Real Estate News

Judy Garland’s former Bel-Air home

Her Kansas home in “The Wizard of Oz” flew through the air. Now a Bel-Air house that was home to a young Judy Garland has flipped, selling for the second time since last year for $6,772,669.

The Wallace Neff-designed house sold in 2011 for $5.2 million and was then updated and renovated.

The two-story traditional, built in 1938, sits on about 2.5 acres. The 5,513-square-foot house features dormer and bay windows, white columns, French doors, five bedrooms and 6 ½ bathrooms. Outdoor amenities include a swimming pool and a detached studio.

Garland, who played Dorothy in the 1939 classic, died in 1969 at 47. The actress and singer received an honorary Oscar in 1940 for her performances in “Oz” and “Babes in Arms” and was later nominated for her work in “A Star Is Born” (1955) and “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961).

Singer and actress Julie Andrews has listed the Brentwood house she owned with her late husband, director and screenwriter Blake Edwards, for $2.649 million. Less than a month after coming on the market, the tidy white home with gray shutters is already in escrow.

The traditional-style house features a family room and living room with French doors opening to a fanciful garden that appears to be “practically perfect in every way” to borrow a phrase from “Mary Poppins.” The formal dining room has a cathedral ceiling and glass walls. An artist’s studio with a bathroom sits above the garage for a total of four bedrooms and three bathrooms.

The less than quarter-acre lot is surrounded by tall hedges and is gated — no doubt discouraging neighbors from nipping over to borrow a spoonful of sugar. There is a swimming pool and spa.

Andrews, 76, starred in musicals including “My Fair Lady” and “Camelot.” She won a lead actress Oscar for “Mary Poppins” (1964) and starred in “The Sound of Music” (1965), “Thoroughly Modern Millie” (1967) and the “Princess Diaries” films in 2001 and 2004. More recently she voiced Gru’s mom in “Despicable Me” (2010) and the queen in “Shrek Forever After” (2010). Last year she received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.

Edwards, who died in 2010 at 88, received an honorary Oscar in 2004 for his work including such films as “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961), “The Great Race” (1965) and the “Pink Panther” films.

Public records show the property was purchased in 1989 for $1.2 million.

Stacey Sher and Kerry Brown’s Los Angeles home

A former home of Andrews’ also is up for sale. Film producer Stacey Sher and musician Kerry Brown have listed the house in the Beverly Crest area at $5.795 million.

Originally designed by Wallace Neff, the 1948 house was later remodeled. The 1.61-acre site includes a 7,800-square-foot main house, a 2,480-square-foot guesthouse, a separate building with a bathroom, a tennis court, a basketball court, a swimming pool and waterfalls.

The living space features beamed ceilings, stained-glass windows, brick, stonework, mahogany doors and six fireplaces. There are five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a screening room, a den and a gym in the main house. The four-bedroom, three-bathroom guesthouse contains living and dining rooms, a kitchen, a den, an office and recording studio space.

Among artists who have recorded at the studio are Courtney Love, Ziggy Marley and the Strawberry Alarm Clock. It has also been the site of music recorded for the films “P.S. I Love You” (2007) and “Death to Smoochy” (2002).

Sher, 49, is in New Orleans working on Quentin Tarantino‘s upcoming movie, “Django Unchained.” Her production credits include “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “Erin Brockovich” (2000) — for which she shared an Oscar nomination — and the series “Reno 911!” (2004-09).

Kerry, 48, has played drums with the groups Catherine, the Smashing Pumpkins and Spirits in the Sky. His music editor and production credits include “Along Came Polly” (2004) and the series “Jessica Simpson: The Price of Beauty” (2010).

Actor Jesse Metcalfe has sold his house in the Beverly Crest area for $2 million, according to the Multiple Listing Service.

The Mediterranean main house and guesthouse have 2,500 square feet of living space, including four bedrooms and 3 ½ bathrooms. Built in 1999, the house features stone fireplaces, plank wood floors and wood-beam ceilings. A stone hot tub sits on a hill above the home, which is surrounded by lawn and steppingstone pathways. A starburst pattern adorns the stone driveway.

