Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, has become the latest member off the celebrity foreclosure club. According to the Detroit Free Press she has said that an attorney's mistake is the reason that her $700,000 mansion in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan has slipped into foreclosure over a mere $445 in 2005 taxes and late fees. She now owes a total of $19,192 in back taxes on the property through 2007. She has plans to pay up and get the slate-roofed brick mansion on Hamilton Road (see pic at the Detroit Free Press article) back before the March 31 foreclosure deadline. TMZ has Aretha's official foreclosure documents.

In related celebrity foreclosure news, Michael Jackson's attorneys say that he has worked out a deal with Fortress Investment Group to save Neverland, his massive California estate which has been flirting with foreclosure for months now. The move will avoid the March 19 auction date for the home. I still say this is just a case of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Jackson likely cannot afford the home and he can't seem to find anyone who will buy it from him.

The date has finally been set, unless the situation drastically changes, Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch will be sold at auction on March 19 becoming what is likely the country's most famous foreclosure. According to Fox News, Jackson received word Monday from Financial Title Company that unless he comes up with $24,525,906.61 by that date, a public auction will go forward in Santa Barbara in front of the county courthouse. The house and everything inside and around, personal property, the rides on the grounds, all of it is going.

Jackson hasn't been spotted at Neverland since June 2005. In that time he's lived in Bahrain, Ireland and Las Vegas among other pit stops on his global tour. It is assumed that Jackson will just do nothing and let the property go up for auction since he probably does not have the money even though he refinanced his $300 million loan from Fortress Investments with help from Sony Music, HSBC and Barclays Bank.

Jackson moved out of Neverland after he was acquitted of child molestation charges. He did pay around $600,000 in property taxes last month. If no one bids on Neverland then Fortress Investments will take possession of the property and will likely put it on the market through a Santa Barbara real estate agent.

UPDATE: CNN quotes a Jackson source as saying Michael is trying to work out the financing.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Heath Ledger's rental apartment in SoHo is already being quietly shopped around. Ledger had been renting the three-bedroom apartment for $22,000 a month and it is apparently being offered now for around $25,000.
--Clothing magnate Leslie "Les" Wexner, who founded The Limited and owns Victoria's Secret, Express and Henri Bendel has picked up a four-bedroom condo at 15 Central Park West for $13.1 million.He and his wife have a $50 million, 1,000-acre estate in Ohio.
--Heather Randall, the widow of Tony Randall, is also moving into a similarly sized four-bedroom apartment at 15 Central Park West.
--A $32 million sale at the elite 740 Park Ave. co-op building. The estate of Mosler Safe heiress Janet Coleman sold the 14-room duplex apartment to David Randall Winn and his wife, Tamara Sarah Winn.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--New York City has presented finalists for its contest to design emergency temporary housing. The ideas include inflatable apartments, putting housing atop the sidewalk scaffold sheds that fill the streets of Manhattan, and lugging in buildings on tugboats. Ten were given $10,000 to further develop their designs.
--A peek into the life of Steven Green who in 1990 was named one of the NYC's 10 worst landlords, and spent almost a month in jail after not providing Queens tenants with hot water.Green later moved to Florida, started a charter airline and early last year failed to get back a $780,000 divorce settlement from his partner, who cited cruelty. He was then sentenced to nearly three years in jail for fraud and tax charges. In May, a month before jail, he was leaving a West Side club when a hit-and-run put him in a coma. Green is recovering from brain damage, and won't have to report to prison for another few months. His condo at the Essex House was sold off last month for $3 million. After using a a phony Social Security number to get a loan from Wells Fargo he was forced by a U.S. District Court to pay $4.11 million in restitution. So far he hasn't paid anything but the Essex House condo was highly mortgaged so likely the court will not get much money from the sale.
--Seagram liquor heir Edgar Bronfman Jr. bought his East 64th Street townhouse in 1994 for $4.375 million, and sold it to his Warner Music Group colleague Len Blavatnik, the oil magnate, for $50 million last October. Now he's hoping for another flip in a much shorter time frame. On Jan. 18, he paid $19.5 million for an 11-room sprawl at 1040 Fifth Avenue. On Jan. 25, without having done any work, he listed the apartment for $24 million, $4.5 million above his purchase one week earlier. Wow, if he gets it, that's one heck of a payday. The listing is here.
--The chairman of the Metropolitan Art museum's board, James R. Houghton, has sold his two-bedroom tower apartment in the Majestic on Central Park West last month for $4.9 million.
--Karen Assante, Armand Assante's ex-wife, has sold her two-bedroom apartment at the 20's-era co-op 118 Riverside Drive for $2.45 million.
--Listings for the Mark, the 1927 hotel at 25 East 77th Street, have hit the Internet. Corcoran shows 12 listings for the building including the $60 million penthouse, with 12 rooms, five bedrooms, eight baths, and a $35,477 monthly maintenance.

