Hot Property Newsletter: Get ready for another nine-figure home sale

If you thought real estate prices were already too damn high, please avert your eyes. This week’s collection takes a look at America’s newest most expensive home as well as your usual smattering of celebrity movers and shakers.

Our Home of the Week is an unusual Montecito residence that was inspired by the architect who designed Barcelona’s Sagrada Família. Set on a 13-plus-acre mountain lot, the home features adobe brickwork, natural log beams, elaborate sculptures and mosaics inspired by Native American wood art. Incredible mountain and ocean views are included in the $1.7-million asking price.

We also got a rare look inside the Long Beach home of architect Edward Killingsworth, who designed four houses for Arts & Architecture magazine’s Case Study House program that ran from 1945 to 1964. Killingsworth would often bring clients home for lunch, according to his son, including the likes of Conrad Hilton and John Wayne.

Once you’re done reading about these deals, visit and like ourFacebook page, where you can find Hot Property stories and updates throughout the week.

Even bigger in Bel-Air

The dust has barely settled on the record $120-million deal for the Spelling Manor, yet we already have a new contender for L.A.’s priciest home sale. Casa Encantada, the Bel-Air home of financier Gary Winnick, has entered the market at a whopping (and U.S.-high) $225 million.

The 40,000-square-foot Georgian traditional-style mansion, designed by architect James Dolena, was previously owned by moguls Conrad Hilton and David Murdock. Set on eight acres overlooking the Bel-Air Country Club, the trophy estate includes a lighted tennis court, a basketball court, a pool, a guest house, greenhouses, koi ponds and a rose garden.

Inside, the home pays homage to the decadent Moderne stylings of the 1930s. Of note is a luxe oval bar in the den/card room, which is awash in sterling silver. A professional screening room lies in the pool house.

A remix of sorts

Randy Spendlove is hoping he has a hit on his hands in Tom Petty’s former home. The Grammy-winning record producer bought the late rocker’s onetime Encino home last year and has put it back up for sale at $4.995 million, or about $500,000 more than he paid for the place.

Set on an acre of grounds, the 11,500-square-foot spread has been remodeled and features doses of wood, brick and stone throughout. At its heart is a two-story great room set beneath a dozen skylights. A massive floor-to-ceiling fireplace divides the living and dining area.

Petty, who died in 2017 at 66, wrote and recorded songs at the estate during his ownership. An arson fire at the home in 1987 spared Petty’s basement studio, where he stored his guitars and master recordings, according to Los Angeles Times reports at the time.

Spendlove currently serves as president of motion picture music at Paramount Pictures. He has worked for A&M Records and Miramax Films and has collaborated with artists such as Beyonce, Sheryl Crow, U2 and Green Day.

In 2003, he won a Grammy for best compilation soundtrack album for the film “Chicago.”

Moving on to another realm

Filmmaker Duncan Jones of “Warcraft” and “Source Code” fame has sold his Hollywood Hills home of five years for $1.6 million.

The multilevel house, built in 1935, has about 2,000 square feet, three bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. Features include beamed ceilings in the living and dining rooms, a center-island kitchen and two master suites.

Outside, a waterfall feeds a swimming pool and spa.

Jones, 48, is the son of late singer-songwriter David Bowie and model-actress Angela Bowie. He won the BAFTA award for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer for his 2009 film “Moon,” which remains his most celebrated work.

He has since moved to the San Fernando Valley.

Giving up a base

Onetime Dodgers outfielder Milton Bradley retired a base in Encino, selling his home after more than a decade of ownership for $3.725 million.

The Tuscan-inspired spread, set on a one-third-acre lot in the Amestoy Estates neighborhood, includes a 7,500-square-foot main house, a swimming pool and spa, and a barbecue pavilion.

Living spaces include a two-story living room, a media/game room and a center-island kitchen. There are six bedrooms and eight bathrooms including a multi-room master suite. Three sets of stairs are used to navigate the home’s two levels.

Bradley, a Los Angeles native, played for eight big league teams across 12 seasons, including California ballclubs the Dodgers, Athletics and Padres. The switch-hitting outfielder was an All-Star selection in 2008 with the Texas Rangers.

Teeing up his island retreat

Craig T. Nelson of the sitcom “Coach” fame is drawing up a new play for his Hawaiian haven. The actor has listed his estate on the North Shore of Kauai for $14 million.

Once owned by Beach Boys singer-songwriter Brian Wilson, the property encompasses about five acres near Haena Point and has hundreds of feet of frontage. At the heart of the estate is a 2,738-square-foot main house with exotic woodwork, a great room, two bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms.

Expansive lanais extend the living space outdoors. Lava rock walls, ancient monkey pod trees, Naupaka plants and palms dot the verdant grounds. Near the house is a par-3 green and bunker built by golf course designer Robert Trent Jones Jr.

Nelson, 75, won an Emmy for his role as Coach Hayden Fox on “Coach,” which ran for nine seasons from 1989 to 1997. Last year, Nelson reprised his voice role as Mr. Incredible in “Incredibles 2.”

From the archives

Thirty years ago, Lakers great Magic Johnson listed his Bel-Air home for sale at $4.5 million as he wrapped up a deal for a new mega-mansion in guard-gated Beverly Park. Johnson made the decision to swap home courts while training in Hawaii, according to his real estate agent at the time. The Bel-Air mansion, located in the Moraga Estates community, included a Tudor-style home, a racquetball court, a swimming pool and a spa.

It was 20 years ago that actor Leonardo DiCaprio paid $3 million for a house in the Hollywood Hills. The actor, who was 24 at the time, was looking for a house for himself after buying a Malibu home about a year earlier. The Hollywood Hills spread measured about 5,000 square feet with three bedrooms and four bathrooms. Contemporary in style, it featured three fireplaces, high ceilings and city views.

Ten years ago, actress Meg Ryan put her Bel-Air home back on the market for $14.2 million, a 27% reduction in price from the previous year. The price chop didn’t help, however, and the “Sleepless in Seattle” star wouldn’t close a deal for the Spanish-style house until 2012, when it sold for $11.125 million.

What we’re reading

The U.S. isn’t the only land of nine-figure transactions. In Sydney, Australia, a yet-to-be-built penthouse in a new residential tower has sold for $140 million AUS (about $96 million U.S.), according to the Australian Financial Review. The two-story penthouse is the crown jewel of the 72-story Tower One development designed by architect Renzo Piano.

Ongoing protests in Hong Kong have resulted in numerous residents fleeing to properties abroad, according to the South Morning Post. Hong Kong residents have increased their purchases of offshore properties “fourfold in the last five months,” the outlet reports.

Former USC football players Matt Leinart and Brandon Hance are among those flagged as associates of a real estate investor accused of running a “fly-by-night” home-flipping operation, according to The Times. Actress Rachel Bloom and her husband, writer-producer Dan Gregor, filed a lawsuit this week alleging that Raul Menjivar, who is business partners with former Trojans teammates Leinart and Hance, failed to disclose myriad problems with the home Menjivar’s company sold them in 2015.