Metcalfe, 33, will be Christopher Ewing in the remake of the TV series “Dallas” next year. He played teen gardener John Rowland on “Desperate Housewives” from 2004 to 2009 and starred in the films “John Tucker Must Die” (2006) and “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” (2009). More recently, Metcalfe starred in the crime thriller “Chase” (2010-11).

The actor bought the property in 2008 for $2.2 million.

TV game show host Bob Eubanks and his wife, Deborah James, have sold their Westlake Village house for $1.982 million.

The Normandy-style home, built in 2006, sits on 3.5 acres at the end of a cul-de-sac. The single-level house features wood and stone floors, custom built-in cabinetry, French doors, an office, four bedrooms and 4 ½ bathrooms in 4,972 square feet of living space.

The grounds include a swimming pool with spa, a two-story play fort, an outdoor covered loggia, stone walkways and fountains.

Eubanks, 74, got his start as a disc jockey and a concert producer before gaining wide recognition in the mid-1960s as the host of “The Newlywed Game.” He received an Emmy for lifetime achievement in 2005.

Eubanks also is known as the longtime co-host of the annual Rose Parade coverage on KTBC-TV Channel 5 in Los Angeles.

Public records show the property was purchased in 2006 for $2.66 million. It was being marketed as a short sale.

Sao Paolo, Brazil

Commercial real estate landlords are prospering in Brazil, Canada and Russia but not doing as well with leased properties in Spain, Greece and France.  That’s the first-quarter observation from the London-based Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

In its newest Global Commercial Property Survey, RICS finds the majority of international investor inquiries in the January-March period favored Canada, Brazil, the U.S., Germany and Bulgaria.

RICS’s Chief Economist Simon Rubinsohn states “The key area of concern remains Europe, with much of the continent either in or flirting with recession.”

He adds, “The resilience of Germany should, however, provide a measure of support and gradually help bolster growth elsewhere in the continent.”

Capital value expectations were in negative territory for the majority of countries surveyed, with the exception of Switzerland, Poland, Russia and Germany.

Robinsohn points out that as expected, the nations where confidence in growth is lowest are those that have been particularly badly affected by the sovereign debt crisis, such as Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

Following some positive signs in the global economy and an easing of tension in the euro zone during the first months of the year, rent expectations remain particularly positive in Russia, with respondents suggesting occupier demand is “significantly outstripping new supply,” as well as in Canada, Brazil, and China, the report finds.

But rent expectations have also noticeably improved in Hong Kong and Thailand. Alongside this, sentiment has shifted in the US, Malaysia and, more strikingly, India. All three countries previously reported negative readings on the outlook for rents but this has been replaced in the first quarter by a more upbeat set of results.

By way of contrast, the outlook for the occupier market remains downbeat across much of the European Union, with the notable exception of Germany and Poland.

In Germany, a healthy rebound in economic activity is fuelling an increase in demand for space and exerting further upward pressure on rents. With a positive rental outlook (+13), Poland follows two years of rising demand, steady supply and rising rents.

‘In the rest of the euro zone, weak growth prospects, if not fears of outright recession, are continuing to weigh heavily on sentiment,” according to the report. “Significantly, the soft results extend beyond those economies most exposed to the sovereign debt crisis (Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland), with an increasing negative rental outlook in the Netherlands and France.”

On the investment side, demand in these European markets, together with Italy and Hungary, is also really weak and respondents in the Czech Republic and Belgium anticipate the same negative results. In Germany, investment inquiries and capital value expectations are rising and in Poland, after two years of posting increases, the investment market is stabilizing.

Elsewhere, expectations for capital values are most robust in Brazil, Canada, and China. Projections for investment demand are also particularly upbeat in Brazil and Canada but, interestingly, they are followed by the U.S., India and Russia.

There is also now some evidence of an improvement in sentiment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with investment inquiries picking up in the first quarter after a long period of decline.