From the Nashville Post:
Singer/songwriter Michelle Branch bought a home in the Belle Meade area of Nashville, Tennessee, several months after selling her house in Calabasas, California. In 2006 she bought a condo in Nashville's Werthan Lofts.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--The widow of author Sidney Sheldon has listed their Palm Springs compound for $7.9 million, plus a house across the street for $4 million. Sheldon and his wife, Alexandra, owned a total of four houses in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood. The Sheldons lived in a midcentury modernist seven-bedroom home and also owned a six-bedroom Mediterranean-style guest house. A four-bedroom home with a glass-enclosed indoor pool and a poolside kitchen is also for sale for $1.45 million. Brook Ashley, Scott Palermo and Jim Sanak, all of Prudential California Realty's Estates division, have the listings (no pictures yet).
--Owners have cut the price of two apartments at New York's Plaza condominium, the redesigned Plaza Hotel. Fred Farago, the president of a fruit-flavoring company, is now asking $5.9 million for a one-bedroom apartment there, around the same amount he paid for the unit in July and Italian-born architect Teresa Sapey has trimmed $200,000 off the initial $10 million price for her 13th-floor unit which she bought for $6.9 million in July.
--At 15 Central Park West, Evan Cole, who co-founded ABC Carpet & Home, has agreed to sell his 15th-floor three-bedroom apartment there for over $9 million (he paid $4.83 million). In the same building,Michael Holtz, a travel-agency owner, recently signed an agreement to sell an identical apartment for more than his $8.5 million asking price.
--Actor Rupert Everett has listed his Miami Beach pied-à-terre for $1.15 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has sold his Back Bay Boston condo for $5.285 million. Brady paid $4,125,000 for the 3,412 square foot condo in June 2004.
--Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck have been spotted house hunting again. Rumor has it they are looking in the $20 million range in the Holmby Hills area.
--(via the NY Daily News) Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner and his boyfriend Matt Nye have bought Teviot, a 69-acre estate in Tivoli, New York.
-- Australian actors Rebecca Rigg and Simon Baker sold their Santa Monica house in December of 2007 for $2,895,000 and purchased another Santa Monica home with six bedrooms that cost the couple more than $4.5 million.
--The estate of Leona Helmsley has put her Greenwich, Connecticut home on the market for $125 million, shown above. There is a great slideshow at the Greenwich Time that shows the home.
--Ricky Martin already has a home listed in Golden Beach, Florida for $22.5 million now he has relisted his Miami Beach home for $19.5 million. Both listings are with Pablo Alfaro.
--Michael Jackson has paid more than $600,000 in back taxes for the neverland Ranch. He still owes $23 million in loans on the home which is expected to go into foreclosure.
--via the NY Post, Veronica Hearst's Manalapan, Florida mansion, which has been sitting on the market for $27 million, is scheduled to be auctioned off on February 25th to pay off $45 million in mortgages.
--Megan Ellison, daughter of billionaire Larry Ellison has paid $12.6 million for a three-bedroom contemporary home
--via the Palm Beach Daily News, even in this tough real estate market the lavish Palm Beach home of Howard Gittis sold in around six weeks for a rumored $22 million, not too far away from the $23.5 million asking price.
--Famous restaurateur Peter Morton has put a Malibu home on the market for $6.795 million. The listing is here.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Rick Allen, the drummer for the band Def Leppard, and his wife, Lauren Monroe, have paid $1,660,000 for a single-family house in Calabasas.
--Actress Paz Vega has paid $1,900,000 for a three-bedroom house in West Hollywood and has listed her Hollywood home for $1,149,000. The listing is here.
--Devo singer Gerald Casale has paid $2,000,000 for a Richard Neutra-designed house in the Hollywood Hills.
--Musician Joe Walsh has paid $4,500,000 for a three-bedroom home in the Beverly Hills post office area that once was owned by Monkee Mike Nesmith.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--As was previously reported by Big Time Listings, Carlos Mencia and his wife Amy have bought the Encino home of actor Eddie Cibrian for close to its asking price of $4.4 million. The Mencias decided to keep their former home for his family.
Former UCLA head football coach Karl Dorrell has put his five-bedroom home in Stevenson Ranch home on the market for $1.25 million. The listing is here.
--Musician Robert Cray and his wife, playwright and filmmaker Susan Turner-Cray, have sold their Los Feliz house for nearly $3.5 million and bought a 5-acre Santa Ynez Valley ranch four around $2 million. Other real estate columns including Big Time Properties have suggested that Jason Lee may be the buyer of the Cray home.
--A Neutra-inspired home belonging to Dr. William Bondareff in Bel-Air is listed at $2.195 million. It is our estate of the day later today.


