billy joel

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Jigsaw Ranch, a 90-acre Aspen, Colorado estate owned by George I. Rosenthal and Mark A. Rosenthal, the father and son behind Rosenthal Estate Wines and other businesses, has listed for $48.5 million.
--A waterfront Kauai estate that has been in the same family since 1915 has hit the market for $24.5 million. The Faye House, shown above, is listed with Neal Norman of Koa Properties Land & Homes.
--Venture capitalist Fred Adler and his wife, Catherine, are asking $24 million for their ocean-to-intracoastal home in Palm Beach. The listing is here.

From the NY Post:
--New Knicks star Carmelo Anthony is searching for a downtown rental in the $30,000-a-month range. Potential new homes include 158 Mercer St., the same building where Jon Bon Jovi lives and SoHo Mews at 311 West Broadway where Justin Timberlake has a place. Fellow Knick Amar'e Stoudemire is renting a West Village condo for $37,500 a month.
--Princess Khaliya Aga Khan, the wife of Prince Hussain Aga Khan and daughter-in-law of Shia Ismaili Muslim leader Aga Khan IV, just rented an apartment in the Richard Meier-designed condo building at 165 Charles St. for $19,500 a month.
--Actor Dean Winters, best known for HBO's "Oz," recently checked out a $25,000-a-month rental a couple floors up from the princess.
--A mystery Russian buyer has signed a contract to buy Al and Patsy Kahn's five-bedroom, 62nd-floor apartment at the Time Warner Center for about $20 million. It was originally listed for $33.6 million last year. Last year the couple, which is splitting up, bought Bernie Madoff's penthouse at 133 E. 64th St. for $8 million.
--Former Yankee pitcher and five-time World Series winner David Cone is buying a condo in the $4 million range at the Lucida. The shiny eco-friendly building at 151 E. 85th St. includes a La Palestra fitness center.
--DailyCandy founder Dany Levy is renting a three-bedroom unit at 33 Fifth Ave. in the $13,000-a-month range.

From Greenwich Mean Time:
--Rumor has it that Billy Joel was the purchaser of Leona Helmsley's estate, Dunnellen Hall in Greenwich. We heard it sold last fall for $35 million after being on the market for as much as $125 million.

From the LA Times:
--A Palm Springs home once owned by the late film star William Holden is listed at $1,495,000. The listing is here.
--Fox Music president and Chief Executive Robert Kraft has his vacation getaway in La Quinta listed for sale at $949,000.
--British actress Alex Kingston and her husband, German writer Florian Haertel, have sold their Hollywood Hills home for $3.1 million. We first saw this home in 2008 when it was listed at $4.75 million.
--Actor Jack Black has purchased Flea's (aka Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Michael Balzary) Los Feliz-area home for $5.965 million.

From the NY Post:
--Singer-songwriter Josh Groban was spotted checking out an $18,000 apartment at the Corner, a new rental building at 200 W. 72nd St. He currently rents at Time Warner Center.
--New York Rangers star Marian Gaborik checked out a 16th-floor, convertible three-bedroom, two-bathroom with 1,540 square feet, for $16,500 a month.
--A 6,637-square-foot, six-bedroom, 6½-bathroom, full-floor apartment at Extell's 535 West End Ave. just closed for $17.2 million. It had an asking price of $18.9 million. Nearby, a townhouse at 41 W. 74th St. went into contract on New Year's Eve, its most recent asking price was $14.245 million.
--Billy Joel has dropped the price of his oceanfront Sagaponack house at 9 Gibson Lane to $18.5 million from $22.5 million. The home was renovated in 2009 and decorated by Nate Berkus.



From Move Trends:
--The price of the home that was used to film a memorable part of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" has had a price cut. The Ben Rose home was listed at $2.3 million in 2009 but is now listed for $1.65 million.


From the Wall Street Journal:
--Don Imus has cut the price on his Westport, Connecticut home. We first saw this home in 2009 when it was listed at $30 million. It is now listed at $24.95 million.

--Former AOL executive Ted Leonsis, owner of the NBA's Washington Wizards and the NHL's Washington Capitals, has paid $20 million for Marwood, a historic 13-acre estate in Potomac, Maryland.
--Barbara Picower, the widow of Madoff-scandal figure Jeffry Picower, has sold their Fairfield, Connecticut estate for $6.6 million.

From the Real Estalker:
Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille, better known as 1970s singing group Captain and Tenille have sold their four-bedroom home in La Quinta, California for $660,000.

