Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are rumored to be looking for a new home. If they don’t find one soon, they could lose a lot of money. On April 1, a new “mansion tax” goes into effect in Los Angeles. People who sell homes for more than $5 million will have to pay a higher tax rate.
Affleck and Lopez have fallen out of escrow on another house in the Los Angeles area. In a few days, when the new tax, the United to House L.A. measure (Measure ULA), goes into effect, it may be harder for them to move.
Measure ULA, if it passes in November 2022, will raise $1 billion by taxing people who sell homes worth more than $5 million. This money will be used to help solve the problem of homelessness in Los Angeles.
TMZ says that sources say the couple, who are also known as “Bennifer,” was supposed to buy a $64 million mansion in Los Angeles’s Pacific Palisades but have since pulled out of escrow. It comes after rumors that they were going to buy a $55 million estate in Bel-Air last April and a $34.5 million mansion in Pacific Palisades last month.
With the Measure ULA tax, property sales over $5 million will be taxed at 4%, and sales over $10 million will be taxed at 5.5 %.
Bennifer may not be directly affected by the new tax, since they seem to be looking for houses outside of the city of Los Angeles, where the tax is set to go into effect. However, it could affect the wider L.A. area real estate market.
Affleck and Lopez aren’t the only ones moving to California. Jim Carrey, Britney Spears, and Kylie Jenner have all put their homes on the market in recent months because of upcoming tax changes.
Ideal Home says that Carrey’s 12,700-square-foot Los Angeles home is for sale for $29 million. According to the Daily Mail, Spears and her new husband Sam Asghari are selling their 11,650-square-foot Calabasas home for $12 million, while Jenner and Travis Scott are selling their Beverly Hills home for $33 million.
Mark Wahlberg seems to be already feeling the effects of having to drastically lower the price of his home to sell it. His 30,500-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion was first put on the market for $87.5 million last year, before Measure ULA was passed, according to The Independent. The price dropped to $79.5 million in November, and it finally sold in February.
Josh Altman, a TV personality and real estate agent, told The Telegraph that Measure ULA is making deals happen that should never have happened.
Kat Von D, a famous tattoo artist, seems to be feeling the pinch as well. She sold her L.A. mansion for half of what it was originally listed for. The 13-bedroom Hollywood home was shown in the movie Cheaper By the Dozen. In January 2022, it was put up for sale for $15 million. TMZ says that it was sold for $7.75 million in March 2023.