From AOL Real Estate and Home Improvements:
--How to make a bathroom bigger without remodeling.
--Seven smart home improvements
--

From the Real Estalker:
--The Desert House, the sleek and modern prototype for the deluxe prefabs created by starchitecture firm Marmol Radziner in Desert Hot Springs has been listed at $1.85 million.
--Did Scott Baio move to a five-bedroom house in Encino? The Real Estalker Mama reports that Baio and his wife, Peaches Renee Sloan, still occupy Baio's home on Royal Oak Road in Encino. It looks like the couple "bought" the new home on the show for reality drama's sake.
--Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford are renting out a beach front four-bedroom home in Malibu for $22,500 a month.
--Rumors have been swirling that Britney Spears bought a new house in Hermosa Beach before she went into the hospital. The home in question appears to be owned by professional photographer Dani Brubaker (who recently took pictures of Britney and her children for OK Magazine) and it seems unlikely that Britney actually bought this home.
--Has billionaire Ron Burkle helped Michael Jackson save Neverland Ranch? Roger Friedman at Fox News has reported that Burkle might have intervened of Jackson's behalf to provide an extension to give Jackson time to refinance.
--Jennifer Aniston has moved out of the Malibu cottage she's been renting since 2005.
--Jermaine Dupri has listed a five-bedroom home in Atlanta, Georgia for $1.5 million. The listing is here.
--Melrose Place actor Grant Show has listed his three-bedroom house in the Beachwood Canyon for $1,995,000. The listing is here.
--Singer Dido has listed her house in the prestigious Bird Streets area of Los Angeles for $4.6 million. The listing is here.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--A Parisian home that once belonged to Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir is on the market. It is out estate of the day later today.
--NBA point guard Baron Davis of the Golden State Warriors has sold a pair of adjacent condos in West Hollywood for $2.66 million.
--Investment banker Warren Woo has paid $20 million for a house in Los Angeles, plus $2 million more for furnishings.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--A two-floor penthouse at 530 East 72nd Street which was lived in by Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow and then by Andy Warhol's physician, Denton S. Cox is on the market for $5,995,000 and it's a real fixer-upper. The listing is here.
--Ex-F.B.I. Special Agent Ali Soufan, who now works for Guiliani Partners, and his wife just paid $1.7 million for a new Manhattan apartment.
--Stephen Drucker, House Beautiful's editor, and real estate agent Frank Newbold closed this month on a two-bedroom co-op at 125 East 74th Street for $1.45 million.
--Parker Posey, who late last year listed her apartment in an 1845 brownstone on East 10th Street near Third Avenue for $1.175 million, is in contract to buy a $1.35 million one-bedroom co-op at 30 Fifth Avenue.
--Salman Rushdie's ex-wife, 37-year-old Padma Lakshmi, the model-turned-Top Chef hostess paid $1,651,111 for a long, full-floor loft in Alphabet City.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Wilmer Valderrama has sold a home in Tarzana for $1,750,000 after it had been listed for $2,250,000 and later reduced to $1,950,000.
--Rupert Murdoch has taken $2,000,000 off the asking price of his Long Island, N.Y. mansion, Rosehearty, reducing its listing price from $14,800,000 to $12,800,000. It was our estate of the day back in July.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--A new record residential price has been set for the North Fork of Long Island. A 135-acre estate that includes a 19-acre vineyard has been sold for $19.5 million. The original asking price for Indian Neck Farm was $22 million when it went on the market in 2006.
--Edgar Bronfman Jr. and his wife, Clarissa, finally have taken possession of their 11-room co-op at 1040 Fifth Ave.
--Author and interior decorator Regina "Gigi" Mahon has paid just over $14 million for two condo apartments on the fifth floor at the soon to be completed Plaza.
--Polo-playing communications mogul Adam Lindemann has found a new oceanfront Hamptons hideaway in Montauk for $21.5 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Keith Yamashita, a high-powered business consultant, has listed his contemporary Manhattan Beach home at $3.449 million because he and his partner, Todd Holcomb, are planning to return to San Francisco, where their 10-year-old company, Stone Yamashita Partners, is based. The listing is here.