From JeffRealty:
--A look at the estate that Venus and Serena Williams own at BallenIsles in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The home has two massive separate master suites and a training facility that the sisters can train at without leaving their front door. The sisters applied for permits to do an addition to their home in March of 2010 and just finished the new 4,000 square foot structure with state-of-the-art facilities. Check out images here.

Mirror, mirror on the wall. Whose house is the fairest of them all?

Which celebrities have the most expensive properties on the market right now? Let's apologize up front for not including any pocket listings that we don't know about. (In fact, if you'd be so kind as to let us know about them, we'd be most grateful.)

And sorry, but we aren't counting Candy Spelling's Bel-Air listing at an unrealistic $150 million here -- not because it isn't a super property (if overpriced) but because despite her befriending us on Facebook, we still don't quite consider her a celebrity. We're also not including Dennis Hopper's estate, no disrespect intended toward the recently departed but if we opened the cemetery floodgates, there wouldn't be enough room in cyberspace to list them all. And lastly, we're so sick of athletes who misbehave that we'll pass on considering them celebrities for the moment. Overgrown kids maybe, but not celebrities.

So with those caveats, here's the unofficial Luxist list of 10 of our favorite and most expensive celebrity homes on the market.

1) Billy Joel's Sagaponack Village house for $19.9 million. We love love love this beachfront house in Sagaponack Village South that sits on 145 feet of oceanfront. We even loved it when it was first listed at $22.5 million. Classy, elegant, blends with the surroundings. You half expect a seagull to land on you while you stare at the photos. High beamed ceilings, white-washed, New Englandy without the pretensions. It was renovated in 2009 and clearly is a place where great music could be made -- although apparently not between Billy Joel and his soon-to-be-ex wife Katie Lee Joel. Nothing like a divorce to force the issue of liquidating the real estate. And nothing like a recession to keep things from moving. The piano man and his fourth wife also listed the property next door to this one for $12 million. There are some reports it sold in the $10 million vicinity.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--A Malibu property known as La Esperanza, the beach retreat of actress Greta Garbo in the 1930s, is on the market for $12.6 million. The listing is here.
--A Bel-Air estate that was once home to producer David Wolper and then composer Jerry Herman has come on the market in Bel-Air at $23.45 million. The property website is here.
--Comcast Entertainment Group president and chief executive Ted Harbert has sold a condominium in the Azzurra high-rise in Marina del Rey for $1.63 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--"Crocodile Dundee" actor Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski have listed a home in Montecito, California for $6.5 million. They bought the home in 2008 for $6.7 million. The listing is here. Hogan is currently in Australia and not allowed to return to the United States until he pays a multimillion-dollar tax bill.
--Cornelia Guest has relisted her home, Templeton, in Old Westbury, New York for $11.9 million. It was listed for $20 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day in 2008.

--Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann have picked up a new 11-bedroom home in East Hampton, New York for $7.34 million.
--The listing for Candy Spelling's $150 million manor in Holmby Hills has finally hit the MLS. The listing is here.

From TMZ:
--Rachel Uchitel one of Tiger Woods' mistresses, has picked up a three-bedroom Park Avenue apartment that was listed around $2 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Paramount Chairman and CEO Brad Grey has sold his Pacific Palisades home for $21.5 million.
--A vineyard estate in St. Helena, California is on the market for $20 million. The home is owned by T. Gary Rogers, the former CEO of Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream and chairman of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. The 153-acre property, known as La Herradura, includes one of the largest private lakes in Napa Valley. The property website is here.
--An oceanfront Malibu, California, estate that was listed for $49.95 million has gotten a $10 million price cut to $39.95 million. The 19,000-square-foot, nine-bedroom home is on a bluff with three acres of oceanfront and a stone stairway that leads down to the beach. The property website is here.

From the LA Times Hot Properties:
--A Connecticut farmhouse-style home in Brentwood designed by Roland Coate for Academy Award-winning director William A. Wellman is listed at $10 million. Wellman won a best original story Oscar for "A Star is Born" in 1937 and directed the silent film "Wings" which won the first best picture Oscar in 1927. The listing for the home is here.
--Actor Jerry Douglas, known for his long-running role on "The Young and the Restless" and his wife, Kymberly Bankier, have sold their Encino home for $2,075,000.
--A Beverly Hills house built in 1934 for "Gone With the Wind" producer David O. Selznick is on the market for $15.9 million. The listing is here.

