The rich and famous take advantage of, and suffer, from a precarious real estate market, just like us! Married movie stars Scarlett Johansson, 25, and Ryan Reynolds, 33, appear to currently be holding off on growing their family and instead are more focused on expanding their real estate portfolio. The couple just added a third residential purchase to the mix: A $2.9 million property in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. The two-bedroom, three-bathroom, single-story home is nestled in the hills, and boasts killer views of L.A. and the Pacific Ocean, along with impressive flora and fauna. Besides the enviable location, the pad also has a pool with a sundeck, and a petite garden that's private to the glassed-in master bedroom. There is a library and a home office that previously were two children's bedrooms.
Although an undeniably lovely home, it's not really a win for the Hollywood couple. In February, Johansson sold her 1930s Hollywood Hills home for $2 million less than what she originally paid in 2007. According to Zillow, she paid $7 million.
"Typically people don't mind taking a loss on one property if they are trading up in a down market," says Seth Levin with Prudential Douglas Elliman in New York. (Johansson and Reynolds are not his clients.) "Trading down in a down market would typically signal financial hardship, really bad financial judgment, or people who really just don't care about money. You always want to trade up and take advantage of a discount in a down market. If you trade down you are being eaten up by the net loss."
Johansson and Reynolds also own real estate in New York and Louisiana. Their properties include an apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side and "a ramshackle country house" with a barn in the Cajun state. Indeed, a two-bedroom Manhattan apartment and a country fixer-upper aren't exactly the best places to raise babies.
"My guess is if they plan to start a family then they will be plan on remodeling that place or just will plan on selling and buying again when they get there," says Sandra Reishus, a relationship and sex therapist, and author of "Oh No! He's Just Like My Father!" "But you have to wonder why they would do that. It's certainly not forward-thinking on their part, unless they aren't going to have children. This may be their message to everyone that they are not ready to have children. Maybe this is a house that they had to have, that they will enjoy for five years and then reevaluate."
It's not like remodeling is out of the question, either.
"I've sold $6 million bachelor pads and then $750,000 family homes," says Levin. "It's not such a problem for them to trade up later if money isn't a problem, but if you think your finances won't hold up, you might want to buy for the long term."
With nearly $6 million lost or tied up, the married couple will have to bank on the success of Reynolds' upcoming "The Green Hornet" and Johannson's "The Avengers."
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