Michael Jackson, the onetime king of pop, narrowly avoided foreclosure of his Neverland ranch earlier this spring. The Los Angeles Times reported he sidestepped a foreclosure auction of Neverland after an investment company bought the loan on the troubled Los Olivos property. The loan purchase by Colony Capital LLC was the latest deal to keep the 2,500-acre ranch from being sold. (Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times)
The estate in the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County had a Ferris wheel, roller coaster, game arcades and a zoo with elephants, giraffes and orangutans. It reportedly fell into disrepair after Jackson left the area following his acquittal on child molestation charges in 2005. (Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times)
Ed McMahon’s lender, Calabasas-based Countrywide Financial Corp., filed a notice of default in March on $4.8 million in mortgage loans, public records show. If McMahon does not make some arrangement, the six-bedroom, five-bath house in a gated hilltop community in Beverly Hills will be sold at auction. Explaining how he fell behind on his mortgage, McMahon told CNNs Larry King, “If you spend more money than you make, you know what happens,” he said. “A couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that.” (Matt Sayles / Associated Press)
The 54,000-square-foot home -- located on Evander Holyfield Highway -- has 109 rooms, including 17 bathrooms, three kitchens and a bowling alley. (Jenni Girtman / Associated Press)
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Stripped of the three gold and two bronze medals she won at the Sydney Olympics when she pleaded guilty to perjury at the end of last year and confessed that she had been taking banned drugs before the 2000 Games, Marion Jones has also lost what she called her dream home. The Los Angeles Times reported last summer that, according to Jones, a bank foreclosed on her $2.5-million chateau-style “dream home” in an area of Chapel Hill, N.C., where Michael Jordan and Dean Smith were among her neighbors. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Jose Canseco, the former American League MVP who made millions during his baseball career, told the syndicated TV show “Inside Edition” that he walked away from his $2.5-million, 7,300-square-foot home in suburban Encino because it didn’t make sense to continue making payments. “I do have a judgment on my home and it to me is very strange because it didn’t make financial sense for me to keep paying a mortgage on a home that was basically owned by someone else,” he said in an interview with the show. (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that the River Hills, Wis., home belonging to former NBA star Latrell Sprewell was foreclosed on this spring when he failed to show up in court to contest the action brought by a bank that held his mortgage. The holder of the mortgage, RBS Citizens Bank, told Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Hansher that Sprewell owes $320,284. According to River Hills records, the house is assessed at $610,000 and has an estimated fair market value of $667,980. Sprewell bought the house in 1994 for $405,000. (Elsa / Getty Images)