From the NY Post:
--Billy Joel has bought a two-bedroom $3.3 million apartment in Nolita. It is believed that he is buying it for his daughter, Alexa Ray Joel.
--Diego Della Valle, chairman and CEO of footwear company Tod's paid $1.56 million for the three-bedroom, three-bath unit at the Caribbean in Miami Beach.
--Eduardo Safra Cohen, son of philanthropist Lily Safra, is in contract to buy two apartments that comprise the entire fourth floor of the 2 E. 67th St. co-op building for around $18 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Track-and-field star Carl Lewis has listed his home in Pacific Palisades for $2.6 million. Lewis, who has won a total of nine Olympic gold medals, purchased the home for $1.75 million in 2002 and remodeled the kitchen, pool and backyard. The listing is here.
--DHL Worldwide Express delivery co-founder William Armsted Robinson has cut the prices on his two Idaho properties. He's asking asking $14.5 million for his 938-acre horse ranch and $12.5 million for a nearby 600-acre fishing property.
--Art collector John Traina's landmarked San Francisco property, a converted 1893 firehouse once owned by former California Gov. Jerry Brown has sold for $3.36 million. It was listed at $4.4 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day last year.

From the Huffington Post:
A Palm Beach Florida home owned by disgraced and jailed newspaper magnate Conrad Black is on the market. It was listed in 2004 at $36 million but is now for sale for an unlisted price.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--A Hollywood Hills home once owned by actress Dorothy Dandridge is on the market at $3,495,000. The restored 1926 Mediterranean has three bedrooms and three terraces with city views. The property website is here.
--Singer Melanie Brown, otherwise known as Scary Spice, has bought a five-bedroom home in the San Fernando area for about $3.15 million.

From the Chicago Tribune's Elite Street:
--Former Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon has sold his mansion in Northbrook, Illinois for $2.85 million and moved to Florida.
--Former Chicago Bulls forward Antonio Davis has taken a loss on his three-story house in Naperville, Illinois selling it for $1.4 million. He Davis also has a contract to sell his mansion in Burr Ridge, which is listed for $3.299 million, and he has a waterfront lot in Plainfield on the market for $399,000.
Former Chicago Blackhawks center Alexei Zhamnov has sold his 11-room home in Lincoln Park for $2.725 million.



From the Boston Channel:
--Add Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez to our list of slow sellers. He's cut the price on his condo at the Ritz Carlton in Boston from to $8.5 million $7.9 million.


From the NY Post:
--While in New York City Jeremy Piven stayed for a week in a triplex penthouse at the Prime condo building at 333 W. 14th St. which is listed for $5.9 million. The listing is here.
--Rolling Stone founder and publisher Jann Wenner has closed on a Hamptons home 6,300-square-foot, three-story waterfront home on Old Montauk Highway for $11.9 million. The home which was listed for $14.9 million, is within a half-mile of Bernie Madoff's old beach house.
--After rejecting Related Companies President Jeff Blau's $31 million bid last May, the co-op board at 820 Fifth Ave. found a buyer for homebuilder Ara Hovnanian's full-floor fourth floor unit. The new buyer is Kenneth Griffin, the founder, president and CEO of Citadel Investment Group in Chicago who reportedly paid just under the $35 million asking price. Tommy Hilfiger once owned the apartment, though he never lived there and the co-op board also rejected Ron Perelman and Steve Wynn.

From Christie's Great Estates:
Legendary director Ingmar Bergman's family compound in Fårö, Sweden, has been sold.


From Brickwork: The London Property Blog:
-- An Edwardian villa in Sheffield Terrace, Kensington W8 which was once the former London home of Madonna is listed for rent for £13,000. The listing is here.
--R&B singer-songwriter Craig David's Hampstead penthouse is for rent at £6000 a week. Earlier this year it was for sale for £6.25 million. The listing is here.


From ShelterPop:
--Grammy winning Dixie Chick Emily Robison has listed her large loft in the old Duerler Candy Factory in San Antonio, Texas for $1.5 million. The 4,800 square foot loft was purchased as raw space and converted into a four-bedroom family home. The listing is here.

From Homes and Property UK:
--Prince Harry's girlfriend Chelsy Davy has moved into a two-bedroom Belgravia flat which cost £1.65 million.
--Perthshire landowner Jamie Montgomery is selling Kinross House, his 17th century ancestral home overlooking Loch Leven, for £4.25 million through Strutt & Parker. The mansion has 15 bedrooms, a ballroom, 80 acres and a cricket pitch. The listing is here.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Julian Schnabel has finally sold the triplex penthouse at Palazzo Chupi. Artist and director turned developer Julian Schnabel once wanted $32 million for the unit but settled for $10.5 million. The buyer is William J.B. Brady who bought a $15.5 million unit in the building several years ago. The Chupi duplex remains on the market for $12.95 million.

