Hot Property newsletter: Hot times in the real estate market

Aug. 29, 2020 7 AM PT

August can be depended upon for heat, but that doesn’t usually translate to the housing market. Yet, we’ve found a bundle of recent deals involving a mega musician, a model and actors. So sit back and relax while you make your way through this week’s collection.

Our Home of the Week is a Pasadena residence of towering proportions. A copper mansard-style roof gives the Italian villa-style home a monument-like appearance. The two-story, three-bedroom house was built in 1979 and is listed at $6.58 million.

Once you’re done reading about these deals, visit and like our Facebook page, where you can find Hot Property stories and updates throughout the week.

— Neal Leitereg, Jack Flemming and Lauren Beale

A legend in its own right

Power couple John Legend and Chrissy Teigen have put their contemporary home in the 90210 area up for sale at $23.95 million.

The hillside house, set on nearly an acre and once owned by singer-songwriter Rihanna, has seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms within 8,500 square feet of living space. A grand parlor with a sculptural staircase under 33-foot ceilings leads into a step-down great room with a two-story wall of glass. Several balconies overlook a landscaped backyard with a saltwater swimming pool, a spa, a wood-burning oven and a pergola wrapped in vines.

Legend, 41, has won 11 Grammy Awards, including two for best R&B album — “Get Lifted” (2004) and “Wake Up!” (2010). He won an Oscar for the song “Glory,” from the 2014 film “Selma,” and recently released his seventh studio album, titled “Bigger Love.”

Teigen, 34, is a television personality, model and author. She hosted “Lip Sync Battle” from 2015 to 2019. She currently appears on the new court show “Chrissy’s Court,” on the short-form video platform Quibi.

A Presley is leaving the building

Actress Priscilla Presley has put her longtime home in Beverly Hills on the market for $15.995 million.

The rustic Italian-style mansion sits behind gates on an acre of grounds. Built in 1951 and since updated, the house has vaulted ceilings, exposed beams and arched doorways. The primary suite — one of seven bedrooms and 8.5 bathrooms — opens to a private terrace.

Outside, brick steps lead from the house to a tiled swimming pool. There’s also a tennis court on the property.

Presley, 75, was married to iconic singer Elvis Presley for about six years and previously served as chairwoman of Elvis Presley Enterprises. As an actress, she is known for her roles in “The Naked Gun” films and the prime-time television soap opera “Dallas.”

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There is a doctor in the house

Kevin McKidd is on a selling spree. A few months after unloading his longtime Hollywood Hills home, the “Grey’s Anatomy” actor is asking $3.175 million for his place in Sherman Oaks. He bought the two-story traditional through a trust in 2018 for $2.925 million.

Other than painting the primary bedroom navy blue, McKidd appears to have kept the 4,800 square feet of living space pretty much the same. The home has multiple fireplaces, five bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms, a formal dining room and a tiled kitchen

A covered patio, lawn, a swimming pool and a spa fill the backyard.

McKidd, 47, is known for his role in the film “Trainspotting” as well as the series “Rome” and “Journeyman.” The Scottish actor has appeared on “Grey’s Anatomy” as Dr. Owen Hunt since 2008.

A scene worth investigating

Emmanuelle Vaugier is ready to part with her longtime retreat in the Hollywood Hills. The actress, known for her roles in “CSI: NY” and “Two and a Half Men,” just listed the place for $1.595 million.

Covering roughly half an acre, the property has a front courtyard with a lily pond. In back there are multiple decks, a waterfall, a spa, a sauna and an outdoor shower.

The 2,239-square-foot house contains a living room with a wet bar and fireplace, a black-and-white galley-style kitchen, two bedrooms and three bathrooms.

Vaugier, 44, has TV credits including “Smallville,” “Lost Girl” and “Human Target.” On the film side, she appeared in “Saw II,” “Saw IV” and “40 Days and 40 Nights.”

The agent’s mission: Possible

An English Country-style home in Westwood once owned by late actor Martin Landau and actress Barbara Bain has hit the market at $3.879 million.

Entered through a rotunda foyer, the house wraps around a stone courtyard with a dining area and fireplace. A library under beams, a brick billiard room with a wet bar, four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms are within the roughly 3,700 square feet of living space. A trellis-topped brick patio leads to a swimming pool, sauna and fire pit.

Landau, who won an Oscar for “Ed Wood,” and Bain, who won three Primetime Emmys for her role in “Mission: Impossible,” owned the 1930s haunt during their 36-year marriage.

Landau, who died in 2017 at 89, was also nominated for Academy Awards for the films “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” and “Crimes and Misdemeanors.” The New York native received a Golden Globe nomination for “Mission: Impossible,” in which he appeared with Bain.

Bain, 88, has regularly starred in films and TV shows since the ‘50s, with credits including “Space: 1999” and the 2009 horror film “Forget Me Not.” The pair were married in 1957 and divorced in 1993.

From the archives

It was 30 years ago when ol’ blue eyes, Frank Sinatra, and his wife, Barbara, purchased an oceanfront tear-down on Malibu’s Broad Beach for about $3 million. The one-third-acre property was on the same stretch where Dustin Hoffman, Steven Spielberg and Jack Lemmon had homes. The home, since updated by Sinatra’s architect Ted Grenzbach, took another star turn earlier this year when it sold to comedian Mindy Kaling for $9.55 million.

Twenty years ago, “Charlie’s Angels” star Farrah Fawcett shook up her real estate portfolio, selling her longtime Bel-Air home and listing another L.A. property for $1.65 million. Record producer Allen Sides was the buyer of the Bel-Air home, which measured about 9,000 square feet on three acres.

Ten years ago, the Malibu property known as La Esperanza entered the market for $12.6 million. A local landmark for decades, the Mediterranean villa-style home was used as a beach retreat by actress Greta Garbo in the 1930s. It had been restored in the 2000s before hitting the market that year.

What we’re reading

There aren’t many homes that can claim the builder of the Empire State Building in their pedigree. This Greenwich, Conn., manor was once home to Paul Starrett, the man behind that iconic structure and other New York landmarks, reports SecondShelters. The nearly three-acre estate has 15,710 square feet of living space and is listed at $8.295 million.

The midcentury-modern house in Brentwood that was used to portray a Miami home in the 1980s-era sitcom “The Golden Girls” has sold for about $4 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. The 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom house was only on the market a few weeks before selling for $1 million over its asking price.