From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Entertainment lawyer and the mastermind behind the Hands Across America and "We Are the World" events, Ken Kragen, has listed his Beverly Hills home, shown above, for $5.595 million. The listing is here.
--Commercial composer Jonathan Elias has sold his 5,865-square-foot Santa Monica home for $4.395 million.
--Nicolas Cage has leased a unit in the downtown Biscuit Company Lofts with an option to buy. He may have picked up a 3,500-square-foot penthouse unit, which was listed at $4.9 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--Rumor has it that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner may have picked up a 1930s Hollywood Georgian in Holmby Hills which has been listed at $27.5 million for around $22 million. The listing is here.
--Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott have picked up a home in the Westwood area of Los Angeles for $2.275 million.
--Anne Heche and James Tupper have put their West Vancouver, Canada home on the market for $2,450,00 (Canadian). Heche and Tupper bought the home for $2.2 million in May, 2007.
--Michael Bolton has put his Westport, Connecticut home on the market for $11 million. It's our estate of the day on Monday.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
A five-bedroom house in Bel-Air that was once owned by Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal has come on the market for $9,500,000. The listing is here.
--Ryan Cabrera has put his Hollywood Hills home on the market, it's our estate of the day later today.
The four-bedroom home in the Hollywood Hills that previously belonged to Charlie Sheen's wife, Brooke Mueller is back on the market with a $2.395 million listing price (she sold it for $2.317 million last year). The property website is here.
--Actor Justin Long has listed his home for $1.495 million. The listing is here.

From the Luxury Property Blog:
--A home featured in the movie "Moonstruck" as Cher's character's house recently sold for close to $4 million.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Baseball player Mike Piazza will officially list his duplex TriBeCa loft for $6.8 million in September and is looking for a bigger place in Manhattan.
-- Jocelyn Wildenstein spent nearly $8 million for a 3,000-square-foot condo on the Plaza and now another Wildenstein, thought to be Guy Wildenstein, bought on the floor below his former in-law for $31.7 million. Two apartments - 409 and 411 - sold for $21.926 million and $9.787 million under Wildenstein & Company.
--Model Adriana Lima and basketball player Marko Jaric are looking for an apartment in New York. The couple has been seen checking out the penthouse at 40 Walker, a new residential building in TriBeCa, which is listed at $7 million.
--from Page Six, --Ricky Gervais and his girlfriend Jane Fallon have spent $1.66 million for a one-bedroom condo at the converted Barbizon hotel on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--President Ford's Vail, Colorado ski retreat is on the market for the second time in less than two years. Real-estate investor Kevin Hayes, bought the home in early 2007 after Ford's death for $6.65 million and says he spent over $4 million on renovations. He has listed the home for $14.9 million.
--NFL star Michael Strahan paid between $1.5 and $2 million for a loft in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood.
--Real-estate developer R. Donahue Peebles has listed his Washington, D.C., stone Tudor house for $8.3 million. It was our estate of the day on Saturday.

From Real LI:
--Baseball player Edgardo Alfonzo has reduced the price on his home in Little Neck, New York. It went on the market in late 2006 for $8 million and has now been lowered at least four times since then is now listed at $5.3 million. Alfonzo paid $900,000 for the property in 1999 and has spent nearly as much in remodeling. The listing is here.
--New York Jets linebacker Bryan Thomas has taken his Huntington home off the market and has decided to rent the property instead of selling.

From TMZ:
Michael Phelps spent $1.69 million for a condo on the waterfront in Baltimore, Md.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--The Kress family penthouse, a 17-room Fifth Avenue apartment with ballroom ceilings imported from 17th-century Venetian palaces and marble staircases carved from Michelangelo's quarry was previously listed for $50 million then pulled off the market. Next month, the penthouse will be back on the market again with a listing price of around $45 million with Leighton Candler of Corcoran.


From AOL Real Estate:
Remodeling Myths: Water Your Plants at Night?
Dying Cities
Web Sites Let You Check Your Neighbors
Smalltown USA: America's Dreamtowns
Overpriced ZIP Codes

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Mel Gibson has put his estate in Greenwich, Connecticut on the market for $39.5 million for the 28-room Tudor-style mansion on more than 75 acres. Gibson bought the home in 1994 for a reported $9.25 million. It has 15 bedrooms, 12 full bathrooms, a great room with a 40-foot ceiling and a massive fireplace and landscaped grounds that include a maze. The listing is here.
--Christie Brinkley is set to relist her Tower Hill estate in Bridgehampton. It was last on the market for asking price of $26.5 million.
--Fashion designer Tory Burch has just rented a s home in the Hamptons for the next four weeks for around $360,000.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Seagram liquor heir and Warner Music Chairman and C.E.O. Edgar Bronfman Jr. has sold his 31-foot-wide townhouse at 15 East 64th Street. It will become the second townhouse in New York City history to break the $50 million mark. He downsized into 1040 Fifth Avenue which was listed at $19.5 million.
--John Cleese, who recently put his gorgeous California ranch on the market for $28 million, has bought a New York apartment for under $1.5 million.
--A two-bedroom loft at 380 West 12th Street was sold by American socialist leaders Jack Barnes and Mary-Alice Waters for $1,872,500.
--Gregg Hughes of the Opie and Anthony radio show has bought a 40th-floor apartment in the Trump Place complex for $3.35 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--Jamie Kennedy has picked up a modern house in Los Feliz owned by fashion designer Philippe Naouri which was listed at $2.275 million.
-- Salvator Xuereb and his wife writer Nikki Toscano have purchased a home in the Franklin Hills/Los Feliz area for $915,000.
--Michael Madsen's Malibu home has headed for foreclosure is now listed at $7.8 million, a deep discount since it was on the market for $9.95 million just a few months ago. The listing is here.
--Once again a messy divorce equals a house on the market. Anne Heche is splitting from her cameraman hubby Coley Lafoon and their charming Paul Williams English-style Los Angeles home is on the market for $3.795 million. The listing is here.
--Britney Spears has put her Beverly Hills home back on the market, this time for $7.495 million (up a couple million from the last time she listed).
--Rumor has it that Paris Hilton is set to put her house on the market.

From Big Time Listings:
--The official price that Josh Duhamel and Fergie paid for their new house in Brentwood is $4.875 million.
--The official price for Denis Leary's Manhattan apartment is $3.9 million.
--Nicky Hilton's new Hollywood Hills home cost her $2.8 million.
--Richard Gere's Manhattan townhouse sold for $12.8 million.


A tip from a reader, Darlene:
--If Clarence Clemmons ever wants to give up the music business, the legendary sax player could do a fine business in real estate voiceover. Check out his smooth jazz and vocal stylings to sell his home at One City Plaza in West Palm Beach, Florida.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Damon Dash has sold his Benedict Canyon home of five years for $3.6 million.
--Frank Leboeuf, a member of the French national soccer team when it won the World Cup in 1998, has just closed escrow on a Craftsman-style home in L.A.'s Miracle Mile area for $979,000.
--Radio man Todd Leitz has sold his Sherman Oaks home which was listed at $829,000 and bought a larger residence in Studio City for about $1.5 million.
--Gavin MacLeod, captain of "The Love Boat," lived in this '60s-style home from 1976 to 2001, and now it's on the market in Palm Springs at $899,000. The listing is here.