--Katie Lee is paying Billy Joel $3 million for their West Village townhouse as part of her their divorce. The couple purchased the home in 2005 for $5.9 million.
--More than a year after art dealer Daniel Wildenstein sold his family's mansion at 11 East 64th Street for $42.5 million, the 29-foot-wide townhouse has reportedly gone back on the market for $37 million.
--Ex-Morgan Stanley vice chairman Bruce D. Fiedorek has listed his fifth-floor apartment at 998 Fifth Avenue for $34 million. The listing is here.

From the WSJ's Private Properties:
--Real-estate mogul Steven Roth of Vornado Realty Trust was the buyer of Bernard Madoff's beach house in Montauk, N.Y.
--Real-estate investor Jeff Greene bought a Beverly Hills property out of receivership for $35 million in 2006 and then put another $15 million into the renovation. Now, instead of selling in a slow market he has put the 25-acre estate up for lease for $250,000 a month. The 43,000-square-foot main house has 11 bedrooms, 14 baths and a 6,000-square-foot ballroom and the property includes six acres of wine-producing vineyards. The listing is here.

From Rented Spaces:
--Madonna sued by her neighbors for noise.
--He works so his tenants have homes.
--Comfort tops fall home decor trends.
--Cash in on wine mistakes.
--Do you live in one of the most stressed-out cities?
--Is mustache decor a hot trend?

Celebrity divorce often leads to celebrity real estate up for sale. Billy and Katie Lee Joel are headed to divorce court and seeking to divest themselves of a pair of charming oceanfront properties in Sagaponack, New York. They bought the properties in 2007 for $28,385,000, in cash, says the Real Estalker.

The two properties were listed last month but listing pics just recently hit the internet. Both properties on Gibson Lane have gorgeous ocean views. The first home belonged to the late Roy Scheider and has been given a thorough going over by decorator Nate Berkus. The four-bedroom home is lad out for top ocean views, meaning that the public rooms are on the second floor. There are three bedrooms plus the master suite on the first floor. The second floor has a living room that runs the width of the house and has two wood-burning fireplaces and French doors that open to an oceanside terrace. The home has a large dining room, gourmet kitchen and a home office with built-in bookshelves. The home does not have a pool but the property has a usable variance for a swimming pool on the east side of the property. This home is listed at $22.5 million.

The other property is a more modest three-bedroom cottage on 1.2 acres. It is listed at $12.5 million. The simple home is decorated simply with white walls. It's an adorable abode but as the Real Estalker speculates, this one might be a teardown.

From Big Time Listings:
--Actor Brad Sherwood has re-listed his Encino home, shown above, for 3.595 million. It was listed last year for $4 million.
--Singer Lisa Loeb has paid $1.125 million for a four-bedroom, Cape Cod-style house in Los Angeles' Valley Village area.
--A six-bedroom mansion in the Beverly Hills Post Office area once owned by Ricky Martin is back on the market for $26.9 million. The listing is here.From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Actor Daniel Craig is renting a three-bedroom apartment in the Park Imperial building on West 56th Street for $38,000. This apartment was previously rented by racecar driver Jeff Gordon who rented it for $26,000 a month before moving into a condo he bought at 15 Central Park West.
--At the Waldorf Towers on East 50th Street a six-bedroom apartment is listed for $140,000 a month, the highest price for a rental in the city. The listing for the 33rd-floor unit, which was once the home of Cole Porter, is here.
--Ballroom dancer Karina Smirnoff has been staying at the Visionaire, a 36-story eco-friendly luxury condo building at 70 Little West Street in Battery Park City, and likes it so much she wants to buy.
--Matt Damon is the latest celebrity to check out the Apthorp building and may be looking to combine several apartments. The Apthorp must sell 25 units before September 15. If that doesn't happen the building will lose the chance to convert from rentals to condos. So far 22 contracts have been signed.

From Newsday's Real LI:
--An Oyster Bay Cove estate that once belonged to aviation pioneer James T. Pyle is on the market for $1.99 million. The listing is here.
--Football player Vinny Testaverde has dropped the price on his home in Oyster Bay Cove. It was first listed at $6.995 million and is now listed at $3.995 million.


