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The Real Estalker's commenters were a bit harsh on it but I don't think the Los Angeles condo reality star Kim Kardashian has put on the market is all that bad. The curvy brunette has a three-bedroom apartment in West Hollywood which has been decorated with an eye toward movie-star glamour. Whether or not it achieves that goal is in the eye of the beholder. The decorator didn't have a lot to work with, the nondescript beige apartment is 1,750 square feet and in a small faux Tuscan building near Robertson Blvd. It's been enlivened with decor that includes a giant gilded wood panel and zebra-print pillows in the living room. The bedrooms feature crystal chandeliers, mirrored furniture and tufted headboards. There are several glamour shots of Kardashian around the apartment including a Marilyn-Monroe-like shot poised above the toilet in the black-and-white wallpapered guest bathroom. This apartment is listed at $1.099 million.

The main Jenner-Kardashian home in Hidden Hills, California is still listed for sale at $3.195 million.

It first hit the market a few weeks ago but a home belonging to Billy Joe Armstrong, the lead singer of punk-styled band Green Day just popped up on my radar thanks to a mention in the San Francisco Chronicle. The eyeliner-wearing singer has an elegant abode in the Upper Rockridge area of Oakland, California. The five-bedroom Mediterranean home was designed for Armstrong by architect Mark Becker and built in 1998.

The double lot on over half an acre includes a pool, pool house and a professional music studio. The home is very restrained, decorated with soft comfortable furnishings in warm earth tones. A well-done family home lived in by Armstrong, his wife Adrienne and their two children. Adrienne has an interest in design and decor ad the home is well-styled with some gently exotic touches. The Chronicle reports that the walls of one room are covered with a collection of fliers from Green Day's early days but alas that's not in the listing pics. This home is listed at $4.85 million.

The Luxist Awards is now underway. Submit your nominations now for "Best in Décor".

What is going on with James Franco recently? First the young movie star raised eyebrows with the news that he would be starring on the soap opera "General Hospitial" and now he has put his Sunset-Strip area home on the market. The LA Times Hot Property column reports that Franco has listed his Sunset Strip-area compound for $3.695 million. The Spanish-style villa located very near Chateau Marmont was built in 1923 and has three bedrooms. The home, which has vaulted and beamed ceilings and an open floor plan has had a major renovation. It looks to be extremely well-staged for maximum appeal so I don't think this decor reflects Franco's tastes. The home was bought through a trust in 2006 for $2.325 million. The master bedroom suite includes views of the city and a large bathroom with a striking 19th century marble bathtub. There is a pool and a small guest house on the property. The listing is here.

Famed CNN TV talk show host Larry King and his wife Shawn King have bought a unit in the Carlyle on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. Units similar to the one bought by the Kings have been selling in the $3.5 million to $5.6 million range. The Carlyle Residences is the last permitted high-rise to be built along the famed Wilshire Corridor's "Golden Mile." King attended the recent grand opening of the property, which was developed by Elad Properties, the owner and developer of the Plaza Hotel in New York. The unit that the Kings purchased will function as a second home. They are not selling their Beverly Hills primary residence but are expected to use their new apartment to house guests, including extended family members.

The Kings' unit has three bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms; 11-foot ceilings; his-and-her bathrooms off the master suite. Each of the 78 private residences in the building has a private elevator. The building's amenities include a 24-hour valet, doorman and concierge service. The 24-story crescent-shaped building has a private wine cellar. Larry King Live, the first worldwide phone-in TV talk show, debuted on CNN in June 1985. Larry King has been called the "master of the mike" by Time Magazine. Valerie Fitzgerald of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills, is the head of sales for the Carlyle project.

The Twitter guys are definitely on the move. Earlier this year, Biz Stone listed his Berkeley home for $575,000 and it sold quickly. Now Evan Williams has put his San Francisco penthouse on the market. One thing is for certain these guys like their nests contemporary. William has a two-bedroom loft in the Heublein Building. The sleek modern apartment is one of three penthouse units in the building and it has 11 foot ceilings. The home has a remodeled kitchen with a wine refrigerator and comes with a two-car garage. The interior has a bit of a rough look from exposed concrete and pipes. A private patio offers city views. Williams has listed his home for $1.498 million. Curbed SF says that he's building a modern home, designed by his wife which should be finished next year.

[via On The Block]

Add actress Sharon Stone to the list of head-scratching home owners trying to navigate their way through the real estate market this recession. She has re-listed a Beverly Hills mansion at $8,995,000 that she bought in 2006 for $10,995,0000. She originally had it on the market at $10 million, took it off and offered it on a $58,000 a month lease. That didn't happen either, although she did get a nothing-to-sneeze-at $35,000 a month for it. And now she's decided to list it at below what she paid. She never moved into the property, although she had at one point intended to remodel it and do precisely that. The seven-bedroom Mediterranean estate sits on almost five acres at the end of a private road. There is a resort-style lagoon pool and a north-south tennis court. Stone, who was married to newspaperman Phil Bronson until 2004, starred in the erotic thriller "Basic Instinct." The listing agent is Valerie Fitzgerald of Coldwell Banker, Beverly Hills. Fitzgerald is also in charge of sales for the Carlyle on Wilshire project.

Actress Meg Ryan is testing the real estate waters once again, putting her Bel-Air home back on the market. Ryan had first put her Spanish-style home on the market a year ago for $19.5 million. Finding no takers she withdrew it from the market in February. But as the LA Times Hot Property column reports it's back again and with a lower price. The six-bedroom home was purchased for $8.995 million in 2000 and is now listed at $14.2 million.

Listing information says that the home, which was built in 1931 has had a "museum-quality" restoration that includes wood floors and ceilings, elegant tilework and graceful curved arches. Covered outdoor seating offers views of Los Angeles in the distance. It's been moderately well-staged but there are a few off notes including the placement of large photos on the kitchen counter. The property includes a pool and guest house.

