SuzanneSomers

Real estate in Palm Springs, California continues to be slow moving but it looks like Suzanne Somers and Alan Hamel are tired of waiting. Somers and her husband have chopped another $2 million off their home known as Les Baux de Palm Springs. The pair bought the land back in 1977, gradually enhancing the 65 acres with guest houses, an amphitheater, an updated pool and a renovated and expanded main house. Somers filled the home with a decor as exuberant as she is, French country touches keep company with velvet sofas, giant chandeliers and more than one zebra skin rug. Back in 2008 this property hit the market at $35 million but can now be yours for just $12.9 million.

The most expensive real estate in the country has taken some pretty major price cuts over the past year or two. In the past, mega-mansions with huge pricetags would often sit on the market a year or two without a price cut with owners secure in the knowledge that the right buyers would eventually come along. These are uncertain times and there are some very motivated sellers testing their luck in the real estate waters. Our list of top ten reductions of U.S. properties we've covered in the past starts at a $10 million cut and it only gets higher from there.

10)The Sloane Mansion, was $64 million, now $54 million
Price Cut=$10 million
The Henry T. Sloane mansion on East 68th Street in New York City is located just steps away from Fifth Avenue on the East Side. The building has 18,500 square feet total spread out over five stories and there are 15 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms, seven fireplaces, a ballroom and a rooftop garden. The mansion was designed by architect Charles Pierrepont H. Gilbert for Sloane, the heir to a furniture empire, in 1905. The home is classic Beaux-Arts style and five of the rooms have all their original details intact including wood-paneled ballroom with original oil-painted murals. It has been on the market for over a year but may need to go lower than $54 million in this economy.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--As we saw on Friday, Tommy Hilfiger has put his Greenwich, Connecticut home on the market for $27.9 million.
--An oceanfront estate with a $65 million asking price has just gone to contract on exclusive Gin Lane in Southampton.
--It's official, Parker Posey has sold her one-bedroom co-op for $1.3 million and bought a two bedroom on lower Fifth Avenue for around the same price.
--Retired Goldman Sachs manager turned bed-and-breakfast proprietor Robert Mnuchin, and his wife, Adriana, have spent $20 million for a full floor co-op at 944 Fifth Ave.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb has closed on his famous $45 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West. No mortgage records were filed with the deed, which suggests that Mr. Loeb paid cash to satisfy the most expensive sales price ever on Central Park West.
--Even though he passed away in Monaco last March, the British skyscraper developer Howard Ronson has added to his real estate portfolio. His limited liability corporation just paid $11 million, according to public deeds, for the Berwind Manor's glass penthouse. It's not clear if his widow controls his real estate deals now, but his brokers said it was Ronson's idea to buy the mansion piecemeal.
--Lawyer Aaron Charney who sued his firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, last year alleging homophobia and collected a settlement, has bought a penthouse. He and a partner just paid $1.495 million for a penthouse at the newly converted condo at 93rd Street and Broadway.
--Developer Bruce Ratner has paid $6.9 million at 128 East 62nd Street.
--A $38 million Upper East Side mansion designed by Stanford White in 1903 has gone to contract. Rumor has it that the buyer is Thomas Montag, the former co-head of securities trading at Goldman Sachs.

From The Wall Street Journal Online's Private Properties:
--The ex-wife of technology entrepreneur Warren V. "Pete" Musser has decided to auction off her Philadelphia Main Line estate on April 19. Interior designer Hilary Grinker Musser is reportedly willing to accept as little as a quarter of its original $12.5 million asking price, the suggested opening bid of $3 million.
Columbia Law School professor Hans Smit, who's listed a mansion, shown above, for $30 million, has turned down a $20 million offer. I can almost understand why, it's an elegant 1909 French Renaissance-style marble house with all sorts of original details. Check out the listing here.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Model/heiress Lydia Hearst pays $1.49 million for a two-bedroom condo in Mid-Town Manhattan.
--Billy Howerdel, a guitarist who founded and played in A Perfect Circle, has sold his four-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills for $1.875 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--Veronica Hearst's 28,000-square-foot Villa Venezia mansion on 3.77 acres in Manalapan, Florida sold at a foreclosure auction in Florida today for $22 million. Rumor has it that Greg Norman might be interested in picking it up.
--Russ Weiner, founder of Rockstar energy drinks has cut the price on his Hollywood Hills home from $22 million to $15.9 million. Check out the property website here. He has also dropped the price on his Franklin Hills home around $2 million, it's down now to $2,995 million.
--(via the Telegraph) Indian billionaire Lakshi Mittal has put his mansion on Bishop's Avenue in London on the market for £40,000,000. The Summer Palace measures 18,000 square feet and has 11 bedrooms, garage parking for 20 cars, and a heart shaped indoor swimming pool.
--Part of the large apartment at 810 Fifth Avenue in New York by Nelson Rockefeller is up for sale. The two-bedroom pad has a 47' living room with Central Park views, West and South. It is listed at $27.5 million.
--(via Curbed L.A.) John Stamos becomes the latest celeb to opt in at the turqoise Art Deco Eastern Columbia building in downton Los Angeles.
--Suzanne Somers has already dropped the price on her Palm Springs retreat from $35 million to $27.5 million. My bet is it will sell for $22 million.
--Actor Sean Hayes has put his Hancock Park home on the market for $8.95 million. It is our estate of the day later today.
--Singer Kylie Minouge has put her French Island, Australia home on the market for tender with a price tag of $1.8 to $2 million Australian. The listing is here.

From the Telegraph:
--A home with more than ten bedrooms and an underground swimming pool has become the world's most expensive single residential dwelling after being sold for £80 million (over $159 million).

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--The estranged wife of former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, has sold a Malibu beach house for an estimated $68 million which will make it the highest-priced home sale in Malibu. The 12,785-square-foot house on Carbon Beach takes up more than three lots.
--As the Real Estalker previously reported, former "Melrose Place" star Grant Show has put his gated Hollywood Hills home on the market for $1.995 million. The listing is here.
--Joan Collins has purchased a condo for $2.7 million in Sierra Towers in West Hollywood.
--The former Al Jolson estate in Encino has come on the market at $9.79 million. The home which has also been owned at various times by actors Katey Sagal,Kirstie Alley and Charlie Sheen, is listed here.


Thanks to Pierre, for reminding me that Kimora Lee and Russell Simmons's Saddle River, New Jersey is still on the market for $23.88 million. Nearly a year and no price reduction? That's pretty optimistic.

Thanks to Lana for directing me to the most expensive house currently on sale in Spain. The Carmen de los Chapitales which is listed for 90 million euros.

Today's estate is a rather curious one, a bit of faux Provence tucked into the hills of Palm Springs, CA. The home belongs to Suzanne Somers and Alan Hamel and sits on 65 acres of desert land. Les Baux de Palm Springs. The couple bought the land way back in 1977 and it came with a small home that the couple eventually enlarged and added to, also including guest houses an amphitheater and an updated pool to the property. The decorating style is a wee bit confusing with some sort of charming French country touches which keep company with velvet sofas, giant chandeliers and more than one zebra skin rug. It's all a bit crazy but sort of endearing. Even the Real Estalker Mama, who is famous for dishing out the harsh words seems oddly touched by the overblown earnestness of the home. Is it worth $35 million? It's hard to tell but I suspect the price might be a wee bit overblown too.

UPDATE: As of August 2009, this home is listed at $12.9 million, a dramatic price cut of over 50 percent.

[via Palm Springs Life]