PHOTOS: Homes of highest-earning Celebrities in 2015

• Posted on January 1, 2016
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

In conjunction with Forbes’ just-released Celebrity 100 List, we’ve compiled a round-up of where these stars lay their heads, focused on the top earners. Pictured here: Taylor Swift’s Watch Hill, R.I., home.

Johnny Depp (No. 87): French Estate

Earnings: $30 million

Address: Plan de la Tour, Southern France

List Price: $25.8 million

The Home: 10,763 square feet, 12 bedrooms, 12 baths, 37 acres

Listed with: Sotheby’s International Realty

Unlike most celebrity homes for sale, the listing website for Johnny Depp’s French village touts the celebrity owner as a sales feature. The actor acquired this property in 2001 and spent time there with then partner Vanessa Paradis. It contains an entire “hameau,” or private village, with more than a dozen buildings, including a main house, several guest cottages, a chapel, bar and restaurant, a workshop and staff house. Some of the stone-built houses date to 1812. The estate lies in the village of Plande la Tour in Southern France, about 17 miles north of Saint Tropez. Depp restored and decorated the estate, investing some $10 million. The price tag includes furniture as well as many of Depp’s personal belongings. Depp married actress Amber Heard in February 2015.

Pharrell Williams (No. 78): Hollywood Hills Modern

Earnings: $32 million

Address: Skyline Drive, Los Angeles

Purchase Price: $7.14 million (April 2015)

The Home: 4,415 square feet with 5-bedroom main home, 1-bedroom guesthouse on 1.5 acres

Sold by: Justin Mandile and Billy Rose of The Agency
Designed by Santa Monica, Calif.-based architect Hagy Belzberg, Pharrell’s new pad tops Skyline Drive and has views of the City of Angels from every room. The home features ceiling-to-floor glass, an infinitypool, and a home theater. For Los Angeles, the 1.5-acre lot is unusually large. Pharrell paid $7.14 million in a deal that closed April 3, according to property records.

Tom Cruise (No. 52): Telluride Ranch

Earnings: $40 million

Address: 115 Francisco Way, Telluride, Colorado

List Price: $59 million (Oct. 2014)

The Home: Seven bedrooms, nine full baths on 238 acres

Listed with: Bill Fandel, Telluride Sotheby’s International Realty
Tom Cruise bought the 238-acre ranch just 12 minutes from Telluride in 1992, paying $1.9 million, according to property records. He listed it in October 2014. It includes a main home as well as a storybook-style guest home. The property includes a private trail system and gated access leading into the tens of thousands of acres of nearby National Forest.

Jay Z & Beyonce (Nos. 28 & 29): Tribeca Penthouse Earnings: $56 and $54.5 million

Address: 195 Hudson Street, NYC

Purchase Price: $6.85 million (2004, Jay Z)

The Home: 8,000 sq ft, plus 3,000 sq ft in terraces
Jay Z bought the seventh-floor penthouse at 195 Hudson Street back in 2004, before he married Beyonce, for $6.85 million. The penthouse was the center of a paparazzi storm when it was rumored to be the site of the couple’s 2008 nuptials. Jay Z purchased the penthouse under the name Brooklyn Projects LLC but signed his own name—Shawn Carter—on the deed, property records show. The converted 1929 brick warehouse is also home to Real Housewife Bethenny Frankel.

Lady Gaga (No. 25): Malibu Fun House Earnings: $59 million

Address: Malibu, across the street from Zuma Beach

Purchase Price: $23.5million (2014)

The Home: 10,270 square feet, five bedrooms, 12 bathrooms on six acres

Sold by: Santiago Arana, The Agency
Lady Gaga’s Beverly Hills home is fully equipped with a home theater, game room, and 800-bottle wine cellar. It also boasts an eight-stall barn, a riding area, and a guest house. Dan Romanelli, who founded the consumer products division of Warner Bros. and worked on Batman products, built the home and created its underground “Batcave,” where Gaga now enjoys a two-lane vintage bowling alley.

