New Curb Appeal? A Dead Celebrity Slept Here

Honestly, people! Would you buy a house just because some celebrity once owned it? Has the housing market gotten so bad that this peripheral brush with fame becomes a selling point for a property, right up there with the stainless steel appliances and built-in bookshelves?

Apparently a lot of listing agents believe so, because week after week we get pitches like the one this week to write about Heath Ledger's former house. He owned the property, known as "The Tree House," from June 2006 until his death in January 2008, then it was sold by his estate post-haste. By the way, the same house (pictured above) also was owned by Ellen DeGeneres long before Ledger bought it.