BUNGALUX

May 24, 2012

Celebrity Real Estate Cheat Sheet

Ryan Seacrest, Ellen DeGeneres, Alicia Keys & Lauren Conrad

Ryan Seacrest's New Pad

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We’re not celebrity-focused here at Bungalux, but we are when celebrities have great houses. So to bring in you into your Memorial Day weekend, we decided to do a brief summary of our favorite celebrity real estate on our radar over the past month or two.

Wednesday we covered Meg Ryan’s $11 million romantic Spanish house in Lower Bel Air, which was a simple, beautiful renovation of an old 1930s Spanish. If you missed it, it’s definitely worth a look, both for the architecture and decorating ideas.

Our other favorite Bungalux exchange this month took place, appropriately, between two television hosts with great taste. A few months ago we featured Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi’s fabulous Beverly Hills estate. For those of you who don’t know, Ellen is a consummate house fanatic and restorer, and is one of the celebrities with the best taste, period. Her contemporary-meets-traditional was one of our favorite houses in recent years and it’s no surprise that the metrosexual, he-has-good-taste-himself Ryan Seacrest (By the way, Ryan, when do you sleep?) scooped it up. The listing price was $49 million, and the rumor mill is all over the place on how close to that figure Ryan paid. We assume he probably bought it head-to-toe furnished. After all, being the host of forty-two radio and television shows a week doesn’t leave much time for DIY. As for Ellen, she's moving to a Hal Levitt close by, which we're sure she'll go to town on. Her taste is simply phenomenal.

A girl who has spent quite a few weeks on Ryan’s countdowns is Alicia Keys, who is also known for her good taste … in real estate and fashion. Alicia’s SoHo digs are on the market for $17.95 million. There’s really good celebrity juju there … Alicia purchased the penthouse from Lenny Kravitz, and it’s rumored to have been previously rented to Nicole Kidman and Denzel Washington. Alicia and her husband, rapper Swizz Beatz, are expecting a child, so perhaps they’re looking for something a bit more child-friendly?

Finally, it’s the end of an era. Laguna Beach-turned-The-Hills reality star Lauren Conrad is leaving The Hills for good and flocking to a 24-hour-security-high-rise. Her 3,000 square foot 1920s Spanish just sold for around $2 million, under the $2.36 million she paid for it in 2008. Lauren’s new $1.35 million Beverly Hills penthouse is slightly larger than her Hills house.

And so, that takes us into the weekend. Happy Memorial Day everyone, and let us know which of the houses is your favorite by commenting below.