"There is a booming market for celebrity homes," says Paul Fraser, founder of Paul Fraser Collectibles.
"The artefacts of people's lives provide us with phenomenal insights into who they were and how they lived. So it comes as no surprise that collectors will snap up homes as well. Because home is where everything happens, good and bad.
"Knowing that someone who changed the world walked where you walked and slept where you sleep is both thrilling and a little unsettling."
These five homes are prime recent examples.
5. Jackson Pollock's loft
There are relatively few 20th century artists that are also household names, but Jackson Pollock is certainly one. Recently the studio he worked in, a tiny loft space in New York's Greenwich Village, went on sale for $1.2m.
 Pollock's studio was located in fashionable Greenwich Village |
The place is opposite the now long gone Cedar Tavern, where the bohemians of the Village drank together during the 1950s.
Today the place is being sold as a tastefully decorated studio apartment for well off hipsters, which seems something of a shame given its history.
4. Frank Sinatra's Farralone estate
Frank Sinatra's legendary Farralone estate in southern California was where the 1960s elite went to party - it's allegedly the spot that JFK met Marilyn Monroe.
 Sinatra rented Farralone for a number of years during the 1950s and 1960s |
The huge hilltop estate was commissioned by Dora Hutchison, the heir to the Chase Manhattan fortune, and features its own vineyard in addition to a sprawling network of swimming pools and guesthouses.
It was listed for $12m back in 2011.
3. Marilyn Monroe's bungalow
Marilyn Monroe lived in a sprawling bungalow in Brentwood, California for just a few short months after paying $90,000 for it in 1962.
 Monroe lived in her Brentwood bungalow for a few short months before she died |
Sadly, it was here that she was found dead later on in the year following an overdose of barbiturates.
The most recent asking price for the home was $3.6m.
2.Al Capone's pad
Al Capone's enormous mansion on the Miami waterfront proved categorically that crime does pay, although he footed the bill when he died of complications resulting from syphilis there in 1947.
 Al Capone owned a vast mansion on the Miami seafront |
Featuring a huge pool and a private beach, the luxurious surroundings provided the ideal space for Capone to run his criminal empire.
He even picked it up for a steal as well, paying just $40,000 for it in 1928. It appeared on the market earlier this year for the wallet-bothering sum of $8.4m.
1. John Lennon's childhood home
John Lennon is inarguably one of the defining cultural figures of the 20th century, with the result that memorabilia associated with him is growing significantly in value.
 Lennon's childhood home was in a working class area of Liverpool |
This meant that when his childhood home, a fairly ordinary terraced home in Wavertree, Liverpool, went up for auction last year it attracted major interest from around the world.
Lennon only lived in the building for a few short years between 1940, when he was born, and 1945 when his family moved to another house in nearby Woolton.
However, it quickly shot past its ?�150,000 ($244,761) estimate to realise ?�480,000 ($782,232) - a sum far higher than the market value for the area.
