Real Estate Wrap Up: Al and Tipper Gore

BUYER Al and Tipper Gore
LOCATION: Montecito, CA
PRICE: $8,875,000
SIZE: 6,500 square feet (approx.), 6 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Let's talk about former vice-president turned global warming do-gooder Al Gore this morning, shall we? Mister and Missus Gore–that would be Al and Tipper–have been much in the real estate news lately due to their much reported purchase of a pricey property in Montecito, CA, a stunning and particularly pretty spot along the California coast otherwise known as Oprahville.

Montecito, a scenic and uppity enclave long known for its immoderately priced homes–it was the 7th most expensive zip code in the country in 2009 according to Forbes–has long been known as a bastion of conservative rich people until the more liberal Tinseltown types starting making real estate inroads into the community. In addition to the Big O and Al Gore, past and present residents include Rob Lowe, Julia Childs, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Carol Burnett, Kirk Douglas, Steve Martin, Jimmy Conners and more high fallutin' financier and big bizness types than Your Mama cares to name or shake a stick at. The children will recall that the boob toob's most famous lehbeezhun Ellen Degeneres and her horsey wife Portia di Rossi owned a particularly lovely George Washington Smith designed residence for about a hot minute back in 2007 and Your Mama hears from a well connected source that lace and leather luvvin' singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks is considering decamping from her Santa Monica, CA penthouse for the casual but aristocratic streets of Montecito.

Your Mama first discussed the former second couple snatching up a manse in Montecito back in the third week of April 2010 when we heard from Montecito Mary who told us that word on the real estate gossip grapevine was that Mister and Missus Gore had their well-heeled eyeballs on a property on posh Park Lane. The following week the Los Angeles Times–we actually first read it in the Wall Street Journal–confirmed that the Gores weren't just eyeballing high-priced pads in Oprahville but had actually picked up a property, an $8,875,000 property.

Considering the issue "reported," Your Mama promptly forgot about the matter moving on to more pressing issues like clipping our toenails and making a fruit salad. Then, this morning and out of the blue, Your Mama received a covert communique from a gabby gal we'll call Helena Hasthebeef who whispered some details about the Gore's acquisition in Your Mama's ear. As it turns out, according to property records, the big livin' Gores did not purchase a Park Lane property but rather they snagged a 1.5 acre mini-estate with an "Italian Grand Style" villa just off of Park Lane.

What was not reported anywhere–at least not anywhere that we found–and what's interesting to Your Mama about this whole bizness is that property records show that Mister and Missus Gore actually bought the 6,500+ square foot ocean view villa back in October of 2009 making it, technically, old news except that it hadn't been discussed or divulged until well into 2010, at least not by any of the real estate gossips and informants we read regularly or share information with. Your Mama's research reveals that while the Gores have always purchased property in their own names, the Montecito manse was purchased through a trust that links back to the very same post office box in itty-bitty Carthage, TN to which all of the other Gore properties link back.

Property records and listing information Your Mama managed to tease out of the interweb reveal that the Gores' new west coast outpost, sits on a private lane shared by 8 0r 10 other swanky homes high in the hills above The Big O's spread and has a combined total of 6 bedrooms and 9 poopers in the two-story main house and the impressively sized pool house/ guest house.

Other amenities include a 3 car garage, 6 fireplaces with carved stone mantelpieces, main rooms with high beamed ceilings, stone floors and oodles of wood framed French doors many topped by fan lights, arched doorways, a gore-may country style eat in kitchen, two family rooms, vine strewn loggias with panoramic views, a simply shaped rectangular swimming pool and a circular spa. A long curving stone balustrade topped with a few silly statuary sits atop a retaining wall beyond which are the eye popping view.

Mister and Missus Gore, no strangers to de-luxe digs, own several other luxury properties around the country. There is, of course, the family seat, a large bucolic farm in rurul Carthage, TN where Mister Gore's family once grew tobacco.

Property records show that in December of 1977, Mister and Missus Gore grabbed up a 4,040 square foot brick-faced Tudor affair in the Arlington Ridge neighborhood in Arlington, VA. The 3 bedroom and 4.5 pooper property, which sits just a hop skip and a jump from Crystal City and just across the Potomic from the White House, cost Mister and Missus Gore just $150,000.

Property records and previous reports also show that in June of 2002 Mister and Missus Gore paid $2,300,000 for a 10,070 square foot Greek Revivial style residence on 2.09 acres in the upscale Belle Meade area of Nashville, TN. The 20 room house has, according to property records, 5 bedrooms, 8 full and 2 half poopers, a gracious circular driveway and back motor court, and a large swimming pool in the backyard. It is for this house that Mister Gore the global warming guru took a fair amount of flak due to its excessive energy consumption pegged in the press to be 12-20 times more than the average homes of less financially fortunate Americans. Since that time, Mister Gore has reportedly installed solar panels, a energy saving furnace and radiant floor heating, measures that aren't quite adequate for some green technology proponents.

What's most concerning to Your Mama–not to mention our dedicated but dictatorial house gurl Svetlana–is that Mister and Missus Gore own 21 full and 3 half poopers not counting however many terlits there are on the family farm in Carthage. That's a lot of damn water down the drain for just two damn people. But that's really a high horse for another day and another blog.

photos: Coldwell Banker Previews