From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--Don Trump Jr. and his wife Vanessa already bought an apartment on the 12th floor of The Sovereign on East 58th Street, for $1.125 million and they've now paid another $1.595 million for the apartment next door.
--via the NY Times, Douglas Lebda, the founder of LendingTree, has gone into contract to sell his penthouse at the Legacy on East 84th Street. He bought the home for $8.6 million in 2007 and is selling for close to the listing price of $7.5 million.
--via the NY Times, Peter Buffett, the son of Warren Buffett and a musician, and his wife Jennifer, are reportedly about to close on a three-bedroom condo and separate studio at One Madison Park.
--via the Real Deal, builder Greg Konner has increased the price of his Bridgehampton mansion. It was listed for $14.995 million and is now priced at $15.795 million. The listing is here.
--Mariann Florio, the widow of former Condé Nast CEO Steve Florio, has paid $1.65 million for a three-bedroom apartment at 235 East 73rd Street owned by former Bear Stearns exec Leo Tilman. Her Key Largo home remains on the market for $8.9 million.
--Richard Bressler, the former CFO of Viacom and now a managing director at the private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, went into contract to sell his duplex at 850 Park last month and has bought a new place. Bressler paid $7.15 million for a four-bedroom condo at 170 East End Avenue.
--via the NY Post, Billy Joel is looking to sell two properties he bought for his wife Katie Lee Joel in Sagaponack. Now that they are splitting up he plans to list the properties for $35 million.
--via the Real Deal, fomer Bear Stearns chief operating officer Alvin Einbender has cut the price on his Charles Gwathmey-designed apartment in the Police Building at 240 Centre Street. It went on the market for $30 million in May 2008 and is now listed for $19.95 million.
--Developer and former investment banker Keith Jacobson has relisted his duplex at 173 Perry Street. He bought the property for $3.74 million in 2007 and put it up for sale in July 2008 for $11.5 million. He took the property, which was once owned by Vincent Gallo, off the market for a while but now it is back on the market.
--via the NY Observer, Johnson & Johnson heiress Jaime Johnson has paid $2.654 million for a two-bedroom loft at 285 Lafayette Street. The seller, Lucy Waletzky, is the daughter of Laurence Rockefeller and a great-granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller.
--via the NY Observer, Lyor Cohen, who runs Warner Music, has taken a loss on the UES co-op he owned with his ex-wife, Amy. In 2006, they paid $7.75 million a duplex at 8 East 96th Street. They sold to Google executive Julio Pekarovic and Maria Vasconcelos for $6 million.
--via the NY Observer, Susan Bloomberg, the ex-wife of Michael Bloomberg has put her 4,472-square-foot penthouse at One Kenmare Square in SoHo on the market for $11.5 million. The listing is here.
--Celebrity hairstylist Orlando Pita has sold his former co-op at 2 Fifth Avenue for $2.95 million to Razorfish co-founder Craig Kanarick and his wife, Rebecca Odes.


From The Real Estalker:
--Action star Jason Statham has picked up a home in Malibu for $10.95 million. His two-bedroom condo at the Broadway remains on the market.
--Bjork and Matthew Barney are reportedly buying a four-bedroom condo at 160 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights that was listed recently for $4.25 million. They're also trying to sell their a one-bedroom co-op which went on the market in July for $1.7 million and Bjork has listed her home in Sneden's Landing for $1.8 million.


From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
The Maryland estate of Eunice Kennedy Shriver has sold for $7.81 million which was 34% less than its original offering price last fall. It was listed at $11.8 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day.
--Former Lehman Brothers Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Fuld Jr. has sold his apartment on New York's Park Avenue for $25.87 million. Fuld and his wife, Kathleen, purchased the apartment for $21 million in January 2007. It was not officially on the market but had been quietly shopped for $32 million.
--Actress Tuesday Weld , whose Montauk home we looked at as an estate of the day recently, has sold her Manhattan apartment for $1.04 million.




Check out Lynda Carter's home on Shelter Pop.
Which states have the highest foreclosure rates? CNBC has the list.

Twin Palms, shown above, the original Palm Springs home of Frank Sinatra is now for sale for $3.25 million. The listing is here.

Luxist reader Nick reports that the Bridgehampton Idea house which we profiled as an estate of the day in January has had a deep price reduction. It was listed at $18 million, was down to $15 million when we wrote about it and now is listed at just $9.95 million. The listing is here.

From Newsday's Real LI:
--Fox Hall, an estate we've been watching since 2005 when it was listed at $20 million has a new broker and a new price, $14,999,999 million. The listing is here.
--Billy Joel 's Centre Island home is back off the market once again. Joel purchased the home in 2002 for $22 million. He listed the Tudor-style waterfront mansion for sale in September 2006 with Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty for $37.5 million when it was our estate of the day and later tried to sell it for $32.5 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
Director Rob Cohen has listed his Malibu home. It's our estate of the day later today.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--Bruce Lisman, the former co-head of global equities at Bear Stearns, has cut the price of his apartment at 923 Fifth Ave. The four-bedroom is now $16.75 million, down from $22.5 million. The listing is here.
--Kenneth Cole has reduced the price on his New York City penthouse. We'll be checking it out as the estate of the day on Monday.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Fashion designer Domenico Vacca has reduced the price on his New York City condominium from $9.5 million to $8.9 million. The listing is here.
--Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Thani, of Qatar, has listed his three-bedroom apartment at Trump Park Avenue for $14 million. The listing is here.
--Hollywood producer George Furla is asking $3.495 million for his unfinished penthouse apartment in downtown Chicago. He paid $3.15 million for the unit in 2005. The listing is here.


