Former NBA All-Star Latrell Sprewell walked away from his River Hills home in Milwaukee, Wisc., failing to appear in court recently to contest the foreclosure filing from his lender, RBS Citizens Bank, according to JSOnline.com.

Sprewell owed $320,284 on the home, which he purchased for $405,000 in 1994.

He defaulted on his mortgage because he refused to make monthly payments to RBS Citizens Bank on the loan and the lender had no choice but to repossess the property.

The report also indicates that the state filed a lawsuit against the 37-year-old in 2007 because of unpaid taxes to the tune of more than $72,000. In addition, Community Bank Group earlier this year obtained a $72,698 judgment against Sprewell.

For more on this situation, including information about the foreclosure on Sprewell’s yacht, click here.

The Santa Barbara County, Calif., foreclosure auction that is set for this Wednesday will not include the 2,500-acre Michael Jackson mansion, according to the Los Angeles Times.

No financial details were revealed at this time; however the article mentions that an investment company called Colony Capital LLC purchased the defaulted loan. Jackson owed the lender $24.5 million, which he was either unwilling to or incapable of paying to remain the rightful homeowner.

Here’s what he had to say about the eleventh-hour development:

“… pleased with recent developments involving Neverland Ranch … that would allow me to focus on the future.”

The report indicates that Jackson “still gets to keep Neverland Ranch,” which perhaps means that he was able to strike a deal with Colony Capitol to purchase the loan on his behalf.

No one currently resides in the mansion nor is it clear what its future holds. Stay tuned for more details.

Former professional baseball superstar Joe Canseco just didn’t have the “Juice” or the desire to hang on to his 7,300-square foot mansion in Encino, Calif., according to Yahoo!News.com.

In fact, he simply walked away from the $2.5 million home because it “didn’t make sense” to continue paying the mortgage. Unsurprisingly, the lender has issued foreclosure proceedings to reclaim its asset.

Here’s a snip from the former “Bash Brother:”

“I do have a judgment on my home and it to me is very strange because it didn’t make financial sense for me to keep paying a mortgage on a home that was basically owned by someone else…. You know my life, this financial thing, is a very complicated issue. Obviously, when you make all that money, people think, `OK, let’s assume it is $35 million.’ People have to understand that $35 million, you’re paying the government 41 percent. That leaves you with about $17 or $18 million, not even. Then you’re taking care of your whole family.”

Canseco — the 1998 American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) and six-time All Star — reveals that divorces have also cost him millions.

He essentially retired from the sport in 2002 despite some unsuccessful attempts to return since that time.

However, in 2005, Canseco penned a controversial autobiography dubbed, “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big,” which was a scandalous glimpse into his own steroid abuse, as well as (allegedly) his peers … and much more.

It was a best seller. And there’s recent news that he’s signed on to write a sequel.

Cha-ching.

News recently cropped up that another celebrity foreclosure was in the works, naming Grammy Award-winning singer a cultural icon, Aretha Franklin, as the defendant.

Apparently, the “Queen of Soul” was recently informed that her expensive mansion located in Detroit, Mich., was on the verge of foreclosure because of $162.14 in unpaid taxes dating back to 2005, according to Reuters.com.

Talk about no r-e-s-p-e-c-t.

Fortunately, Franklin’s publicist mentioned in the report that the situation appears to have been resolved. That’s great news, of course, for Franklin, as well as the “Motor City,” which has one of the more troubling foreclosure rates in the nation.

For more celebrity foreclosure-related news click here.

The sprawling 2,500-acre estate called “Neverland Ranch” owned by pop music icon, Michael Jackson, is set to go up for sale for more than $24.5 million at a public foreclosure auction on March 19 in Santa Barbara County, Calif., according to MSN.com.

We’ve been monitoring this process since about November 2007 when Jackson initially defaulted on the mortgage loan — he owes the lender approximately $24 million.

To check out the listing on Foreclosure.com click here.

Here’s the latest update on the situation:

“Financial Title Co. filed the notice of trustee’s sale with Santa Barbara County Superior Court, setting the auction date for March 19. Court documents … warn Jackson that he has until the date of the auction to take action to keep his lavish estate.”

It’s interesting to note that the foreclosure filing indicates that everything in the estate will be included in the sale if it happens, from the merry-go-round to locomotives to sculptures.

Neverland Ranch will not, however, come equipped zoo animals — Jackson reportedly sold most of his exotic pets to Lake Powell Waterworld months ago.

They’re HIStory … and his mansion could be next.

Michael Jackson is not the only celebrity facing a possible foreclosure.

Three-time National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star, Latrell Sprewell, is in danger of losing his half-million dollar home in River Hills, Wisconsin, according to USA Today. The report indicates that the former Golden State Warrior, New York Knick and Minnesota Timberwolve has not paid his $2,593 mortgage since September 2007.

Sprewell — who played 13 seasons in the league — earned an annual salary of $14.6 million in the final year of his career.

This is not the first time Sprewell is up against foreclosure. Last summer he defaulted on a $1.5 million yacht mortgage and lost the vessel at a public auction (it sold for $865,000).

It just goes to show once again that no one is immune to foreclosure — it can happen to anyone at anytime.

(Except for maybe Bill Gates and a handful of other zillionaires.)

Even the rich and famous are not immune from foreclosure situations.

Case in point: Pop superstar and cultural musical icon since the late 1960s, Michael Jackson, is in jeopardy of losing his sprawling 2,800-acre Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, Calif., to the lender, which recently filed a notice of default in the amount of $23 million.

We sift through countless distressed nationwide real estate listings each and every day. In fact, at press time we had more than 1.5 million listings currently available on Foreclosure.com.

With this massive volume of accurate data it is hard to point out each and every instance. We’ve been doing it more and more with our “Deal of the Day.”

However, we felt compelled to pass along this latest news of the Jackson foreclosure to illustrate that unexpected situations constantly emerge that can trigger a default notice — and it can happen to anyone.

To check out the listing on Foreclosure.com at 5225 Figueroa Mountain Road in Santa Barbara County click here.

It’s important to note that this property is in preforeclosure. Indeed, Jackson still owns it and the bank has not repossessed it … yet. In fact, he has about 120 days (February 2008) to bring the loan current and stop foreclosure.

On the other hand, an independent investor can also work out a deal with Jackson and the bank in the next few months to purchase the ranch while it’s in preforeclosure. He no longer lives there, which means that it may be possible to settle for far less than the $23 million owed to the lender.

Who knows …. someone could be in for a real “Thriller.” That’s because there is no telling if the elephants, giraffes and other animals, as well as the high-end toys that could be included in a package deal.