Ryan Seacrest (No. 21): Ellen’s Old Coldwater Canyon HouseEarnings: $60 million

Address: Coldwater Canyon, Los Angeles

Purchase Price: $37 million (2012)

The Home: 9,700 square feet

Sold by: Sotheby’s International Realty

Ryan Seacrest purchased his nearly 10,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion from Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi back in 2012 for $37 million. The home includes a 9,200-square-foot main home plus three guest houses, a swimming pool, and koi ponds.

Sean “Diddy” Combs (No. 21): Beverly Hills Movie House

Earnings: $60 million

Address: Los Angeles, California

Purchase Price: $39 million (August 2014)

The Home: 17,000 square feet with five bedrooms and seven baths on a golf course.

The hip-hop artist paid $39 million for a brand-new, 17,000-square-foot spec home with a 35-seat home theater in August. It also has a lagoon-style pool. He sold his prior home to boxer Manny Pacquaio.

David Copperfield (No. 20): Islands of Copperfield Bay, Bahamas

Earnings: $63 million

Address: Copperfield Bay, the Exumas, Bahamas

Purchase Price: more than $55 million

The Home: 11 private islandsCopperfield purchased an 11-island archipelago in the desirable Exuma chain of the Bahamas; the largest, 150-acre Musha Cay, cost $55 million in 2006. Copperfield says he chose a place to purchase by drawing a line on a globe between Easter Island and England’s Stonehenge, and another from the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico to the Pyramid of Giza in Egypt; at the lines’ intersection is supposedly his archipelago. The magician spent nearly $40 million on renovations. He also has a four-story penthouse at the Galleria in New York (pictured here).

Justin Timberlake (No. 12): Yellowstone Club

Earnings: $63.5 million

Address: Yellowstone Club, Big Sky, Montana

Purchase Price: Unknown

The Home: Away from L.A.

Timberlake and his wife Jessica Biel reportedaly want to raise their son Silas away from the glare of Los Angeles. So they chose the Yellowstone Club, a private Big Sky, Mont., club where membership reportedly costs $300,000 and annual dues are $30,000—and that’s before the cost of buying a home. The 13,600 acre-club has 2,200 skiable acres. Neighbors include Bill Gates, Dan Quayle and Jack Kemp. (Pictured here: a home in Yellowstone Club, not their home.)

LeBron James (No.18): Miami HotpadEarnings: $65 million

Address: 3590 Crystal View Court, Miami, Florida

List Price: $15 million (at time of sale)

The Home: 16,700 square feet with six bedrooms, eight full- and one half-baths

Sold by: Tomi Rose, Opulence International Realty’s Sports & Entertainment Division

When basketball great LeBron James returned to Cleveland he no longer needed a Miami home; it hit the market in October 2014 with a list price of $17 million, later slashed to $15 million. The 16,700-square-foot waterfront mansion features an infinity pool and docking for two 60-foot yachts. James paid $9 million in November 2010 for the property in the Coconut Grove neighborhood, which has also been home to Madonna and Sylvester Stallone. Sources tell Forbes the home is under contract; the sale has not yet closed, according to property

Ellen DeGeneres (No. 12): Los Angeles Design Gem

Earnings: $75 million

Address: Brody House, Los Angeles, California

Purchase Price: $39.888 million in 2013; flipped for $49.5 million six months later

The Home: An architectural gem designed by A. Quincy Jones

Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia De Rossi may just be Hollywood’s most home-flipping couple. Over the years they’ve bought and sold many properties of architectural distinction, including Brody House (pictured), an A. Quincy Jones-designed home which they owned for just six months before flipping to Facebook billionaire Sean Parker. In December they re-purchased a Nichols Canyon home that DeGeneres owned and sold a decade earlier. DeGeneres has even got a new HGTV show,Ellen’s Design Challenge.

Rush Limbaugh (No. 11): Palm Beach Radio Show BaseEarnings: $79 million

Address: Palm Beach, Florida

Purchase Price: $3.9 million (1998)

The Home: 31,761 square feet, 9 bedrooms, 11 baths on 2.26 acres

The radio personality paid $3.9 million for this home in 1998; Palm Beach County now values it at $44.44 million, according to property records. The conservative talk show host broadcasts his syndicated show from here.

