Inside the Real Estate Portfolios of Cable News Hosts

JEANINE PIRRO

Known for her acerbic commentary and sharp take downs, Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro might be uncharacteristically at a loss for words when it comes to explaining why her almost 8,000-square-foot-mansion in Rye, N.Y. has languished on the market for five years. Even more distressing for her must be the plummeting asking price, which currently stands at $2.695 million, almost half of what it was when it first came for sale in 2015.

Given the steeply discounted asking price, the conservative legal analyst and former district attorney might be reluctant to undertake what might be required to move the circa-late-1989 suburban colossus — a wholesale renovation. While it’s all carefully maintained, the outdated peach-colored stone floors and matching interior columns scream 1980s power suits, shoulder pads and mullets.

Still, if stressing about her unmovable manse gives her a migraine, the “Justice With Judge Jeanine” host can placate herself with a trip to her four-bedroom and 3.5-bath vacation home in a gated golf-course community in Palm Beach, Fla., that she picked up way back in 1995 up for $315,000. She is also the long-term owner of three undeveloped parcels of land in Port Charlotte, Fla., just south of Sarasota.

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RACHEL MADDOW

Though they’ve moved on to bigger and more expensive quarters commensurate with her reported annual haul of $7 million, Rachel Maddow and wife Susan Mikula have their former two-bedroom and 1.5-bath loft-style West Village co-op up for sale at $2.349 million. Since given a modern, cozy and upscale overhaul, the 1,400-square-foot spread was purchased in 2010 for $1.25 million from REM frontman Michael Stipe. The property is currently in contract to be sold for an uknown amount.

The couple also spend a great deal of time at their bucolic county spread in the historic Berkshires area of western Massachusetts. Indeed, Maddow recently quarantined on the property while Mikula recovered from a nasty bout with COVID-19. Tax records suggest Mikula acquired the property way back in 1998 for close to $100,000, and the couple later added a chic and charming detached bathhouse custom-designed by architect Nicole Midgeon.

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ANDERSON COOPER

Urbane and culturally curious with a blue-blood lineage, Anderson Cooper’s personality traits are, like most homeowners, reflected in his taste in real estate. The savvy CNN host owns a ravishingly remodeled firehouse in New York City’s Greenwich Village that set alarm bells ringing when it was featured in an H&M ad starring David Beckham and Kevin Hart in 2015. He picked up the 1906 Beaux Arts building in 2009 for $4.3 million and hired architect Cary Tamarkin to oversee an extensive overhaul wherein he chose to keep many of the building’s historic touches. A brass firepole may have long seen its last descending fireman, but along with a basement gym filled with vintage turn-of-the-century fitness equipment, Cooper’s nod to historic New York is a pleasant contrast to the gleaming glut of glassy towers occupying much of Manhattan.

Like many New Yorkers with the means to do so, Cooper also maintains a getaway outside the city. In his case, it’s an 11,000-square-foot mansion on about 200 pastoral acres in Connecticut’s uncommonly beautiful and historic Litchfield County, which he snapped up in 2014 for about $3.5 million. 

However, as sweet as the Connecticut spread is, possibly the most interesting and unexpected property in Cooper’s portfolio is “Casa Anderson,” a tropical retreat in the small, laid-back town of Trancoso, in the culturally rich state of Bahia on Brazil’s Atlantic coast. The property comprises not just one villa, but rather four pavilions constructed with reclaimed wood in a manner befitting the surroundings while still adhering to Dutch designer and local hotelier, Wilbert Das’ at-one-with-nature architectural ethos. Though the globe-trotting media personality can hardly call his Bahia bolthole a regular home, as he explained in Architectural Digest, just knowing it exists can sometimes be good enough. And, when he’s not in residence, the home isn’t sitting idle — it’s available for rent with Cooper’s celeb pixie dust surely doing no harm in attracting deep-poketed visitors.

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BRET BAIER

Bret Baier has been a mainstay at Fox News for two decades and his stately 11,000-square-foot-home in the swanky Phillips Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C. looks like it’s been around five times as long. However, despite its period design, the five-bedroom limestone behemoth is fairly new, having been custom built for Baier in 2013. The elevator-equipped four-story home boasts spacious public rooms, a movie theater, an indoor basketball court in the basement and a lap pool in the backyard.

It seems that Baier has gotten the proverbial seven-year real estate itch because earlier this year (2020) he put the lavish manse on the market at $7.9 million. The price has since dropped to $6.9 million.

In addition to his D.C. digs, Baier has owned a getaway condo in Naples, Fla., since 2011 when he acquired it for slightly over $1.5 million. The unit isn’t too far from fellow Fox New host Sean Hannity who, along with almost 900 investment properties spread over seven states, owns a penthouse in a beachfront condo resort.

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DON LEMON

In comparison to some of his fellow A-list news anchors, Don Lemon’s clean-lined contemporary three-bedroom and three-bathroom Harlem condo, currently under contract to be sold with a listing price of $1.55 million, is somewhat modest. Also modest is Lemon’s profit on the custom-renovated 1,400-square-foot unit, which is likely to be eaten up by broker’s fees and closing costs considering he purchased the uptown residence seven years ago for just under $1.5 million.

The Edward R. Murrow winning broadcaster, engaged since the spring of 2019 to Manhattan real estate agent Tim Malone, also maintains a more spacious getaway in the quaint, historic and swank Hamptons village of Sag Harbor, N.Y., which, like Harlem, has a proud history of African American home ownership. He purchased the four-bedroom and five-bathroom Federal-style residence in 2016 for $3.1 million.