Hollywood celebs fall prey to us housing collapse

Celebrities may be better able to weather a huge loss on a home sale, but that doesn't mean they're immune from losing a bundle on their extra-large listings. The following are just three of the famous faces who took a hit in the housing market:

Scarlett Johansson  

When you lose $2 million on your house and that's not even your biggest public loss of the year, that's a pretty good sign you're on the A-list. Such are the woes of Scarlett Johansson, who parted with $7 million for a 1931-vintage Spanish hillside villa in Los Angeles' swanky Outpost Estates neighborhood back in 2007. After three years, one marriage and renovations to the mansion including windows, doors, appliances and tech upgrades, Johansson inexplicably turned around and listed her 4,300-square-foot, seven-bedroom manse in 2009 for $5.1 million. She sold it for just less than $5 million.

Beck

It's getting tougher to figure Beck out. When fans think he's a stripped-down antifolk hero, he goes and blows some serious cash just to remind them he's a millionaire Scientologist. Last year alone, Beck lost about $1.5 million trying to flip two properties in a tough California housing market.

The first -- a 1,600-square-foot, three-bedroom, two bathroom ranch with a two-bedroom guest house with a massive fireplace -- sold for $1.7 million last February after Beck bought it for $2.1 million in 2007. He probably didn't count on that three-year strategy biting him twice when he bought a 5,700-square-foot, six-bedroom, nine-bathroom home for $6.8 million back in 2007. In fact, he had such high hopes for the place that he put it back up a year later for $9 million.

Years passed, the recession came and the property lingered on the market until last year, when it caught the eye of Grey's Anatomy producer Shonda Rimes. Instead of meeting Beck where he was at, however, Rimes saw his unrealistic asking price and undercut it by about $4.4 million -- or $1.2 less than Beck initially paid.

Nicolas Cage

Cage has a $1.7 million home in Newport Beach , Calif., listed for less than $1 million and a $15.7 million Rhode Island estate on the market for $7.8 million.  In 2009, the IRS filed a put a lien on some of Cage's property in Louisiana and said he owed them roughly $6 million for purchases made in 2007. Cage wasn't undergoing quick sessions of shop therapy at the local mall, mind you, but picking up that Rhode Island mansion, the more than $8 million Milford Castle in Bath, England, and some car leases: a five-year, $7,700-a-month lease on a 1964 Rolls Royce SC III; and a $3,600-a-month lease on a 2002 Rolls Royce Corniche.

As a result, his two $3.5 million homes in New Orleans were sold back to the bank for a combined $4.5 million, an $8.5 million home in Las Vegas went for $5 million, a $9.5 million Manhattan apartment for $7.5 million and -- most crushing -- a Bel-Air Tudor mansion he'd listed for $35 million hit the bargain bin at $10.5 million after it went into foreclosure.

Source: NuWire Investor