Celebrity Pads

While many of us settles for a 1600 sq. ft. house (or smaller) with a 5 x 20 ft. backyard, the celebrities get what they want. Pool, sauna, dance studio, tennis court and a guest house are just some of the amenities their houses have. I should say mansion, castles, manors - Those are more like the proper terms for these gigantic structure where celebs live.

This spectacular home, owned by Christina Aguilera, was purchased for a cool $3.7 million dollars. It sits atop a hill in an exclusive gated community in the Hollywood Hills, CA. (credit: Getty Images)

Talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, owns several million dollar properties. This one here, known as "The Farm", is located in Indiana, and includes 160 acres of land, a five-bedroom 9,700-square-foot main residence, a guest house, a pool, a stable and of course, a tennis court. The property was listed for $8.5 million. (credit: Getty Images)

Actor Nicolas Cage and his former wife Patricia Arquette, lived in this 1940s Bel Air mansion. Cage purchased this luxe home for $7 million in 1998, then two years ago, in the autumn of 2006, he turned around and listed it at $35 million. (credit: Getty Images)

Keanu Reeves' $5 million dollar three-bedroom house, which spans 5,000-square feet, has three fireplaces, a state of the art pool and a courtyard. The home is located in a gated community in West Hollywood, and was first built for an art collector during the 1980s. (credit: Getty Images)

Jenna Elfman, who co-starred in the popular sitcom "Dharma & Greg", bought this Wallace Neff-designed home from Madonna for about $4 million dollars. Built in the 1920s, this 5,000 square foot home has three bedrooms, a Spanish-tile kitchen and is nearly two acres behind large steel gates, for maximum privacy. (credit: Getty Images)

Former Friends star, Courteney Cox-Arquette and husband David Arquette, bought this Malibu beachfront home in 2001, for $10.2 million. Last summer, the couple decided it was time for a change, and sold this property to Frank and Jamie McCourt, the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team for $33 million. (credit: FilmMagic)

After filing for divorce, Britney Spears and Kevin Federline put their 9,200-square foot mansion on the market for $12 million dollars. Located in an exclusive gated community in the Hollywood Hills, it had seven bedrooms, a dance/workout room and a recording studio. (credit: Getty Images)

Hmmmm Do you guys know any quick rich schemes? I want to buy one of the above... :D

Source: Sympatico

Real estate: Where to buy now

Real estate agents like to tell you that what matters is location, location, location. They're partly right. But what also matters is timing, timing, timing. Every city moves to its own economic rhythms. Smart real estate investing is a matter of knowing when to jump into the market and when to stay out.How do you know when the time is ripe? Rather than relying upon gut feel, we decided to take a more scientific approach to the question. We compiled data on the 35 major markets tracked by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. We analyzed each market in three different ways — by Value, by Momentum, and by Economic Strength. We assigned each market a letter grade in each of the three categories, then combined all that info into one overall grade. We awarded an A to the top 20% of cities. Average prospects had to make do with a B, while lacklustre prospects were handed a C or worse.

Let's go shopping for real estate!

Source: Yahoo.com