From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Colombian ambassador to the U.N. Claudia Blum and her husband Francisco Barberi have paid $3.9 million for a third-floor co-op at 936 Fifth Avenue, which is next door to the other apartment in the building thy bought for $3.35 million earlier this month

From the Real Estalker:
--Turns out that Nicole Murphy, Eddie Murphy's ex-wife, isn't just selling her home near Sacramento, she has also put her Calabasas home on the market for $9.995 million. Check out the virtual tour here.
--Gossip diva has put her mid-century Modern home in Hancock Park on the market for $2.995 million. We are checking it out later as our estate of the day.
--Musician Robert Cray has listed his three-bedroom home in Los Feliz. The home is located in The Oaks neighborhood where Brad Pitt also has a home and includes a guest house, an office/studio. The land also includes some Zinfandel vines. It is listed at $3.25 million.
--Pussycat Doll Carmit Bachar has bought a house which was listed at $699,900 in Valley Village.
--More news from Los Feliz, actor T.R. Knight has bought himself a gorgeous vintage fixer-upper in the area for $2,912,500.
--Want to spend $100,000 per month on a rental? Then you too can live in a Beverly Hills home rented by Tom Cruise and maybe even stay in the North wing while your significant other sleeps in the South wing, just like the Cruises supposedly did.
--Model Kylie Bax has listed her Hollywood Hills home for $1,749,900. The listing is here.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Serial househopper Denise Richards has put her newest Hidden Hills home on the market for $3.9 million. Richards listed a home last year for $4.3 million also in Hidden Hills and then moved into this one. She then moved into another one in the same area which cost around $4.6 million. The listing for the home is here.
--Danny Bonaduce has bought himself an $825,000 condo in Hollywood.
--Producer-director Paris Barclay has bought a home in Valley Village for close to $1.7 million and sold another in the Hollywood Hills for slightly more than $1.7 million.
--Cinematographer Dion Beebe, who won an Oscar for his work on the 2005 movie "Memoirs of a Geisha," has listed his Hollywood home for $1.875 million. The listing is here.
--Jeffrey Bischoff, founder and president of the music-merchandising company Cinder Block, is putting his traditional-style Los Feliz home for $1.749 million. The listing is here.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are house hunting in Manhattan, they've been spotted at the Time Warner Center.
--Billy Joel and his wife, Katie Lee Joel, have just gone to contract to buy an oceanfront property next door to their Sagaponack home that has an asking price of $12.99 million.
--A townhouse on the Upper East Side that Madonna was spotted checking out has been sold to real estate investor Keith Rubenstein and his wife, Inga for its asking price of $35 million.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--The real estate market may be in trouble but you wouldn't know that by some recent New York sales, a three-unit duplex penthouse at Trump World Tower recently went for $33.6 million. And over at Palazzo Chupi, artist/director Julian Schnabel's magenta monstrosity, William J. B. Brady, co-chairman of global technology for Credit Suisse, paid $15.5 million for "Unit 1" even though he already bought a four-bedroom duplex penthouse elsewhere for $6.95 million less than four months ago and city records put his billing address at a penthouse in the Millennium Tower. But who can resist the chance to live with the Schnabel in a building that includes seven-foot fireplaces, antique Moroccan window dressings and a shared pool. Brady has put the Greenwich Street penthouse on the market for $12 million. The listing is here.
--British power-player Sir Ronald Cohen, a close friend of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has paid $5 million for a 2,948-square-foot condo at 388 West Broadway, two floors down from hotelier Jason Pomeranc.
--Boris Belotserkovsky, a co-owner of Russia's largest gambling operator, and his son George have paid $5,010,205 for a 13th-floor condo at the Plaza.
--Nigerian-born supermodel Oluchi Onweagba has bought a two-bedroom apartment at the new 10 West End Avenue condo, near Lincoln Center for $1,708,500. Her husband, Luca Luca designer, Luca Orlandi bought a Gramercy House penthouse earlier this year for $3.345 million so this apartment is for investment purposes. She plans to rent it out for around $11,500 a month.

