5 Celebrity Homes That Won't Sell

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Don't let improved housing numbers fool you: Even celebrities are having a tough time moving property in this market.

Existing home sales are up, existing housing prices are moving north and mortgage interest rates continue their dive below 4%. That's great for the average schmoe with a condo who just finished riding out the housing bust, but for folks hanging on to sprawling estates with more bathrooms than the average home has rooms, those 2000s displays of big-rimmed, bejeweled opulence just aren't coming back.

While mansion moving isn't nearly as difficult a task as it was at the peak of the housing market collapse, there are still some celebrities who can't unload their seven- to eight-figure homes. We thumbed through the listings and, with help from Zillow (Z) and Trulia, found five celebrity homes that haven't budged despite price drops and multiple market postings:

50 Cent's Connecticut mansion
Asking price: $10 million

Former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson wasn't tight with a dollar, and the sprawling Farmington, Conn., estate he left behind is a testament to that spending.

Tyson pioneered hip-hop opulence in the 1980s, when he was crashing Bentleys in midtown Manhattan while most rappers were just trying to keep their sneakers clean. It's little surprise, then, that his home fell into the hands of rapper and Vitamin Water investor Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, who bought the property from Tyson's ex-wife for $4.1 million in 2003.

The deep discount from the $25 million asking price allowed Jackson to spend $6 million renovating and repairing the mansion's entourage-friendly 21 bedrooms, 25 full bathrooms, eight-car garage, five fireplaces, two guest houses and one-acre koi pond. A 40-person hot tub and grotto, a nightclub with a 20-screen video wall and stripper poles and enough bathrooms that you never have to use the same toilet two days in a row have lost a bit of their appeal since.

The house first hit the market for $18.5 million in 2007. Its basketball and tennis courts, recording studio and indoor shooting range proved no match for the housing slump or the lawsuit that forced Jackson to take it off the market in 2009. He relisted it for $14.5 million the same year, but he's been getting impatient with the commute to New York and has cut the price of Tyson's '80s dream palace almost in half.

1 2 Next › Last »