From a mansion in Miami to a condo in Atlanta, big-name actors and professional athletes have wasted no time marketing their luxury properties for sale.
Key Facts
In Miami Beach, tennis star Caroline Wozniacki and her husband, former NBA player David Lee Want, have listed their sleek penthouse for $42.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reported—the property includes five bedrooms and six bathrooms, a marble kitchen island, private rooftop pool and a bar overlooking the water.
A sprawling mansion formerly owned by actor Tyler Perry and featured in the movie “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” is for sale for $6 million and likely to go up for auction early this year, David Ashcroft of Platinum Luxury Auctions told Forbes, complete with six bedrooms, marble floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, a theater and gym in 16,500 square feet of living space—plus an infinity pool and al fresco dining area.
Rex Tillerson, who served as the Secretary of State for a year under former President Donald Trump, listed his four-bedroom, 5,709-square-foot Washington, D.C. townhouse for sale late last year for $6.5 million—$1 million more than he paid for it.
NBA all-star Joel Embiid has put up for sale a two-story Philadelphia penthouse that includes two bedrooms, a rooftop pool and skyline views for $5.5 million.
An 1895 property that once housed writer Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson, is listed for sale in Chicago for the first time in 55 years; the $2 million property includes two studio apartments with separate entrances, a five-bedroom main house and a three-bedroom coach house with two car garage.
Michael Soroka, a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, is selling his 3-bedroom townhome in Atlanta for $1.15 million with a gourmet kitchen, custom built-ins and workout room.
Chicago White Sox pitcher Michael Soroka’s Atlanta townhouse.
Charles Guthrie/Dorsey Alston Realtors
Big Number
$190 million. That’s how much Beyoncé and Jay-Z paid for a Malibu property that topped the list of the most expensive homes sold in 2023, according to the Wall Street Journal. Others that topped the list include a $170 million home in Palm Beach bought by luxury car dealer Michael Cantanucci and his wife, Rush Limbaugh’s former home that was sold to billionaire William Lauder for $155 million and an unknown buyer who purchased a Greenwich, Connecticut, mansion for $138.8 million.
Key Background
The overall housing market saw a decline in 2023, largely due to high mortgage rates that saw would-be buyers pump the breaks on home purchases. At least five deals closed for $100 million or more in 2023, alongside 33 properties that sold for $50 million or more, according to the Wall Street Journal—those numbers are down from seven and 44, respectively, in 2022. While interest rates have cooled over the last several months following a 2023 peak of 7.79% in October, the week ending Jan. 4 saw the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rise to 6.62% and experts warn the new year may not bring much reprieve. While the overall market may see improvements in 2024, uncertainties about inflation, debt and fear of a potential recession could mean more of the same.
A three-unit home that Ernest Hemingway once inhabited in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.
Stephen K. Rachman/Marcus & Millichap
Tangent
A number of celebrities are starting the new year in a new (ish) home with the purchase of high-dollar properties. Kevin Love, who signed an $8 million contract with the Miami Heat basketball team last year, paid $95 million for a 6,400-square-foot, 7-bedroom home with a wine cellar and pool late last year, according to the Real Deal. Actress Zoa Saldana of “Avatar” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” fame was recently revealed to have purchased a $17.5 million Spanish Colonial-style estate in Montecito last year, complete with a tennis court, pool, guest house and attached two-bedroom apartment. Rapper Kendrick Lamar is said to have recently purchased a $8.6 million penthouse in Brooklyn, New York, which includes four bedrooms, a sprawling kitchen and two stories of living space.
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.
