Celebrity real estate that sold in 2011

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Editor's note: This article is reposted with permission of Zillow. View the original item: "From Ashton to Ellen: 2011′s Celebrity Real Estate Roundup"

By Erika Riggs

By many accounts, 2011 was a rough year for real estate – unless you happened to be a celebrity. For the rich and famous stars of screens large and small, 2011 was just another year of megahouse hunting, renting, selling and swapping.

Like those beloved holiday calendars that highlight the year's eye candy, we've strung together a series of bright-light celebrity real estate deals from the past year's high-stakes, high-profile ventures.

January: Charlize Theron

Source: IMDb.

Sometimes, even celebrities have to dip their toes in before taking the plunge. That's the route Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron took when she opted to be a landlord before listing her property. After her split with Stuart Townsend in 2010, the couple listed their Malibu home as a $50,000-a-month rental. A year later, Theron dove in and listed the property for $7.5 million. Not bad, considering that in 2003 she and Townsend paid $3.5 million. The beachfront home, pictured, is described as the "oldest home on La Costa Beach." It sold in May for $6.56 million.

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