Though they’re both red carpet veterans, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds much prefer to spend their time at home with their four young children. “Blake and Ryan are avid homebodies,” a source told Us Weekly last year. And it’s no wonder, given how reportedly stunning their multiple properties are and how much joy it seems to bring Lively to fill their spaces with beautiful art and decor. “I design my friends’ homes. For free,” Lively wrote in an Instagram post back in 2018, joking, “Of all the bad decisions I’ve made, this may be the most fun.” Over the years, the Gossip Girl alum has also shared new pieces that she’s added to their growing art collection, including work by artist and painter Megan Coonelly, as well as a custom painting of Reynolds’s childhood home. “This piece of art is the greatest present my wife has ever given me,” Reynolds captioned a photo of the painting by Danny Galieote in 2019. “If there’s ever a fire, I’m grabbing this first. I’ll come back for Blake.” The famously private couple is eager to keep their home life out of the spotlight, but over the years they’ve given their fans tiny glimpses into their various properties. Below, we’ve rounded up a few of those peeks into their gorgeous homes.
2010
Before Lively and Reynolds were an item, Reynolds owned a property in Los Feliz that he bought with his then wife, Scarlett Johansson. The pair paid $2.9 million for the restored midcentury-modern pad, known as the Wong House, built in 1969 by California architects Conrad Buff and Donald Hensman. The stunning one-story post-and-beam pad featured three bedrooms, including a primary suite with dual sinks and an outdoor bathtub, spread out across 2,835 square feet. Images of the residence reveal entire walls of glass and sliding glass doors that opened from the kitchen directly onto a wooden-deck patio, as well as a large pool and lawn. Following their split, the couple listed the home for $3.65 million in 2012 and sold it for $3.5 million shortly afterward.
2012
In early 2012, about six months after Lively and Reynolds began dating after meeting on the set of Green Lantern, the couple paid $2.3 million for a home in Bedford, New York, about an hour north of the city. Neighbors at the time included other Hollywood A-listers like Bruce Willis, Ralph Lauren, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The residence reportedly measured 4,753 square feet, with three bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms, with a two-bedroom guest suite situated elsewhere on the two-acre property. “They picked a very traditional kind of house for people who work in Hollywood,” a source told People at the time. “They wanted a house with character, not a trendy, modern house. Their place is very homey.” The couple sold the pad for a reported $2.4 million in May 2013 after buying a larger home in the area.
The couple next purchased a $5.7 million mansion in Pound Ridge, just a few miles away from their original upstate home. The entire estate reportedly spans 11.65 acres and includes an outdoor barn, while the main Colonial-style house measures 8,892 square feet, boasting seven bedrooms and six bathrooms. There is also a separate guest house. The small glimpses that Lively and Reynolds have shared of their home reveal dark hardwood floors, slate-colored walls, and a chic, rustic exterior. This is still their primary residence.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
