While housing numbers might have improved, do not let them fool you – even celebrities having trouble moving property in the current US market. One celebrity home that cannot move on the market is the sprawling Farmington estate in Connecticut, which belonged to former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in the 80s.
He did eventually move on and rapper Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson bought the estate for a cool $4.1 million nine years ago back in 2003. He spent a further $6 million on renovations to the mansion’s 21 bedrooms, eight-car garage, two guesthouses, one-acre koi pond, 25 full bathrooms and five fireplaces, not to mention the 40-person hot tub and grotto and a nightclub with stripper poles and a 20-screen video wall.
The house went on the market again five years ago, back in 2007, but neither its tennis and basketball courts nor its indoor shooting range and recording studio could help it in the housing slump, nor the lawsuit which forced Jackson to remove it from the market three years ago back in 2009. He relisted it again this year for $14.5 million, but it has failed to ignite interest and Jackson has now cut the price down by half.
Another celebrity having difficulty with a move is Christina Aguilera, who put her mansion in the Hollywood Hills up for sale four years ago, in 2008, for $8 million. It was eventually taken off the market and relisted for $6 million, but still remains unsold.
Jon Huser