From Berg Properties Celebrity Big Time Listings:
--The official price that singer Christina Aguilera paid to buy Ozzy Osbourne's mansion in Beverly Hills is $11,500,000.
--Actress Valarie Pettiford, who starred on the UPN's 'Half & Half' has sold her house in Studio City for $1,181,000 and paid $520,000 for a town home in the North Hollywood area.
--Danny Masterson has paid an undisclosed amount for a loft unit in the new Broadway Hollywood building in Hollywood.
--Soap opera actor Sebastian Roche has paid $1,525,000 for a house in Los Angeles' Venice area.
--Ali Landry has sold her four-bedroom home in Los Feliz for $1,812,000 to a congressional candidate from New York.
--Gene Wilder has sold his Bel-Air home for an undisclosed amount.

From TMZ:
Jessica Simpson was seen apartment hunting in Manhattan.

Billy Joel's Centre Island, New York home has disappeared from the Daniel Gale Sotheby's International website which usually means that a home has been sold. In this case however, Newsday reports that the home is still for sale at the same price it has been listed at for the last year, $32.5 million. Joel bought the mansion in 2002 for $22 million and it was originally listed at $37.5 million when we looked at it as an estate of the day. So why has the listing been pulled. The real estate agent Bonnie Williamson is quoted as saying that the are keeping it low key for now. Apparently Joel feels the listing has been public for a while and needs a break.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Developer Harry Macklowe bought up around $60 million worth of apartments in the Plaza that he plans to combine into one huge residence. There's just one problem, a $4 million apartment is in the way and so Macklowe may need to pay double the original list price for the apartment in order to complete his dream home. It's unclear if Macklowe is the mystery $50 million man who we first talked about buying in at the Plaza. Given the blockbuster prices in the building there may be more than one.
--Natalie Portman has put her home in Sea Cliff, Long Island, shown above, on the market for $2.2 million. The listing for the three-bedroom shingled home is here and the virtual tour is here.
--Park Avenue's grandest-looking mansion has gone back on the market after a gut renovation. It is now listed for $35 million.
--Leonardo DiCaprio has signed a rental agreement for a three-bedroom duplex on Walker Street with a $35,000-a-month asking price.

Also from the Post:
--Billy Joel is in contract to buy Roy Schieder's Sagaponack home. The home was most recently listed at $18.75 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--A look at the Steel House, a mid-century modern owned by James Valentine of Maroon 5.
--Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Foner (parents of Jake Gyllenhaal) are offering a three-bedroom home on Mulholland Drive for rent for $20,000 per month.
--You can rent the house on Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills that was used to film "The Apprentice" last season for $45,000 per month.
--Aaron Kamin of the band The Calling has listed his West Hollywood home for $2.3 million.
--Actress Joely Fisher has listed her four-bedroom house in Encino for $4.75 million. It's out estate of the day later today.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Tommy Tune has paid $1.29 million for a tower apartment at 400 East 52nd Street, called the Southgate. The one-bedroom, 750-square-foot apartment has a wrap terrace and cracked walls.
--170 East End Avenue, a soon-to-open condo designed by Madison Avenue Armani boutique veteran Peter Marino, has three deep-pocketed buyers. Contemporary art dealer Dominique Lévy has paid about $12 million for a combined-unit duplex on the eighth floor. Developer Eric Hadar bought a mirror-image 5,000-square-foot duplex for around the same amount. Vornado Realty Trust president Michael Fascitelli spent $16 million on a 7,000-square-foot space with a two-hoop basketball court.
--Adam Sender, a hedge-fund man with an absurdly gorgeous art collection, has bought a 36th-floor duplex in Downtown by Philippe Starck for $8.1 million.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Four-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist Lenny Krayzelburg has paid $2,610,000 to purchase a 3,454-square-foot house in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills.
--Director M. Night Shyamalan has listed his mansion in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania for $7.999 million. The four-level mansion has seven bedrooms. Shyamalan hasn't gone Hollywood, he still has a nearly 123-acre estate in Williston Township that he bought in 2004 for $17.9 million.
--Actress Anita Barone who is in the Fox sitcom "The War at Home," and her actor husband Matthew Glave have sold their three-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills to actor and comedy writer Paul Soter for $1.11 million and have paid $1.678 million for a five-bedroom house in Los Angeles' Encino area.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Josh Duhamel has sold his home in Brentwood for close to the asking price of $2.4 million.
--Steve Lavin, former UCLA head basketball coach turned ESPN and ABC college basketball analyst, has listed his Newport Beach home at $3.995 million. The listing is here.
--Kristine Lefebvre and her husband, chef Ludovic Lefebvre have sold their four-bedroom, 3 1/2 -bath room Studio City home for about $1.5 million.
--The Zubin Mehta Malibu estate has been sold for $14 million.
--Del Shores, playwright and gay pop-culture icon, and his partner, actor-producer Jason Dottley, have listed their 1929 Laurel Canyon, Spanish-style home at $1.65 million. The listing is here.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Sarah Ferguson is buying a large two-bedroom apartment in the Cipriani Club Residences at 55 Wall St., where she already stays while visiting Manhattan. The asking price is $2.95 million asking price.
--Billy Joel has lowered the price on his Centre Island mansion by $5 million.
--Developer Steven Roth's Park Avenue apartment, which was originally listed at $9 million, finally has a buyer.
--"Dora the Explorer" co-creator and head writer Eric Weiner has $4.4 million penthouse on upper Broadway.
--The brownstone where Katherine Hepburn lived for seven decades is available for rent for $39,500 per month. The listing for this classic home is here.