From AOL Real Estate:
--A list of America's richest counties.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Concern over the real estate market is causing a boom in Hamptons summer rentals. Instead of buying a house you can rent a house in Sagaponack for the three-month summer season fro $1 million, and it doesn't even have a water view.
--Christine Wolf, the ex-wife of television mogul Dick Wolf, has sold her Upper East Side townhouse for approximately $9.6 million to Shaul Nakash, who runs Jordache jeans.
--Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred has paid $1.75 million for a three-bedroom prewar apartment on West 81st Street.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Political cartoonist Ranan Lurie has paid $11.25 million for an apartment at 15 Central park West.
--Can an apartment which sold for $22.25 million seven months ago sell for $29.75 million now? That's what fashion trade-show magnate Elyse Kroll is hoping. She bought the Sutton Square townhouse from Chinese television personality Yue-Sai Kan last June. The listing is here.
--CollegeHumor co-founder Joshua Abramson has bought $1.975 million apartment at the Greenwich.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Mr. Big Time runs down the real estate doings of Janet Jackson. Finding that she owns a condo in the Trump International Hotel & Tower condominium building, at 1 Central Park West in Manhattan and a home in Henderson, N.V., just outside of Las Vegas. It is believed that she no longer owns any real estate in Southern California but she used to own an oceanfront house in Malibu, a mansion in Bel-Air, a home in Rancho Sante Fe, and one more that she owned in Northridge that now belongs to her ex-husband, Rene Elizondo.
--Donovan Leitch Jr., who is in the band Camp Freddy, has sold his Spanish-style compound in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills for $1,050,000. It was our estate of the day back in October.
--Tom Bosley has sold his English country-style house in the Beverly Hills post office area for an undisclosed price after it was on the market for $2,950,000.
--An eight-bedroom mansion in Beverly Hills that once was owned by Madonna has sold for $15,680,000.
--More details on John Goodman's purchase on a house in Pacific Palisades, he paid $4.6 million for his newly built home.
--Rapper Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas paid $2.2 million for a six-bedroom house in Altadena last spring.
--via The Wall Street Journal, the buyer of Georgia Frontiere mansion in Los Angeles in Bel-Air has been identified as Hilton Hotels Chief Executive Christopher Nassetta, who paid around $27.5 million. The home was on the market for $29,975,000.
--via The Wall Street Journal, Nicolas Cage has unloaded one of his many properties. He has sold his modern mansion in Newport Beach for $35 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Football star Terrell Owens has bought two new Dallas-area homes, a townhouse in the Eastside Lofts and a condominium in the new high-rise Azure complex. He still hasn't unloaded his home in Moorestown, New Jersey which is listed at $3.4 million, reportedly $500,000 less than he bought it for. The listing is here.

From the Real Estalker:
--The LA Times reported on indicted celebrity real estate agents Joseph Babajian and Kyle Grasso. The pair, who made millions on celeb clients were reportedly involved in complicated schemes involving straw buyers, obscenely over-valued properties and forged paper work. The pair is set to be tried in July unless a plea agreement is reached.
--Simon Fuller who owns a home in the "bird streets"area of the Hollywood Hills is reportedly quietly shopping the modern home for $8.5 million. He bought the home in February for $7.65 million.
--Fox News reports that Michael Jackson has may have found a lending institution to help him deal with his massive debt. It still seems likely that Neverland Ranch may still go into foreclosure.
--British hypnotist and author Paul McKenna has bought a home in the Hollywood Hills for $6.6 million.
--Rumor has it that celebrity hairstylist Sally Hershberger will be opening a Los Angeles outpost in the same building that houses celebrity decorator Kelly Wearstler. Hershberger's Trousdale Estates home was on the market for $6.5 million but appears to have been taken off the market.
--The estate of Howard Gittis, a wealthy businessman, has put his Palm Beach home, shown above, on the market for $23.5 million. Gittis bought the home in 2001 fro $9.95 million. The listing is here.
--Another Gittis property, his Southampton home, is on the market for $59 million.
--Lauren Conrad of the reality show, The Hills, has picked up a home in Los Angeles which was listed at $2.495 million.
--A report on a house that Brendan Fraser and soon-to-be ex-wife Afton sold for $2,995,029 back in February.
--Suzanne Somers and Alan Hamel have put their Palm Springs home on the market for $35 million. it is our estate of the day later today.
--Reality TV star Slade Smiley has reduced the price on his Coto de Caza home. It began at $1.725 million and now sits at $1.29 million. The listing is here.
--Jesse Metcalfe, who used to be on Desperate Housewives, has listed his Beachwood Canyon area home for $1.495 million. The listing is here.

