SELLER: Clay Aiken
LOCATION: Durham, NC
PRICE: $1,590,000
SIZE: 9,392 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 full and 3 half bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Coming up runner up on American Idol’s second season didn’t put a damper on Clay Aiken’s beaver busy and multi-faceted career. Among numerous and notable philanthropic activities, the former special education teacher has put out half a dozen albums, toured almost twice as many times, starred on Broadway’s runaway hit “Spamalot,” popped up on a variety of sitcoms (“Scrubs,” “Drop Dead Diva,” “30 Rock”), and came in second — again — to Arsenio Hall on “Celebrity Apprentice.”
Not to be confined to the cut throat entertainment industry, in early February of this year, the politically outspoken activist and out of the closet father of one declared his Democratic candidacy to the U.S. House of Representative for North Carolina’s 2nd District. Shortly thereafter, we’ve only just learned from The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial, Mister Aiken sold his mansion outside Durham, NC, for $1,590,000, far less than the $2.7 million he wanted for the place back in 2011. (FYI and In Case You’re Curious: In May Mister Aiken won the primary after his septuagenarian opponent died in a freak fall and earlier this week he traded sharp and sassy bon mots with his Republican incumbent opponent during a debate.)
Our research shows Mister Aiken purchased the gated, 6.93-acre suburban estate, located at the back of a gated enclave of similarly sized homes between Durham and Raleigh, in April 2006 for $2,361,000. That means, according to a couple of quick calculations on Your Mama’s trusty bejeweled abacus, Mister Aiken endured a pretty darn hefty $771,000 beat down to his pocketbook, not counting improvement costs, upkeep expenses and real estate fees.
Listing details from the time of its most recent sale show the big but very ordinary mansion — described as “Transitional” in style, whatever that means — measures in at 9,392 square feet with four bedrooms and four full and three half bathrooms. Listing photos show a double-height formal living room with fireplace, a separate dining room with bay window and a double island kitchen with high-grade commercial-style stainless steel appliances. Other entertainment spaces include a family room with double-height vaulted ceiling and stone fireplace, a unusually large home theater with just five recliner seats, and a basement level game room with dizzying black and white checked floor — it looks like vinyl or linoleum or something — and a fully equipped kitchenette/wet bar with fire engine red cabinetry. A screened porch on the middle level overlooks the forest-ringed backyard area that has rolling lawns and a small, private pond crossed by a wooden bridge.
Listing photos: LaChapelle Properties (via Redfin)