From The Real Estalker:
--Britney Spears and Kevin Federline have reduced the price on their Malibu house to $11,999,999 from $13,500,000. Britney has also taken her Beverly HIlls home off the market.
--Daniele Gaither, formerly of MAD Tv has put her Los Angeles home on the market for $1,099,000. The listing is here.
--Television producer Phil Rosenthal and his wife Monica have put their Hancock Park mansion on the market for $5,950,000. The listing is here.
--Celebrity hairstylist Jonathan Antin has put his Los Angeles home on the market for $1,699,000. The listing is here.
--Cheech Marin and his wife Patti have listed a four-bedroom Malibu home for $3,595,000. The listing for this intriguing Craftsman home is here

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Figure skater Scott Hamilton has sold a house he owns in Thousand Oaks, Calif. for $3,295,000.
-- Sir Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, are the latest celebs to buy in at the Sierra Towers in Los Angeles, purchasing a two-bedroom, 20th-floor unit in the Sierra Towers condominium building that had been listed for $2,497,000.
--TV director James Burrows has listed his gorgeous Bel-Air mansion, shown above, for $12,850,000. The listing is here.
--A lovely two-bedroom contemporary house in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills that actor Joel Grey remodeled during the 1990s has been listed for $1,895,000. The listing is here.
--A five-bedroom, midcentury house in the Hollywood Hills area that the late singer Bobby Darin lived in in the 1950s and actor Brock Peters owned until his death in 2005 is on the market for $3,689,000. The listing is here.

From The Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Ellen DeGeneres has put her Montecito house on the market for $24 million, less than six months buying it for $15.75 million. It's our estate of the day later today.
--Former basketball star Latrell Sprewell has put his house in Purchase, New York on the market for $4.99 million. The seven-bedroom home is still being lived in by his girlfriend who is the mother of four of his children. The listing for the large Colonial is here.
--Memphis Grizzlies forward Mike Miller and his wife, Jennifer, are asking $7.99 million for a six-bedroom home in the pricey Lake Sherwood area. The house has a dedicated website that showcases the brand spanking new home.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
-- Scottish comedian Billy Connolly and his wife Pamela have bought a loft apartment in the Flatiron district for $3.85 million for a 10th-story loft at 105 Fifth Avenue.
--Seema Boesky, the ex-wife of Ivan Boesky, has sold he penthouse in the Belaire building where Cory Lidle crashed his plane, for $4.3 million.
--Billionaire philanthropist Jon Stryker has sold his 62nd-floor apartment in the south tower of the Time Warner Center for $8.55 million.
--Party-planner David Tutera has picked up a full-floor condo at East 21st Street's Infinity Flats listed at $4.495 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Beach Boy Bruce Johnston and his wife have listed their Santa Barbara home for nearly $4.4 million.
--Xorin Balbes, a designer-developer has renovated the El Cabrillo bungalows in Hollywood. Seven on the ten courtyard-style units
have already been sold and the three left are selling for $745,000 to $999,000.

We received a hot tip that this castle-like waterfront home in Centre Island, New York which was recently put on the market just might be the home of Billy Joel. Joel bought his home in 2002 for $22 million and was married there in 2004. This estate has 1550 feet of waterfront. The large 14,000 square foot main house is definitely Piano Man-worthy (note the elegant grand piano. The estate also include a three bedroom, 2 1/2 bath guest cottage and three bedroom, three bath beach house. Other features include indoor and outdoor pools, tennis court and a bowling alley. It is listed at $37.5 million by Daniel Gale. After the jump, I'm in a New York state of mind.

[Thanks, Pat]