Hot Property newsletter: Outside the NBA bubble

There’s a lockdown of epic scale underway in Orlando, Fla., as the NBA attempts to restart play later this month. But for those missing the action, there’s been plenty to be found off the court. This week saw two basketball stars list their California homes for sale, while a modern tour de force built for a basketball icon returned to the market with a new asking price.

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

Our Home of the Week is a modern treehouse in L.A.’s Mount Washington neighborhood. Priced at $2.149 million, the reimagined home puts residents at eye level of leafy views with hillside decking that was built around the property’s mature trees. For the bargain-hunting home-shopper, our What Money Buys takes a look at price-reduced homes in Mid-City, Cypress Park and La Crescenta-Montrose.

— Neal Leitereg, Jack Flemming and Lauren Beale

Moving his trophies to a new location

Andre Iguodala won three NBA titles as a member of the Warriors, but after being traded twice in the last year, he’s ready to move on from his home in the Golden State. Now with the Miami Heat, Iguodala this week listed his home near Oakland for sale at $3.898 million. The Mediterranean-style house features a double-island kitchen, a putting green and a swimming pool. There’s also a sports court tucked away in the backyard.

King looks to sell castle

Budding Sacramento Kings star De’Aaron Fox is also on the move. The third-year point guard out of Kentucky is asking $1.7 million for his more than 5,000-square-foot house in Folsom, an area about 30 minutes outside of Sacramento. Contemporary in style, the three-story house features multiple balconies, a two-story living room and a lower-level screening room. The half-acre property also has a pool and a fenced dog run.

Legend’s former digs take a dip

Perhaps a price cut will help the stars align for Ursa Major, the striking Bel-Air home that was built for basketball great Wilt Chamberlain. The 9,400-square-foot modernist home is named for the star constellation home to the Big Dipper, which was one of Chamberlain’s many nicknames. It’s now back on the market for $14.9 million, or about $4 million less than when it first came up for sale in 2018.

Beach homestead goes quick

It’s not all basketball news in these parts. In Malibu, the home of “Wild Wild West” actor Robert Conrad sold for $5.1 million after just a few weeks on the market. Conrad, who died this year at 84, reimagined the property after buying it a decade ago. Among features of the home are sweeping walls of glass, a yoga studio and a sand volleyball court. The property overlooks a stretch of beach where Conrad learned to surf in the 1950s.

Restless for a buyer no more

In Malibu Colony, the longtime home of soap opera creators Lee Phillip Bell and William J. Bell closed sale at $18.275 million. The Cape Cod-style compound, which sits on 60 feet of beachfront, surfaced for sale in April for $21.5 million. It has the distinction of being just one of eight homes in the guard-gated community with a private swimming pool.

From the archives

Thirty years ago, then Columbia Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Peter Guber finished renovating a Malibu home he had purchased earlier in the year for about $4.5 million. Guber, now chairman of Mandalay Entertainment and a co-owner of the Warriors and Dodgers, drew from Japanese culture when redesigning the four-bedroom house. More recently it was another Warriors co-owner, Joe Lacob, making waves in Malibu. Last year, Lacob paid $29.1 million for an oceanfront home.

It was 20 years ago when an Iranian businessman gave readers something to chew on. Behador Mahboubi, who introduced chewing gum to the Middle East in the 1940s, sold a 20,400-square-foot home for $8 million, which was less than half the $19-million asking price. In true L.A. fashion, the buyer of the neoclassical Mediterranean mansion was a socialite who had recently sold another property in Santa Barbara.

Ten years ago, actress Cheryl Hines and her husband at the time, producer Paul Young, put their gated Brentwood home on the market for $4.249 million. The “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star has since moved on to other homes and husbands, including a farmhouse-vibe compound that she and now-husband Robert F. Kennedy sold in 2017 for a little more than $6 million.

What we’re reading

The Old West is apparently alive and well … in New Zealand of all places. On the country’s North Island, a replica pioneer town called Mellonsfolly Ranch has come up for sale at $7.5 million, reports Bloomberg. The 1860s setting is at the heart of a 900-acre ranch property, which was built to host events. Period buildings include a licensed saloon, a courthouse, a sheriff’s office and a bathhouse. A producing Manuka honey grove on the ranch also provides additional income.

There will be no fans in the outfield this season, aside from the cardboard-cutout variety, but Chicago Cubs right fielder Jason Heyward has found one in the Windy City housing market. The slugging outfielder sold his Gold Coast condominium this week for $7.2 million, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.
The 5,230-square-foot residence is found within the No. 9 Walton building, which made headlines three years ago when hedge fund manager Ken Griffin paid $58.75 million for the top four floors in the building.