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New York's Hamptons RealEstate Smackdown:Southhampton vs. EastHampton

OUR EDITORRECOMMENDS

Reality TV has helped turn the bedroom communities ofCalabasas and Hidden Hills into bold-name hideaways.

This story originally appeared in the June 8 issue of The

Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com) magazine.

The enclaves of Calabasas and Hidden Hills -- located just beyond

the Los Angeles border at the southwestern corner of the San

Fernando Valley -- recently got even more star-studded. The

newest kid in town is Justin Bieber, who made headlines in late

March when he purchased a $6.5 million, five-bedroom pad that

includes a movie theater with stadium seating. It's in a rarefied

Calabasas enclave-within-an-enclave of less than 50 properties

called the Estates at the Oaks, which is behind two sets of

Why Celebrities Like JustinBieber Are Flocking to L.A.'sSuburbia9:00 AM PDT 5/31/2012 by Gary Baum

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CRITICS' CHOICE AWARDSTHE KILLING OLIVER STONE EMMYS 2012

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Why Celebrities Like Justin Bieber Are Flocking to L.A.'s Subu... http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/calabasas-hidden-hills...

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(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/new-york-hamptons-real-estate-311588)

L.A. Real Estate Rebound! WildBuying Spree Hits Westside(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/california-real-estate-boom-westside-los-angeles-308360)

Hollywood's Hottest $150Million Project Is an83-Year-Old Synagogue(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-jewish-wilshire-boulevard-temple-renovation-150-million-330471)

paparazzi-proof gates. Bieber, whose house was owned by Eddie

Murphy's ex-wife Nicole, counts as his Oaks neighbors Tommy

Lee, Gary Sinise and Community's Ken Jeong, plus

Katherine Jackson, who is sheltering the late King of Pop's

children there. Bieber lately has become something of a fixture in

the city, which also counts the likes of Rebecca Romijn and

Jerry O'Connell, Brandy and Kendra Wilkinson as

residents. He regularly is seen tooling down Parkway Calabasas in

his electric Fisker Karma sports car; on May 27, he scuffled with a

photographer while on a date to see Men in Black 3 at The

Commons -- the chichi retail center that serves as Calabasas' town

square -- prompting a police investigation.

STORY: Hollywood's Hottest $150 Million Project Is an

83-Year-Old Synagogue (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

/news/hollywood-jewish-wilshire-boulevard-temple-renovation-150-million-

330471 )

So why have so many famous names settled into this affluent area

known for its rustic canyons and manicured cul-de-sacs? It's the

privacy, the safety (even if an inordinate number of houses boast

panic rooms anyway) and the value of property vis-a-vis the

Westside. Credit also goes to the well-regarded public Las

Virgenes Unified School District, whose Calabasas High School

will debut a $19 million performing arts center in the winter that local voters funded by passing a bond

on their own real estate.

Executives come for the same reasons. The likes of Academy of Arts and Sciences president Tom

Sherak, UTA's Michael Camacho, Dick Clark Productions COO Francis La Maina and top music

manager Jerry Heller all live in Calabasas. Hidden Hills dwellers include Miramax owner Ronald

Tutor, CBS Television Studios chief David Stapf, former NBCUniversal TV chief Jeff Gaspin, Ziffren

Brittenham partner Cliff Gilbert-Lurie, Fox Broadcasting chair Peter Rice and Fox CMO Oren

Aviv.

A high-profile buy like Bieber's, though, can't mask the fact that house prices have been on the decline.

For the period of February 2012 to April 2012, according to real estate website Trulia, the median sales

prices reveal a tale of two cities. In Hidden Hills, the median was down just 1.2 percent compared with

the same period in 2011, while Calabasas fell 15.4 percent. "We'd be lying if we said we're doing

gangbusters, but the inventory is low right now," says Ewing & Associates Sotheby's International

Realty agent Dana Olmes, who expects that the reduced supply will lead to an uptick in prices. (By

comparison, according to Trulia, Santa Monica was down 2 percent, while Brentwood was up 1.6

percent.)

Calabasas -- population 23,000, many ensconced in tract mansions -- once was home to the 2,800-acre

Warner Bros. Ranch, where everything from Casablanca to Sergeant York was filmed. The area

incorporated in 1991 but found its place in the national consciousness beginning in 2003, when it

served as the scenic backdrop to Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's Newlyweds. Likewise,

Keeping Up With the Kardashians supersized the Q Score of both towns when the show debuted in

2007. Bruce Jenner, wife Kris and youngest daughters Kendall and Kylie now live in a Hidden

Hills abode, while Kourtney Kardashian, Scott Disick and son Mason reside in the Oaks. (The

Kardashians' Dash boutique, long a Calabasas staple, recently moved 25 miles to West Hollywood.) The

TV shows, along with media coverage of residents such as Nikki Sixx, Richie Sambora and Denise

Richards, prompted TMZ to run a parodic riff comparing the scene to a suburban version of Melrose

Place.

STORY: CBS Television Distribution Inks 5-Year Lease in Santa Monica (Exclusive)

(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cbs-television-distribution-santa-monica-328742)

Immediately across the 101 freeway, in more under-the-radar, equestrian-oriented Hidden Hills --

where it appears prices are holding up because of the city's limited acreage, which curtails much new

housing stock from being built -- residents include Nicollette Sheridan, Melissa Etheridge,

Drake, Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Cibrian and LeAnn Rimes. "It's like a time warp," says David

Stanley, a veteran TV producer, entertainment attorney and former mayor of Hidden Hills. "We have

(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/california-real-estate-boom-westside-los-angeles-308360)

(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-jewish-wilshire-boulevard-temple-renovation-150-million-330471)


2 of 6 6/19/12 7:59 PM

no sidewalks or street lights. People are out walking, the kids gather at the community center to swim

and BBQ, and once a year we put on a parade to celebrate the founding of our city -- marching bands

and all."

