HuellHowser

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--PBS commentator Huell Howser has listed his 60-acre Newberry Springs compound including the Volcano house, shown above, for $750,000. The listing is here.
--Writer-director-producer Aaron Seltzer has sold his Studio City home for $2,397,500. It was listed at $2.949 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day.

--Fashion designer Randolph Duke first put his award-winning Hollywood Hills house on the market for $8.5 million last year but it recently sold for $5.3 million. It was listed at $6.5 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day.

--Fashion photographer David LaChapelle has sold his 1920s Spanish-style home in the Sunset Strip area for $1.6 million. It was listed at $1.65 million earlier this year.

--Actress Cobie Smulders has purchased a Los Feliz-area triplex for $991,000.
Actor Oliver Hudson and his wife, actress Erinn Bartlett, have purchased a home in Brentwood for about $2 million.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--via New York Magazine, the townhouse at 160 East 95th Street that Walter Cronkite helped his son Chip buy for $1.725 million in 2000 is on the market for $4.25 million. The listing is here.
--via New York Magazine, the former home of photographer David Gahr has gone on the market for $3.2 million. The listing is here.
--via the NY Times, the penthouse duplex at 1020 Fifth has undergone a $5 million price cut. The 7,000-square-foot apartment, which is owned by heirs to the Kress retail fortune and first went on the market for $46.5 million in 2008 and is now listed for $34 million.
--John Novogratz, a senior managing director at Millenium Partners has paid $3.44 million for an apartment at 39 Vestry Street.
--via the NY Times, Richard Gere has finally unloaded his spread at Julian Schnabel's Palazzo Chupi. The 3.500-square-foot space, which Gere bought for $13 million in 2007 and listed for $17.995 million in 2008, has reportedly sold for $12 million.

--Abigail Wexner, the wife of apparel billionaire Les Wexner, has sold a two-bedroom apartment at 910 Fifth Avenue for $2.4 million.
--Barbara Gutmacher Girard has listed her two-bedroom apartment at The Plaza for $8.995 million.The listing is here.
--Literary agent Dan Strone, whose clients include Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Chris Rock, has paid $1.8 million for a two-bedroom apartment at 29 East 64th Street.
--Gisele Bundchen has found a buyer for her townhouse at 42 Barrow Street. Bundchen bought the home for $5.8 million in 2005 and it had been listed for $13.95 million since September.
--Entrepreneur David Smilow has found a buyer for his duplex penthouse at 140 Perry Street. The apartment was once listed for $19.5 million, was taken off the market in April and went into contract to sell earlier this week.
--via Newsday, Dr. Arthur Agatston, the cardiologist best known for having created the South Beach Diet, and his wife Sari have paid $7 million for a mansion in East Hampton.
--via Newsday, caterer Rhona Silver's seven-bedroom Long Island home has gone on the market. The home has been the setting for more than a few rap music videos over the years and is listed at $5.5 million.
--Barry Weiss, the music executive who replaced Clive Davis as the CEO of BMG in 2008, has picked up a new apartment paying $4.995 million for a penthouse at the Harrison at 205 West 76th Street.
--via the Real Deal, Showtime chief executive Matt Blank has paid $11.2 million for a 10th-floor condo at the Superior Ink building at 400 West 12th Street. [Real Deal]
--via Curbed, hedge fund mogul Bill Ackman personally auctioned off the guest suite he owns at The Majestic on Central Park West for $320,000, just $20,000 above the minimum bid.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Former Random House chief executive Peter Olson and his wife, iVillage.com co-founder Candice Carpenter Olson, have sold their duplex apartment at 799 Park Avenue for $4.5 million to Essie Nail Polish founder Essie Weingarten and her husband, Massimo Sortino.

From the NY Post:
--Madonna may be buying Kelly Klein's horse farm, Wild Ocean Farm in Bridgehampton for under $10 million. Madonna is also attempting to purchase an additional 24 acres nearby listed for $2.4 million.
--Celebrity chef Todd English has been spotted checking out apartments in the Novare building.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Kiefer Sutherland has sold a condo unit in Manhattan's Greenwich Village for $3.5 million and his loft/recording studio in Los Angeles' Silver Lake area for $3 million.
--Jakob Dylan has sold his seven-bedroom home Los Angeles' Brentwood area for $8.225 million. It was listed at $11 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day last year.

--Mark Ruffalo has sold his three-bedroom home in the Hollywood Hills for $1.65 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Fashion designer Tory Burch has listed a property in the Hamptons for $17.9 million. She bought the home in 2008 from her ex-husband for $22.5 million and planned to tear it down. The property is being offered with the approved plans for a new house. The listing is here.
--As my colleague Jared Paul Stern mentioned earlier this week designer Yves Saint Laurent's Paris home is on the market. It is listed for $34.6 million.
--Bank of America has sold a historic Manhattan townhouse for $29.4 million. It was not on the market, was purchased in a direct deal by a partnership led by Jules Demchick , president of JD Carlisle Development.

From ShelterPop:
Best and Worst Celebrity Real Estate Deals 2009

Tiger Woods' Real Estate Portfolio: What's Up for Grabs in a Divorce

Tracking Nicolas Cage's Many, Many Homes