From Newsday:
--A North Haven, NY property owned by Robert W. Rust which was listed for $80 million has been pulled off the market. The real estate agent, Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas says she is still the agent on the property but Rust says that he is looking for another agency and renovating the property before puttingit back on the market again.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--A home once belonging to actor Fred MacMurray in Brentwood is expected to be put on the market for around $10 million.
--A Los Feliz home once owned by Paul Winfield is now on the market for $4.7 million.

From The Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar bin Sultan may not be selling his big $135 million Aspen home but he did sell another home in Aspen for $36.5 million. He has now sold half of the six contiguous Aspen properties he owned. The property sold, Star Mountain ranch, has a 15,000-square-foot mountain home on 67 acres. The buyer is Jeffrey Soffer, chairman and chief executive of Florida real-estate firm Turnberry Ltd.
--Ellen DeGeneres didn't get the $24 million she wanted for her Montecito estate,, shown above but she did make $20 million on the property she paid $15.75 million for. It was our estate of the day earlier this year.
--Investment banker Vikram Gandhi is asking $20 million for his Upper East Side town house, which is where Eleanor Roosevelt lived in her final years. The listing is here.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Socialite Anne Slater has sold her co-op residence at 998 Fifth Ave. for $18 million to Seagram's heir Matthew Bronfman.
--A new record closing price for a Harlem residence has been set $6.6 million. Real-estate investor Rodney Propp and his wife, Eleanor, are leaving their Park Avenue apartment for a Central Park-fronting, 5,500-square-foot condo at 111 Central Park North. The record will likely be broken soon, the building's three-level, multi-terraced penthouse - which was the Esquire "Ultimate Bachelor Pad" - is in contract for $8.5 million.
--A three-bedroom condo at the Plaza is available for $60,000 a month.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
Kathleen M. Waldron, an ex-Citigroup exec who became Baruch's president in 2004, was offered the A-line penthouse at Grand Madison, the 101-year-old ex-showroom at 225 Fifth Avenue that was turned into condos this year. But, according to school spokesman Jay Hershenson, Dr. Waldron didn't want the apartment, which the City University of New York closed on last month for $2.45 million.

From Celebrity Big Time Listings:
A 4,250-square-foot house in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills that 1950s teen idol Bobby Darin once lived in has sold for $2,912,500 to hotelier Jason Pomeranc. The home was listed early this year for $3,689,000.
--The official numbers are in, Jamie Kennedy paid for $2.15 million for a 2,342-square-foot house in Los Feliz that had been on the market for $2.275, million.
--Soap opera actor Sebastian Roche, who recently paid $1,525,000 for a house in Venice, California has sold his 117-acre estate in upstate New York for $2.7 million.
--Singer Natalie Imbruglia has sold her Mediterranean-style house in the Sunset Strip area for $3.725 million. It was originally listed at $4.5 million.
--David Draiman, the lead singer of the band Disturbed, has sold his castle-like house in Northridge for $2,580,000. He bought in late 2005 for $2.535 million.
--Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx and his ex-wife, former "Baywatch" babe Donna D'Errico, have sold their six-bedroom, 5,269-square-foot house in Agoura, Calif. for $1,900,000. We covered this as our estate of the day when it was listed at $2.995 million.
--Marilyn Manson has sold his house in Chatsworth for $1,025,000. He bought the home in 2004 for $1,270,000.
--via the Wall Street Journal, Blink-182's Tom DeLonge has listed his house in Rancho Santa Fe, CA for $6.25million or $6.295 million depending on which source you consult. The MLS has it at $6.295 million. Apparently DeLonge is quite the buyer and seller in the San Diego county area and seems to have really great taste.

