Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein, who donated it to the Liechtenstein Museum in Austria.
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Life is hectic when you’re a celebrity – there’s long hours spent on the film set or at the recording studio, endless beauty appointments, countless shopping sprees, gruelling hours spent sweating it out with a personal trainer, plus not to mention endless hours of partying!
So every celebrity needs a sanctuary they can go home to and sit back and relax in after a hard day’s work being rich and famous. And these celebs are doing a pretty good job of it…
It’s difficult for your everyday person to imagine why anyone would give up a Malibu home with 80 feet of beachfront, but surely Cox and Arquette must have their reasons. One could be the US$20+ million profit they stand to make if their asking price is met. The couple paid US$11 million in 2001 for the four-bedroom, five-bathroom John Lautner-designed home.
Built on over 100 feet of Oahu beachfront, Timberlake and Diaz’s Hawaii compound spreads across 1.5 acres on the windward side of the island. Between the main house and the outbuildings, there are 12 bedrooms, nine bathrooms and over 11,000 square feet of living space – which is a good thing: The couple, who have since split, will need all that space to avoid each other.
Talk show host and comedienne DeGeneres bought this Montecito, California, spread in October for US$16.9 million. It boasts four bedrooms and eight bathrooms and sits on four acres with a pool, tennis court and both mountain and ocean views.
Bought from former Miami Heat teammate Rony Seikaly in 2004 for US$18.8 million, NBA star O’Neal’s 20,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style Star Island home has eight bedrooms, an indoor basketball court, an outdoor tennis court, swimming pool and a dock.
Down from the original asking price of US$13.5 million, Spears’ 9,200-square-foot Serra Retreat home in Southern California houses a dance studio and recording studio – perfectly fit for a pop princess.
After separating from his wife Kimora Lee Simmons, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons put his 10-bedroom, eight-bathroom house in Saddle River, New Jersey, on the market. The 35,000-square-foot mansion has a movie theatre, an expansive home gym and both indoor and outdoor swimming pools – what a crib!
Colombian singer Shakira plans to pack up and leave her Star Island home. The 6,500-square-foot mansion, which has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a swimming pool and private dock, boasts a Biscayne Bay beachfront and neighbours including Matt Damon and Ricky Martin.
Canadian pop star Lavigne bought her 12,000-square-foot Calabasas, California, mansion from Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. The Tuscan-style home has eight bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, as well as an elevator, sauna and 10-car garage. Lavigne and her now ex-husband, Sum 41 singer Deryck Whibley, are no strangers to pricey properties: their Beverly Hills mansion was on the market for US$6.2 million.
For Gwen Stefani, the transition into family life with husband Gavin Rossdale and son Kingston meant selling her bachelorette pad in party spot Los Feliz, Los Angeles, and moving into this 10,000-square-foot Hollywood Hills mansion on two acres of gated land.
Desperate Housewives star Longoria’s 8,500-square-foot Mediterranean mansion in the Hollywood Hills houses six bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a home theatre, game room and gym, boasts canyon and city views.
The 9,500-square-foot Beverly Hills home of CNN’s King and wife Shawn Southwick has seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms. Its defining feature is its roof, made from the tiles of a 200-year-old Italian monastery. The move wasn’t too difficult for the couple, who previously lived eight blocks away.
After more than 20 years, DeVito and wife Rhea Perlman have decided to make a move from their Beverly Hills manse. Designed by architect Wallace Neff, the country French-style home has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The sizable 14,500-square-foot interior has a home theatre, sound studio and gym to complement the two outdoor pools.
He may be proud of his Chicago roots, but bad-boy rapper Kanye West seems to have settled in well to luxury L.A. living. He splurged around US$7 million for this Beverly Hills spread. The 3,300-square-foot home has six bedrooms and four bathrooms, an acre of space and a pool.
The Serra Towers in Los Angeles are famous for their high-profile residents. Cher lives there, and Lindsay Lohan just unloaded her apartment in the complex. Now, Elton John and his partner David Furnish have purchased a 1,800-square-foot condominium there. The unit has two bedrooms and a balcony on the 20th floor.
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The chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board chairman, Ben Bernanke, said publicly last Tuesday the worst recession since the 1930s is ”very likely over.”
But while the news was positive, Bernanke emphasised in his speech on the economy last week in Washington that people shouldn’t be looking for a dramatic recovery. It will be more of a slow-moving improvement, where the economy inches toward expansion, but without a sudden return to economic boom anytime soon.
Bernanke’s point about the end of the recession was highlighted by a 2.7 per cent jump in retail sales for the month of August, according to the US Commerce Department. This is an important indicator, as the key to reviving the economy again is to get consumers spending, and that appears to be happening. Not just for auto sales, which got a big boost in August from the US government’s Cash for Clunkers programme, but also for other key categories, like food and clothing purchases, department store retail, and entertainment and restaurant spending. All these experienced an increase for the month, after having been mainly down for well over a year.
One reason for the pick-up in consumer spending is that people are feeling more confident about the direction of the economy in the months ahead. They see the stock market up, so their retirement funds are bouncing back.
They also see home values stabilising or growing in most areas, so their equity is beginning to increase again.
The one big negative – especially a downer for the housing market – is the unemployment rate, which Mr Bernanke said won’t be coming down fast, even with the end of the recession. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Americans who do have jobs have seen their real wages rise this year, up five per cent – the largest annual gain in 50 years.
Meanwhile, the US mortgage market continues to be exceptionally positive for housing sales and values: 30-year fixed rates averaged just above five per cent last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, and 15-year loans averaged 4.4 per cent.
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2011 has had more history changing events than almost any other year since WW2. Revolutions [...]
