Report: Emma Stone bought a house in west Austin last year

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Property records from last May show a Los Angeles business manager linked to Emma Stone bought a home in west Austin.

Dirt.com, a website dedicated to covering celebrity real-estate deals, first reported Thursday that Stone had bought a nearly-5,000 sq. ft. home in the city. Property records show Craig Tessler, acting as a trustee, bought the home May 26, 2021. His address in the transactions matches a Los Angeles office building. The Hollywood Reporter has previously linked business manager Tessler as working with Stone.

Property records show the home sits on a 1.24-acre lot and has 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and was originally built in 1940. In 1996 a garage apartment was added on. It has an appraised value of $6.7 million in 2022, up from $4.7 million in 2021, according to Travis Central Appraisal District. Records showing the purchase price of the home are not available.

Stone — who won a Best Actress Oscar for her role in "La La Land" and most recently played the titular character in Disney's "Cruella" — isn't the only celebrity to have a home connected to Austin. Besides Matthew McConaughey, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk also have ties to the area. In January, KXAN reported actor James Marsden bought a home in the Commons Ford area.

The Austin Board of Realtors reported in January that more homes were sold in 2021 in the Austin-Round Rock area than ever before, for more than $23 billion in sales. The median home price was $450,000, up 31% from the year before.

Now, however, celebrity and non-celebrity homeowners are having to contend with increased appraisal values, which determine how much people have to pay in taxes. Homestead exemptions can help reduce that amount, but KXAN found many people who bought homes last year won't benefit from a cap that limits how much a home's appraised value can increase.