Nic Cage haunted by his real estate

Maybe it won't be quite as easy to get your attention with news about a haunted house hitting the auction block the week after Halloween, but to some of us, haunted houses are always cool.

And really, any time of year when a haunted house is owned (well, not anymore) by financially challenged actor Nicolas Cage, that makes it even more interesting.

Haunted house in question: The LaLaurie Mansion, which Diane Tuman of Zillow writes is "possibly one of the most haunted houses in New Orleans." The history is too gruesome for this family-friendly blog, but you can read all about "Mistress of Death: The Haunted History of Madame LaLaurie" at PrairieGhosts.com.

• Check out other spooky homes for sale

The French Quarter home was up for grabs for $3.55 million, and another home of Cage's in the city's Garden District was for sale for $3.45 million. But those days are over. Now both homes are set for a foreclosure auction at noon Nov. 12.

New Orleans Business News writes that the minimum bid on each home will start at two-thirds of the assessed value, which will be determined 48 hours before the auction. (Link from The Real Estate Bloggers.)

What a sad turn of events for the Academy Award-winning actor. In September, Cage put a mansion in Bel Air, Calif., which he once had listed for $35 million, through a sealed-bid sale that started at $9.95 million but still didn't unload his property.

And although he managed to sell his English castle, according to The Real Estalker, that same post also jokes that "Mister Cage has about 49,000 other luxury properties on the market." And, according to The Wall Street Journal, he owes the Internal Revenue Service $6.3 million in back taxes. And he's suing his former business manager, Samuel Levin, for leading him down this dark financial path.

• Bing: Check out foreclosures for sale

We should note here that Cage is hardly the first celebrity to lose homes to foreclosure. MSNBC.com offers quite a list, and so does Zillow.