Cristiano Ronaldo (No. 10): Madrid Modern

Earnings: $79.5 million

Address: Madrid, Spain

List Price: €5.4 million (in 2013)

The Home: 7 bedrooms, two swimming pools, and a large garden

Listed with: Promora

The soccer star’s villa in suburban Madrid hit the market in 2013, sparking rumors that he was leaving Real Madrid. But the world’s most popular athlete is staying put with a contract through 2018 that guarantees him a $50+ million a year salary (with bonuses). The team seems to think he’s worth every penny: the reigning FIFA best player in the world has scored 60 or more goals in each of the last four calendar years and averages a goal a game for his club.

Taylor Swift (No. 8): Rhode Island WaterfrontEarnings: $80 million

Address: Watch Hill, Rhode Island

Purchase Price: $17.75 million

The Home: 11,000 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 9 baths, 5 acres

Taylor Swift’s real estate portfolio includes a Nashville penthouse, a New York apartment, and a Cape Cod-style home in Beverly Hills. But Rhode Island is where she’s celebrated the 4th of July along with famous friends like Lena Dunham and Jaime King. Measuring 11,000 square feet, the 7-bedroom, 9-bath home was built in 1930.

James Patterson (No. 7): Palm Beach Renovation

Earnings: $89 million

Address: Palm Beach, Florida

Purchase Price: $17.4 million (July 2009)

The Home: 26,377 square feet on 1.87 acres

Novelist James Patterson, author of the Alex Cross series, told the Wall Street Journal that his Palm Beach estate was “obnoxious” but that he and wife Susan could not resist. The Pattersons spent $14 million renovating the 1924 mansion, Casa Ananda, which until they bought it had never been completed.

Garth Brooks (No. 6): Malibu Retreat

Earnings: $90 million

Address: 28020 Sea Lane Dr., Malibu, California

List Price: $7.8 million

The Home: 4,236 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths on ½ acre

Listed with: Kathrin Nicholson, The Agency

Country legends Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood put their Malibu ranch-style home on the market just before their world tour together began in September 2014. The home is just a few hundred yards to private beach access, according to the listing. It was built in 1958 and remodeled in 2007; the singers paid $3.75 million in 2008, according to property records.

Howard Stern (No.5): Palm Beach HideawayEarnings: $95 million

Address: Palm Beach, Florida

Sale Price: $52 million (May 2013)

The Home: 39,094 square feet, five bedrooms, 3.25 acres

Sold by: Lawrence A. Moens, Lawrence A. Moens Associates Inc.

Radio shock jock Howard Stern has frequently said he doesn’t like New York and in 2013, he bought a home in Florida. His 39,100-square-foot mansion on 3.25 acres is just down the street from billionaire investor Nelson Peltz’s Palm Beach home. It was not listed on the open market when Stern and wife Beth Ostrosky purchased it from textiles tycoon Martin Trust and his wife Diane.

Manny Pacquiao (No.2): Sean Combs’ Old Beverly Hills Mansion

Earnings: $160 million

Address: Beverly Hills, California

List Price: $12.5 million at time of purchase (March 2015)

The Home: 10,000 square feet with seven bedrooms, eight baths

Sold by: Elsa Nelson, Nelson Shelton & Associates

Just two months before The Fight of The Century against Floyd Mayweather (No. 1 on the Celebrity 100), Pacquiao bought the Beverly Hills home of Sean “Diddy” Combs (No. 21). The 10,000-square-foot mansion contains a home theater with seating for 20 people.

Floyd Mayweather (No. 1): Las Vegas Big Boy MansionEarnings: $300 million

Address: Undisclosed, Las Vegas, Nevada

Value: Custom-built home at unknown cost

The Home: 22,000 square feet with five bedrooms and seven baths on a golf course

The boxer took ESPN on a tour of his 20,000-square-foot homeahead of his May 2 fight with Manny Pacquaio, showing off his garage filled with $15 million in sports cars, including Buggattis, that he never drives. It also features a movie theater with two screens stacked vertically and a Fendicrystal chandelier. The house has its own Instagram account, bigboymansion, that boasts “This mansion speaks because it was paid in cash.”

-Forbes