While it's true that big-name celebs tend to congregate on the coasts, a smattering seek refuge from the fameball-saturated beaches of Malibu or the crowded streets of Manhattan in ski communities in the Mountain Time Zone. Take acerbic funnyman Jerry Seinfeld. In July, the comedian and former sitcom star listed his imposing Telluride, Colo. estate, which boasts a 14,200-square-foot main house with 11 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, and a 5,500-square-foot deck, not to mention a heated garage with space for four cars. Nice place—and on 26 acres, no less—but few would chuckle at the price: Seinfeld originally wanted $18.3M. Suspiciously, the listing has since disappeared.
? Jon Huntsman isn't the only GOP face to find refuge in the mountains. In 1999, Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney purchased a winter home in Park City, Utah, which he promptly sold for roughly $5.2M a decade or so later. What the lucky new homeowner got: seven bedrooms and 9.5. baths over 9,500 square feet, plus the name recognition, of course.
? Here's a property that was made famous on a relatively recent episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: the massive Avon, Colo. ski getaway where actor Kelsey Grammar and his ex-wife Camille enjoyed their happier times. The duo dropped $5.35M on the 8,500-square-foot house in 2002, listed it for $7.9M, and have since PriceChopped the six-bedroom home to $7.3M.
? Meeker, Colo.'s Seven Lakes Ranch is golfer Greg Norman's truly epic mega compound that's surrounded by the White River National Forest. Included on hundreds of acres: a 13,900-square-foot fully furnished "luxury lodge," guest and staff cabins, a fitness center, a "sportsmans lodge," stables, more than two miles of river frontage, private hunting, movie theater, and a boatload more. Expectedly, the place is dizzying: $55M.
? While it's not wise to call the above property a "chalet," it is located in ski-chic Aspen and it does have a celebrity name attached: Charlie Sheen, who once rented the five-bedroom house with ex Brooke Mueller and actually, as it turns out, beat her up in it. The home sold for $6.125M in Sept. 2010. · Television Funnyman Jerry Seinfeld Lists $18.5M Telluride Estate [Curbed National]
· Kelsey Grammar Divorces Ski Home For Everything It's Worth [Curbed National]
· Mitt Romney's 6 Homes [Zillow Blog]
· 7 Lakes Ranch [SDS Real Estate]
· 320 W. Hallam St., Aspen, Colo. [Zillow]
· Charlie Sheen's Christmas 2009 Aspen Vacation Home [Celebrity Real Estate News]