Celebrity Real Estate
Singer Dido is planning to sell her house in the Hollywood Hills. The property, located at 9133 Oriole Drive, is listed at $4.6 million. Oriole Drive is one of the famous “Bird Streets†in the Hills, home to numerous celebrities, including Dido’s next-door neighbor, Spiderman creator Stan Lee and just down the street, Leonardo DiCaprio.
Tabloid reports are saying that Britney Spears has bought herself a new house at 5150 Tennyson Place in Hermosa Beach for $6 million. Not quite the celebrity hotspot like the Hills, Spears’ reported new house includes the typical expensive house features, as well as a full vintage Irish pub.
News
This past week has been full of bad news for the housing market. As reported in the Times this week, Countrywide Bank began a program of requiring a larger down payment from borrowers in about 100 counties across the country. And guess what, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Santa Barbara are all among those counties.
Data released by the Southland Regional Association of Realtors showed that home sales in December 2007 were over 50 percent lower than sales in December 2006. Sales prices had dropped almost 15 percent. The SRAR blames the problems on financing, not the economy. But financing problems do not figure to improve much. In addition to the news about Countrywide Bank, banks have not lowered mortgage rates despite the recent reduction in the interest rate by the federal reserve.
Estate of the Week
If you have $21.5 million to spare and always wanted to live the rich O.C. lifestyle, then check out the property at 2555 Altamar in Laguna Beach. Part of the Irvine Cove complex, which has less than one hundred residences, this house gives you access to the complex’ private beach. Listed by Hilton & Hyland in January and built just last year, the house has five bedrooms and six and half bathrooms. 
Anyone with the money to buy this house won’t have any worries about the bad credit situation, so act quickly.
Events This Week
There is a Home Remodeling and Decorating Show from Friday through Sunday at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. If you’re looking to sell your home, or just fix it up, this show is a great chance to get some ideas of what you might want to do to your home.
In Indio over the same three days there will be another show in a similar vein. The Desert Spring Home and Garden Show is an annual event with exhibits on myriad ways to improve your home.
Dido photo by Neo 27 via Flickr
Estate of the Week photo via Hilton & Hyland website
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