From the Real Estalker:
--More bad news for Michael Jackson. Not only is Neverland Ranch still looking at a January 19th foreclosure, Roger Friedman at Fox News has reported that according to the L.A. County Treasurer, the Jackson family home in Encino CA is in tax default to the tune of $16,283.10. Jackson is also the owner of record on this home and there is $4,000,000 mortgage on the five-bedroom property.
--Model Carolyn Murphy has put her Brentwood, California home on the market for $3.65 million. The Spanish-style home does not have a pool but it has a beautiful slightly bohemian feel. The listing is here.
--Actor Jason Biggs has listed his 1924 Beechwood Canyon home home. The charming and private three-bedroom home is listed at $1.549 million.
--The Real Estalker Mama delivers the delicious scoop on just how Ellen DeGeneres and Portia Di Rossi came to purchase the Beverly Hills home belonging to Max Mutchnick. The home was not listed, no brokers were involved, it was just love at first sight for the ladies and $30 million later it was theirs.
--Rumor has it that Orlando Bloom is painting his home black on the outside.
--Lost star Matthew Fox has put his four-bedroom Manhattan Beach home on the market for $2,275,000. Fox bought way back in 1999 for $800,000. Fox may have moved out a while back.
--Stevie Nicks may have sold her Arizona home for $3 million, it was our estate of the day earlier this year. Nicks may also be putting her Southern Colonial style house in Pacific Palisades on the market for $14 million. She reportedly bought the home in June of 2005 for $9,000,000 but wants to downsize and may also believe that the home is haunted.
--the Real Estalker highlights an article from Newsweek on the homes of the Presidential hopefuls. My, my they live well.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Frankie Muniz has listed his Sunset Strip home for $3.875 million. It is our estate of the day later today.
--Roamnce novelist Leigh Court and her husband, rock-and-roll tour producer Timm Woolley have put their 11-acre Malibu estate on the market for $2.95 million. The listing for the architecturally interesting home with views of the ocean and mountains is here.
--M.J. Diebold has bought a Beverly Hills home for close to $3 million. She plans to paint it pink and green to mimic the Beverly Hills hotel.
--A John Woolf-designed home in the Hollywood Hills once owned by comedian Paul Lynde has come on the market for $2.95 million. The property website for the classic three-bedroom villa is here.

We've been hearing rumors about this for a while but now it's official, Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch is in foreclosure. The Implode-O-Meter has the November 5th, 2007 Foreclosure Detail Report for Santa Barbara county which shows that as of October 12, the King of Pop owes $23,212,963 on a $23,000,000 loan. Since his trial, Jackson has spent almost no time at the home, instead staying in hotels and rented homes around the world. It's unclear whether he can't pay the bill at this time, or just won't.

Jackson isn't the first celeb to face foreclosure, it's happened to Whitney Houston, Michael Madsen, Don Johnson and Courtney Love. This, however, is far and away the largest debt we've seen.



[via TMZ]

From the Real Estalker:
--Actors David Elliot and Nanci Chambers have put their Brentwood home on the market for $3.25 million. Have a browse at the virtual tour here.
--Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen have put their five-bedroom house in Malibu on the market for $18.5 million (shown above). Peep the restrained splendor at the listing here.
-- The Real Estalker Mama takes on the case of Kevin Federline and finds him renting in Tarzana. He was previously in five-bedroom home that rented for $7,000 a month. He has moved on to a seven-bedroom home that is on the market for $3.2 million.
--And then she moves on to the task of chronicling the whereabouts of Michael Jackson. Apparently he has been in Las Vegas in a 16,000 square foot home he was leasing, then he was rumored to be looking for a vacation home in Maryland, and then the Las Vegas Herald said that he moved into a Las Vegas property that belongs to Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei and may be worth $60 million.
--Nicky Hilton has bought a Hollywood Hills home that was listed for $2.995 million.

From Berg Properties Celebrity Big Time Listings:
--Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood has his house in Chicago for $1.525 million; Chicago Bears general manager Jerry Angelo has sold a Chicago condo for $762,500; Chicago Blackhawks right wing Martin Havlat has paid $835,000 for a condo in downtown Chicago and Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith has paid $655,000 for a condo on the north side of Chicago.
--Actress Cassandra Peterson, best known as horror movie host "Elvira," has paid $1.698 million to purchase a four-bedroom house in Silverlake. The virtual tour for this bright and beautiful home is here.
--Young actor Drake Bell has bought a 1929 Mediterranean home in Los Feliz which had been listed for $2,149,000. The listing is here. Lucky kid.
--Goran Visnjic has listed his Sherman Oaks home for $1.7 million. The listing is here.
--Actor/writer/director John Stockwell has sold his five-bedroom house in Los Angeles' Hancock Park for $3.55 million.
--Soap opera actress Michelle Stafford has paid $2.525 million for a home in Los Feliz.


