| Brad Pitt puts his bachelor pad up for sale and What bubble? 25 Best Places with priciest homes |
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Brad Pitt reportedly purchased the oceanfront home for about $8 million in 2005, after splitting from ex-wife Jennifer Aniston. He did several extensive renovations on the property, including adding a heated lap pool and tennis court. He also obtained planning and coastal approval for a proposed second story designed by Chris Sorensen, an architect who specializes in environmentally friendly design.The bluff-top home was briefly offered in 2009 for $18 million, but the price was lowered significantly before it hit the market again this year.Behind private gates, Pitt's 4,088 square-foot bachelor pad sits on 1.26 acres in the highly desirable Encinal Bluffs area of Malibu, Calif. with stairs and path access to a sandy beach cove. In addition to the pool and tennis court outside, a covered porch and open patio look out on to the coast line, according to the listing.Inside the home, originally built in 1962, walls of glass open to sweeping ocean views. [Read the full article] NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- New-home sales fell once again in July, the third straight month of declining sales for hard-pressed home builders.New homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 298,000, a modest 0.7% drop from a downwardly-revised rate of 300,000 homes sold in June, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. It was also below the rate of 310,000 that a panel of housing market analysts at Briefing.com had forecast."We've been bouncing around the 300,000 level for months, for years, really," said David Crowe, the chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders. "It reflects continued buyer concern with the weak economy."The median price for a new home sold in July was $222,000, down about 5.5% from June but up 8.8% from 12 months earlier.The inventory of new homes for sale stood at 165,000 during the month. It would take 6.6 months to sell off those homes at the current sales rate. [Read the full article] WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- A deal to help victims of improper foreclosures has been slow going, in large part because of infighting among state attorneys general over giving banks a free pass from future lawsuits.The talks are between the attorneys general and federal agencies on one side, and the five largest mortgage servicers, which comprise nearly 60% of the market: Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Ally Financial (GJM).Attorneys general in states with stronger fraud enforcement laws, such as New York, Delaware and Massachusetts, don't want to give up the right to go after banks in future fraud lawsuits. And a few other state attorneys general have balked at the draft versions they consider too tough on the banks, according to sources familiar with the talks. [Read the full article] 
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