Time to sell his treasured home not right for Cage By Ruth Ryon
LOS ANGELES TIMES Article Launched: 01/13/2008 02:59:03 AM PST
When lean times come to the housing market, even the rich and famous can feel the pinch.
Consider Nicolas Cage. The Oscar-winning actor paid $7 million for his mansion in Los Angeles' Bel Air section in 1998. Then, in autumn 2006, he listed it at $35 million. Local Realtors termed the house overpriced, but Cage, a savvy investor, held tight. Finally, in early December, he took the property off the market.
He can wait for things to heat back up. In the meantime, a book about Gerard Colcord, designer of Cage's landmark home, is in the works, with publication expected in 2008. The house, built in 1940, is an English-style manor on slightly more than an acre with nine bedrooms and nine bathrooms in close to 12,000 square feet. It has a 35-seat theater, wine cellar, game room, pool and circular driveway with a fountain.
And the house has a pedigree when it comes to owners. Besides Cage, whose "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" is now playing in theaters, it was owned by Welsh singer and entertainer Tom Jones and actor-singer Dean Martin. Jones owned the home for 20 years.
Cage's case of home-seller blues is somewhat unusual. Despite a general housing slump, celebs fared well during 2007 in buying and selling homes on Los Angeles' Westside and in Malibu, according to Cecelia Kennelly-Waeschle of Sotheby's International Realty in Malibu.
