Real Estate : David Beckham’s $27,000,000 Malibu Summer Pad

This summer David Beckham and family will be renting this 10,000-square-foot Malibu mansion that is valued at a brisk $27,000,000. Beck's rent will be about $158,753 per month. According to the real estate listing it's worth every penny as the house is a "stunning, new architectural estate, constructed under strict green building standards," and it has "breathtaking ocean, island and sunset views." Need more convincing? How about the fact that "Gray whales hug the shore as they migrate around one of the West Coast's great points?" Whales!? Are you kidding me? This place is so goddamn serene I can't even stand it.

More photos of Beckham's whale-watching pad are below.

Pittsburgh man's newly-bought home accidentally demolished

This empty lot is what remains where the house owned by Andre Hall stood, in Pittsburgh's West End neighborhood.

Just three weeks from moving in, a Pennsylvania man found his newly bought home completely demolished, reports the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Andre Hall, 40, had apparently come to the home in Pittsburgh’s West End area to do some final repairs, when he realized something was very wrong.

"I don't come for a week over the holiday, and as soon as I come back, I see a backhoe on top of the house," he told the paper. "Why did they demolish the house? They could see I had put in new windows and had slabs of drywall."

The explanation?

"A couple things went awry," John Jennings, who is the chief of the city's Bureau of Building Inspection, told the paper. "The house next door was to be demolished, and the contractor, in error, took this house down as well."

The three-bedroom home had reportedly been vacant for five years, but Hall was in the process of making repairs on the home, which he bought in November for $31,000 after it went into foreclosure.

Apparently, Jennings claims his department told the contractors not to demolish the house on Nov. 3, but that seems to have gotten lost in translation. The contractors did not comment.

Hall, who has five children, currently lives in a one-bedroom apartment.

"My dream is done now. Someone needs to man up and take responsibility for this," Hall added.

But, so far, the city departments and contractors involved are reportedly reviewing what happened.

Houses of Hip-Hop Powerhouses: Kanye, Diddy, Pharrell, More!

Photo: Todd Selby

Yesterday, photographer extraordinaire Todd Selby presented a full photogallery of hiphop musician/producer Pharrell Williams's $14M penthouse in Miami, Fla. Filled with cartoonish sculptures, graphic art, and Louis Vuitton paraphernalia, the space befits someone who's completely obsessed with modern design—and who even creates some of it himself. Selby's work prompted us to go back and explore the real estate wheelings and dealings of some of Pharrell's hip-hop cohorts: what they've bought, what they've sold, and where they live.

Here's lookin' at Diddy, Kanye, and more. >>

Sean "Diddy" Combs enlisted the knowhow of celebrity designer Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz to dress his newest NYC digs (above) with modern furnishings in a silvery, neutral palette. Perhaps the soothing interiors calm the chaos left over from Combs's storied and rather tenous series of past real estate-related transactions in the Big Apple.

While Kanye West has expressed a deep love of baroque furnishings and decor on his Twitter feed, the Hollywood apartment he recently listed for close to $4M tells the story of a different aesthetic altogether (above). Like, say, Jetsons art and computer-controlled everything. Oh, and a painting of West depicted as an angel on the dining room ceiling.

Now that Li'L Wayne has been released from Riker's Island, he can finally make use of the $14M modern (above) he's renting on La Gorce, a private island off Miami. Quite an upgrade from being behind bars.

While he's never actually lived in the modest digs, unofficial Chicago spokesperson Common is renting out his two-bedroom investment apartment for a reasonable $2,500 a month (above). He purchased the unit for $402K a couple of years ago; it's his second purchase in the building. Now there's a reason to get chummy with the landlord.