Jill Lieberman of Coldwell Banker, who lives and sells in Calabasas, notes that the media exposure

has lured a hefty number of all-cash international buyers at the market's top end. "People who move

here from out of state or out of the country would have never known the names 'Calabasas' or 'Hidden

Hills' if it wasn't for these reality shows," she says. "It's glamorized it."

Given the down market, high-profile listings overshadow big-name sales. Among those listing in

Calabasas is Kevin Costner's producing partner Jim Wilson, who's got his 190-acre Avalon Ranch --

which boasts a 7,500-square-foot Cape Cod-style house -- on the market for $24.99 million. In Hidden

Hills, Dwayne Johnson just listed his seven-bedroom house at $4.99 million, Beau Bridges has

price-chopped his formerly $3.25 million estate to $2.85 million, and Tutor's Hidden Hills estate, which

features a lake and was rented by Britney Spears for $25,000 a month, is now available for $9.99

million. Meanwhile, Ozzy Osbourne and wife Sharon have been unsuccessfully attempting to unload

their $13 million manor at the edge of Hidden Hills since 2011, but THR has learned that they recently

took it off the market after becoming embroiled in a dispute with the neighboring Mountain View

Estates homeowners association over the validity of their backyard property line.

Jeff Biebuyck, Olmes' partner at Ewing & Associates, says he believes the presence of celebrity names

will continue to draw buyers. "They think, if it's good enough for them to live here," he says, "then it

must be good enough for us."

STORY: Ryan Seacrest Buying Ellen DeGeneres' Beverly Hills Estate

(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ryan-seacrest-buying-ellen-degeneres-324638)

BY THE NUMBERS

Calabasas Median Sales Prices

Feb.-Airl 2011: $795,000

Feb.-Airl 2012: $672,500 (-15.4%)

Hidden Hills Median Sales Prices

Feb.-April 2011: $1.67 million

Feb.-April 2012: $1.65 million (-1.2%)

Source: Trulia.com

FIVE SCANDALS THAT ROCKED THE TOWNS

Hometown Villian: Erik Menendez attended Calabasas High before graduating on to murdering

his parents in Beverly Hills in 1989 with his older brother, Lyle. Mom Mary Louise ("Kitty") and dad

Jose were planning to return to another house in the suburban town at the time of their deaths.

Teenage Wasteland: Most of the members of the infamous "Bling Ring," who vandalized celebrity

homes in the Hollywood Hills between October 2008 and August 2009, were from Calabasas. Sofia

Coppola began filming a movie about the crime spree, starring Emma Watson, in March 2012.

Suge Knight Shakedown: The rap mogul and a few loyalists visited local resident Steve Cantrock,

his accountant, in Calabasas late one night in 1996 and forced him to sign a document admitting he

embezzled $4.5 million from Death Row Records. Cantrock, who subsequently went into hiding with his

family, later told federal investigators that the two-page confession was signed under duress.

STORY: New York's Hamptons Real Estate Smackdown: Southhampton vs. East

Hampton (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/new-york-hamptons-real-estate-311588)

Scientology School: Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, who live near Calabasas in Monte Nido,

funded the New Village Leadership Academy in 2008. In the past, they had denied ties to Scientology,

but controversy erupted in the press when NVLA's curriculum and faculty were exposed as being based

on the church's "study technology" teachings.

Seniors Stiffed: In 2009, the 138 people living in the Motion Picture & Television Home Fund's

long-term care facility -- located mere yards outside the Calabasas border -- were notified that, because

of a lack of funds, it would be closed. MPTF CEO David Tillman resigned, and the care facility was saved


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with stop-gap funds. Foundation board chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, pilloried at the time by activists,

in February spearheaded a $350 million campaign to ensure its future.

EDDIE MURPHY (HTTP://WWW.HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM/CATEGORY/TOPICS-ENTITIES/EDDIE-MURPHY)

JADA PINKETT SMITH (HTTP://WWW.HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM/CATEGORY/TOPICS-ENTITIES/JADA-PINKETT-SMITH)

JUSTIN BIEBER (HTTP://WWW.HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM/TOPIC/JUSTIN-BIEBER-30532)

KIM KARDASHIAN (HTTP://WWW.HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM/TOPIC/KIM-KARDASHIAN)

TOMMY LEE (HTTP://WWW.HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM/CATEGORY/TOPICS-ENTITIES/TOMMY-LEE)

WILL SMITH (HTTP://WWW.HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM/CATEGORY/TOPICS-ENTITIES/WILL-SMITH-0)

REAL ESTATE (HTTP://WWW.HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM/CATEGORY/TOPICS-TRENDS/REAL-ESTATE)

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THE ROCKS SAYS......"FINALLY THE ROCK HAS COME BACK TO HIDDEN HILLSCALIFORNIA TO SELL MY HOUSE.........CAN YOU SMEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLWHAT THE ROCK IS SELLING!!!!!!!

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Another reason that is not mentioned here is that Beverly Hills and the westside are not the same asthere were years ago. Real Estate values on the westside have held up well because the influx ofEuropean and Asian buyers. Additionally the Persian community in Beverly Hills has completelychanged the essence of the neighborhood, by building over-sized Palaces that have no architecturalappeal. Also the school system has fallen off the cliff.

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Justin Bieber bought a house for 6.5 mil -- has that kid even hit puberty yet???

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Hidden hills is a beautiful city like no other. It's peaceful

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