BUSINESS
October 6, 2011 | By Lauren Beale, Los Angeles Times
Actor Ethan Suplee has listed a Studio City house for sale at $2,295,000. Formerly Jane Fonda's residence, according to listing details, the country English-style home of 3,787 square feet was built in the early 1950s. It sits on nearly an acre of wooded grounds with a detached office/guesthouse, a gym and a swimming pool. There are three fireplaces, seven bedrooms and three bathrooms. Suplee, 35, appeared in the action-adventure film "Unstoppable" (2010) and starred in "My Name Is Earl" (2005-09)
HOME & GARDEN
May 7, 2011 | By Lauren Beale, Los Angeles Times
Actress-producer Jodie Foster has listed her Beverly Hills estate for sale at $9,975,000, the Multiple Listing Service shows. Climbing vines and red brick accents give the seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom compound an East Coast vibe. Encompassing nearly an acre of land, the compound includes a 1949 main house, a tennis court, a swimming pool and a guesthouse. Foster, 48, won her Oscars for roles in "The Accused" (1988) and "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991). She stars in and directs "The Beaver," released Friday, and will star in the upcoming "God of Carnage.
BUSINESS
March 7, 2011 | Jennifer Bjorhus, Bjorhus writes for the Star Tribune (Minneapolis)/ McClatchy
Time shares are tough to sell, even in the best of times. But now the shared vacation properties and their hefty annual fees have become nearly impossible to unload and are breeding a horde of scam artists preying on eager sellers. Nearly 8 million people ? about 7% of U.S. households ? own a time share, a vacation property owned by many people who take turns using it. The slow economic recovery, and the fact that the first generation to buy time shares 35 years ago has been retiring, means many people are looking to sell.
BUSINESS
January 31, 2010 | By Kenneth R. Harney
Call it three birds with one stone: The federal government hopes simultaneously to help low-down-payment home buyers, investors who fix up foreclosures, and local communities burdened with too many bank-owned and foreclosed homes -- all with one potentially far-reaching policy change. The Federal Housing Administration is revising its long-standing "anti-flipping" rule starting Monday and just might score a hit with all three target groups. For years the FHA has had a strict prohibition: It wouldn't insure a mortgage on a house whose seller had owned it less than 90 days.
BUSINESS
January 27, 2010 | By Alejandro Lazo
Home prices inched up in November, a closely watched national index released Tuesday showed, but the monthly increase was so small that it shed little light on whether the U.S. housing market was headed for a full recovery or another dip. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas increased 0.2% from October on a seasonally adjusted basis, with 14 cities posting gains. Compared with a year earlier, the index was down 5.3% in November, but the year-to-year rate of decline moderated in all 20 cities.
BUSINESS
January 26, 2010 | By Alejandro Lazo
Sales of previously owned homes nationwide plunged steeply in December, raising concerns that the housing recovery could lose steam after government policies intended to support it expire in the spring. For now, California appears to be bucking the downward trend. U.S. sales in December fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.45 million units, down 16.7% from November, the National Assn. of Realtors said Monday. It was the biggest drop in the 42 years that the group has been measuring home sales and comes after first-time home buyers raced to close on their purchases before a federal tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time purchasers was set to expire Nov. 30. Congress in early November extended the deadline to April 30 and expanded the credit to include up to $6,500 for some buyers who already own homes.