Malin Akerman Lists Her Secured Los Feliz Bungalow as She Plans Big Life Change
I’ve covered a lot of celebrity home sales. Most of them are just numbers dressed up in fancy adjectives.
This one is different.
A Home That Holds 21 Years of Life
Malin Akerman didn’t just buy a house. She stumbled into one.
Back in the early 2000s, she was waitressing at a downtown LA restaurant when a regular customer, a man named Bob, told her his family had an empty home in the Hollywood Hills they’d rent to people they trusted.
She went to see it. Walked in. Looked at the view.
That was it.
She rented it for three years before buying it in 2008. The trust purchase was officially recorded in 2011 at $895,000. Now it’s listed at $2.995 million and she’s leaving California for good.
“So many things happened here,” Akerman told Elle Decor. “I was living here when my son was born, when I went through a divorce and got remarried.”
Twenty-one years. One house. A whole life.
What the Property Actually Looks Like
The home sits in The Oaks enclave of Los Feliz, a quiet, winding pocket of the Hollywood Hills with only about 200 to 250 homes total. It’s not gated as a neighborhood. The privacy comes from geography and discretion.
The house itself is a 1940s Spanish Colonial Revival. Terracotta roof. Wrought-iron gate. Creamy stucco exterior.
Inside: 3,085 square feet across three levels. Four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms.
The living room has vaulted wood-beamed ceilings, a fireplace, and French doors opening to a Juliet balcony. There’s a sage green wet bar with marble countertops, a built-in wine fridge, and a kitchen anchored by a green quartzite waterfall island.
The primary bath is wrapped in emerald zellige tiles with a soaking tub and walk-in shower inside a full wet room.
Outside: a flat flagstone courtyard, pool, hot tub, jasmine-covered pergola, and an outdoor kitchen. On top of the detached garage? A soundproof recording studio.
The listing agent, Lori Levine Harris, put it simply: “The courtyard is really the belle of the ball with this home.”
In Hollywood Hills, a flat outdoor space with city views is genuinely rare. Most hillside homes give you a sloped terrace and a good squint.
The Design Story Nobody’s Talking About
Every outlet covered the specs. Square footage. Bedrooms. Price per square foot.
Nobody talked about why the house looks the way it does.
Akerman designed it as a tribute to her grandfather’s home in the South of France, “Moroccan and rustic with a bit of modern elegance,” as she described it. That’s not interior design speak. That’s someone building a memory into walls.
The Kelly Wearstler bronze sconces. The emerald zellige tiles. The quartzite island. None of it is trend-chasing. It’s personal.
That distinction matters. Because what a buyer is really purchasing here isn’t just a renovated 1940s bungalow. It’s two decades of considered, intentional design by someone who actually lived in it.
This kind of personal-imprint premium isn’t new in LA.
Earlier this year, Smashbox co-founder Dean Factor listed his $48.5 million off-grid wellness mansion in Los Angeles and the story there was also less about the square footage and more about the vision behind every design decision.
You can read the full original listing coverage on Robb Report.
Why This Matters
Here’s the number that should catch your attention: she bought this home for $895,000. It’s now listed at $2.995 million.
That’s a 235% increase in roughly 15 years, and she added a pool, a primary suite, a soundproof studio, and a full interior renovation during that time.
This isn’t unusual for The Oaks. According to the Los Feliz Housing Market Report for March 2026, the median listing price in Los Feliz currently sits around $2.3 million, with a median price per square foot of $905.
Homes are spending an average of 70 days on the market, and inventory sits at just 4.1 months of supply. Well-priced homes still move quickly.
In The Oaks specifically, homes range from the mid-$2 millions to over $10 million. Turnover is low. When something hits the market, serious buyers pay attention.
Luxury homes priced at or above $2 million in Los Angeles saw an 8.4% increase in sales activity recently, driven by buyers less affected by mortgage rate pressure.
At $2.995 million, this home is priced at roughly $970 per square foot, slightly above the neighborhood median, but the flat courtyard, city views, pool, and studio justify it.
If celebrity real estate data interests you, there’s a WhatsApp channel where these breakdowns, prices, appreciation trends, and neighborhood context get shared regularly. Worth checking out if you follow this space: Join here.
Why She’s Really Leaving
Akerman told Elle Decor she wants to be closer to family in Sweden. She and her husband Jack Donnelly are moving to the East Coast.
“It’s time for a new chapter,” she said.
After 21 years, that’s earned.
It also reflects a quiet shift happening among actors and creatives in LA, a recalibration of what they actually need versus what the city’s identity made them feel they should want.
This isn’t a distress sale. There’s no urgency. It’s a choice, and that makes it a more interesting story than most celebrity listings.
If you’ve been following how celebrities exit California real estate, Ken Griffey Jr.’s $27 million lakefront mansion listing in Orlando tells a similar story, a big name, a deliberate move, and a property that carries a personality.
And if you’re drawn to homes with a cinematic past, the house from the 1996 thriller Fear just hit the market for $13 million and it looks nothing like you remember.
Key Takeaways at a Glance
- Address: 2017 N. Gramercy Place, Los Angeles, CA 90068
- List Price: $2,995,000
- Size: 3,085 sq ft / 6,780 sq ft lot
- Beds/Baths: 4 bed / 2.5 bath + soundproof studio
- Purchased: 2008 (trust recorded 2011 at $895,000)
- Listing Agent: Lori Levine Harris, Brock & Lori Real Estate Team
- Reason for Sale: East Coast relocation, closer to Swedish family
Final Thoughts
Celebrity home sales get covered constantly. But very few stories take the time to ask what a home actually meant to the person leaving it.
This one did. And that’s the difference between a listing and a legacy.
What do you think is $3 million fair for what this home offers in today’s LA market, or is the “celebrity premium” doing most of the work here? Drop your take in the comments below.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. Property details are based on publicly available listing information and media reports as of May 2026. Always verify current listing status with the agent directly before making any real estate decisions.