From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Fashion photographer Mario Testino has signed a contract on a New York City condominium for close to $6.3 million (we first heard wind of this deal last September). His apartment is in 40 Bond, a downtown-Manhattan project being developed by Ian Schrager that will also be home to Ricky Martin.
--Billionaire fund manager Charles Johnson has bought a home on a small island just off Palm Beach for about $15 million.
--The Palm Beach home of the late sportscaster Curt Gowdy has sold for $19.5 million. We covered it a couple of years ago when it was listed at $25 million.
--Martha Stewart has sold her Westport, Connecticut estate for $6.7 million which is 26% below the asking price.
--Hockey star Eric Lindros has put his penthouse in New York City's West Village on the market for $6 million. The listing is here.

From the NY Times Big Deal:
--The first buyer to officially close on an apartment at the Plaza is Giuseppe De'Longhi, the chairman of De'Longhi, the Italian manufacturer of fancy appliances. He paid $11.2 million in early June for a three-bedroom apartment on the 15th floor with sweeping park views.
--Moby has put his four-story tower apartment atop the El Dorado on the market for $7.5 million. It's our estate of the day later today.
--James Q. Whitman, the Ford Foundation professor of comparative and foreign law at Yale Law School has picked up the four-bedroom home owned by the actor Treat Williams for $5.7 million, 20 percent above the asking price.
--The highest sale in recent weeks was $29 million, paid by Daniel L. Nir, a hedge fund manager at Gracie Capital, and his wife, Jill E. Braufman for a 7,000-square-foot apartment, in one of the legendary Fifth Avenue prewar co-ops, at 4 East 66th Street.
--Guilliame Cuvelier, the creator of the Swedish vodka brand Svedka paid $13.4 million for a seventh- floor apartment at 30 East 71st Street, near Madison Avenue.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--John Cleese has put Stalloreggi (the King's Stables),his Montecito home on the market for at $28 million. Check out the listing for the 16-acre property here.
--Jamie Kennedy has sold his Sunset Strip house for close to its $1.01-million asking price.
--A Beverly Hills home built in 2004 with five bedrooms and 8 1/2 bathrooms in 13,000 square feet has been sold by one philanthropist and purchased by another for $13.5 million.

Last time we followed Michael Jackson around he was traveling around Dubai and Bahrain. Now it is being reported that he has been enjoying a different landscape entirely, he has been holed up at Luggala Castle. The seven-bedroom castle has been the setting for many films. Michael Jackson has been spendhappy as usual. The beautiful Irish home costs 30,000 euros a week to rent and Jackson has already been there several months.

Michael Jackson, struggling to pay off the approximately $300 million that he owes to the New York hedge fund, Fortress Investment Group, has announced that he has reached a deal with the group. Though the exact details were not released, a part of the deal has Jackson selling half of his shares in the Sony/ATV music library - 25% of the total collection - to Sony. After the sale, Sony will own 75% of the library. Jackson's portion, which he purchased in 1985, is currently valued at half a billion dollars and includes the rights to 251 Beatles songs as well as music by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks.

Imagine you are in financial trouble, in danger of losing your house, suffocating in debt. Now, would you try to trim expenses or spend over $87,000 on a new diamond watch. If you answered the latter then you have the same debt philosophy as Michael Jackson. The 3AM Girls have reported that Jackson, who is still living in the Middle East, trotted over to the Burj Al Arab in order to pick up a diamond laden Tiret watch. Tiret is the luxury watch company created by Damon Dash and the ultra-elite watches can cost up to $500,000. The watch has 800 diamonds and a gold face. Sounds like someone needs Oprah's debt diet.

People magazine is reporting that Michael Jackson has closed the house at  Neverland Ranch in California and sent some of the employees home for good. Jackson, who has been hiding out in Bahrain since last year, owes hundred of thousands in back wages to Neverland employees. He has agreed to pay the money as well as penalties. It seem like it's only a matter of time before the house ends up on the market.