Celebrity homes for sale
| rphy had listed the property at $30 million in December 2004. He later switched real estate agencies and halved the price in September, according to a representative at Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty in Alpine, N.J.
"There just aren't as many buyers for these $25 million-plus homes, as there are for, let's say, a $500,000 home," says Heather Mirjahangir Fernandez, Trulia.com's vice president of marketing. These homes do sell, she says, after multiple price reductions. Like Murphy, media and fashion mogul Russell Simmons--best known for helping to pioneer hip-hop label Def Jam, and creating clothing lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture and American Classics--is also having trouble in the New Jersey real estate market. He listed his 35,000-square-foot Saddle River property in 2008 at $23.8 million, and has since cut the price twice, according to Diane Taccetta, an agent at Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty, including the latest reduction in September, to $16.5 million. Trouble Off the Field Professional athletes are also taking a hit. Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki reduced the price of his Issaquah, Wash., home in August by $225,000 to $1,525,000, according to real estate sites Postlets.com and Trulia.com. The property is listed with Rick Miner of Coldwell Banker Bain in Issaquah, but Miner would not confirm the date and amount of the price cut. Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who last took the mound in 2007, is trying to sell his Medfield, Mass., 11,000-sqaure-foot home for $4.5 million. He originally listed the property in March for $5 million, and has since knocked the price down twice, with the latest reduction of $400,000 coming earlier this month, according to listing agent Jim Nemetz of Hammond Residential. Regular folk have it tougher. If they are unable to sell and don't have a financial cushion on which to fall back, foreclosure may loom for those who can't make their mortgage payments |