Two New Orleans homes owned by actor Nicolas Cage were sold at foreclosure auction for a total of $4.5 million.

New Orleans Civil Sheriff Paul Valteau said Regions Bank based out of Birmingham, Ala., made the only bids on the two homes, purchasing Cage's French Quarter home for $2.3 million and his Pataniya Street property for $2.2 million. The French Quarter home (which Cage claimed was the “Most Haunted House in America”) was appraised at $3.5 million and the Pataniya Street home at $3.3 million.

The auction came amid significant financial troubles for Cage, 45, including $5.5 million the Ghost Rider star owes in mortgage payments. Cage, who also owes $151,730 to the city of New Orleans in real estate taxes, has blamed his troubles on his former financial manager, Samuel Levin.

On July 14, 2009, the Internal Revenue Service filed documents in New Orleans in connection with a federal tax lien against property owned by Cage in Louisiana, concerning unpaid federal taxes. The IRS alleges that Cage failed to pay over $6.2 million in federal income tax for the year 2007. In addition, the IRS has another lien for more than $350,000 in unpaid taxes dating from 2002-04.

Cage filed a $20 million lawsuit on Oct. 16, 2009, against Levin, alleging negligence and fraud. The lawsuit states that Levin "had failed to pay taxes when they were due and had placed [Cage] in speculative and risky real estate investments 'resulting in (the actor) suffering catastrophic losses'."

Homes Cage owns in California and Nevada also face foreclosure auctions.

Al Capone's legend of bootlegging, gangland slayings and tax evasion lives on more than 60 years after the Chicago gangster's death. Now comes a footnote that is a sign of the times: foreclosure.

A Wisconsin lodge that may have been one of Capone's old hideouts goes on the auction block this week with a starting bid of $2.6 million.

The two-story stone lodge, tucked away on 407 acres in Couderay, Wis., was owned by the Capone family in the 1920s. It will be auctioned Thursday on the steps of the Sawyer County Courthouse, three hours from Minneapolis, Minn., according to an ad in the Chicago Tribune.

The property includes a 37-acre lake and eight-car garage.

The Tribune ad was placed in September by the Chippewa Valley Bank. The property,owned by Hideout Inc. owner Guy Houston, went into foreclosure in April 2008. The Houston family purchased the property in the 1950s and transformed the home into a touist spot. Visitors paid a few dollars for a walking tour of Capone's reputed hideout. The lodge is fortified with stone walls at least a foot thick and a guard tower. There is a separate facility that resembles a jail on site.

• The octuplets and their six siblings could lose their crib. The home where Nadya Suleman (above) lives with her mother is in danger of foreclosure, according to documents obtained Wednesday.

• The Nazis have long since gone and it may be time at last to pop the corks. Bonhams auction house is selling 1,500 bottles of rare wine that were hidden from the Nazis when they occupied the Channel Islands during World War II.

• Art collectors from the world over are expected to descend upon Paris this weekend for the auction of some 700 pieces of art accrued by the late designer Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé over 50 years.


 

• Fresno woman’s 1869 baseball card brings her $64,073.

• No big bucks in auction of species names? Maybe they needed cooler animals than bats

• Rare portrait by Francis Bacon that was expected to fetch up to £6 million has failed to sell at auction amid fears that the recession is hitting collectors. Really? People are watching their wallets?

• One day you receive a letter saying your home will be auctioned off. The next day, a letter saying it was a mistake arrives. Was supposed to be a friendly reminder to pay back taxes. East Greenwich, R.I., sounds like a fun place to live. 

DALLAS (AP) — A woman distraught over losing her house showed up to watch it auctioned off, but that wasn't the end of the story. Tracy Orr will return home after a stranger bought the house back for her Saturday.

"It means so much to all of us," Orr said. "It's not just a house."

Marilyn Mock said she decided on the spot to buy the house after striking up a conversation with a sobbing Orr at the auction Saturday. Mock was there to help her 27-year-old son bid on a house.

Mock successfully bid $30,000 for Orr's house in Pottsboro. Orr will make payments to her once the deal is finalized.

"She needed help. That was it," Mock said. "I just happened to be there, and anybody else would have done the same thing." 

Orr bought the house for $80,000 in 2004 but lost her job a month after taking out the loan. She fell behind on her payments and lost the house this year — an increasingly common story across the nation.

"She didn't even know if I had a job or was a nut case," Orr said in the Wednesday online edition of The Dallas Morning News. "She didn't even see a picture of the house."

The two are waiting on final approval from mortgage giant Fannie Mae before visiting the home. Mock's son also bought a house at the auction.