From the Real Estalker:
--A New York City townhouse rented by Kate Hudson is now for sale for $4.95 million. The listing is here.
--Christina Ricci's home in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles is for sale for $1.549 million. The well-decorated home, shown above, is already listed as "looking for back up."

From the NY Post:
--Two new townhouses, which can be converted into one monster home, are hitting the market for a combined $33 million. The townhouses are currently under construction at 22-24 Downing St. in the West Village. Together they would form one 12,127-square-foot, 50-foot-wide, six-story home. The listing is here.
--A co-op at 640 Park Avenue belonging to retired financier Peter Smith is on the market for $26 million. Smith's residence is on the third floor of the 13-story building which has only 12 units. The listing is here.
--Last month, Dick Fuld, the former boss of Lehman Brothers, sold his apartment at 640 Park Ave., which closed for $25.87 million to Glenn Fuhrman, an art collector and co-founder of MSD Capital, Michael Dell's investment fund.
--Tuesday Weld's Montauk beach house has sold for nearly its latest asking price of $7.75 million. The home had been on the market for years but we only covered it as an estate of the day last month. The buyers of Weld's house are a finance family based in Manhattan.

--Rumor has it that the Corcoran Group listing brokers selling Bernie Madoff's Montauk beach house have pledged to donate their commissions to the victims of Madoff's fraud but the broker for the buyer, who works for a rival firm has apparently made no such promise.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--Former model and fashion designer Gail Elliott and her husband, Joe Coffey, have sold their condo at 40 Mercer. The buyers, club owner Bryant Yunker and his wife, paid $3.812 million.
--Seymour Zises, founder of the investment advisory firm Family Management, and his wife Cathy, have closed on the sale of their five-bedroom apartment at 1016 Fifth Avenue. It was listed for $10.95 million and sold to investor Paul Orlin for $8.9 million.
--via the Real Deal, British architect Lord Norman Foster has closed on the purchase of a second apartment at 912 Fifth Avenue. The eighth-floor pad, which Foster was first reported to be buying back in July, was bought for $6.7 million.
--via the Real Deal, Mark Brashear, who heads up Hugo Boss in the US, has paid $3.2 million for a 2,793-square-foot condo at 60 Beach Street in Tribeca.
--via Curbed, publishing entrepreneur Win McCormack has put his apartment at 170 East End Avenue on the market less than a year after he bought it for $8.75 million. The four-bedroom apartment with 1,600-square-foot terrace overlooking Gracie Mansion and the East River is currently listed for $10.5 million.
--Real estate investor Adam Gordon has dropped the price of his West 76th Street townhouse. It was listed at $25 million last November and is now listed for $23.5 million.
--Jewelry designer Lorraine Schwartz paid $4.7 million for a duplex at the Olympic Tower on Fifth Avenue.
--Steven Oesterle, a managing director at Giuliani Partners, and his wife Nancy, have sold their three-bedroom apartment at the Park Imperial on West 56th Street for $4.9 million.
--Developer Arthur Zeckendorf and his wife Connie have sold an apartment they owned at 524 East 72nd Street for $1.81 million, which is $1 million less than what it was listed for when it first went on the market for in August 2008.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Charles Schwab's small penthouse at 834 Fifth Avenue, which neighbors part of Rupert Murdoch's triplex is now available for around $14 million.
-- Media entrepreneur Clive Ng and his wife, ex-model Farrah Summerford, have put their 25-foot-wide townhouse at 20 East 10th Street on the market. The five-bedroom home is listed for $19.9 million.
--A third-floor, 14-room apartment at the Plaza which was to sell to Italian businessman Luigi Zunino for around $45 million now appears to be listed for $39 million. The huge L-shaped apartment includes former State Rooms which were used for private entertaining.
--The drama between Princess Firyal and the family of Lionel Pincus, a 78-year-old who's been legally incapacitated for three years continues. Mr. Pincus' two sons want to sell off their father's $50 million, 14-room duplex at the Pierre while the Princess says the she was promised the pad.

From Move Trends:
--A classic mid-century modern home designed by R.M. Schindler and used in the movie "Pineapple Express" is on sale in Glendale, California for $2.475 million. The listing is here.


From NOLA.com:
--Sandra Bullock has purchased a historic home in the Garden District of New Orleans, Lousiana from entrepreneur John Russell Lee Sr., whose I CAN Learn educational software was at the center of the Mose Jefferson trial. The 1876 home is near properties owned by John Goodman and Nicolas Cage and the home previously owned by writer Anne Rice. It sold in June for $2.25 million in cash to Big Easy Bebe LLC, which was incorporated a few days earlier by John Chamblee, a lawyer from Austin, Texas, who has represented Bullock in other real estate transactions.

From a reader tip (thanks, Patrick)
--A Houston estate that we covered in 2007 when it was listed at $19.9 million has had a huge price chop and is now listed at $9.5 million.

From Homes of the Rich:
--The businessman who bought the most expensive Yankees seats, has been charged with mortgage fraud. His New Jersey house just hit the market for $7.99 million.

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.

This one's a little small to be an estate of the day but I had to show you the fabulous penthouse of Linda Dano. The former soap star turned talk show hostess, author and design authority is selling her lovely home on New York City's West End Avenue. The apartment is a one bedroom, just 1,100 square feet but it's beautifully turned out in a cozy yet glamorous style. Dano has written several style guides and knows what she's doing when it comes to decorating. The home mixes great vintage pieces like an antique armoire and an Asian screen with modern pieces in a rich palette pepped up with a few animal prints. The apartment also has a nice terrace with thick greenery that provides a bit of privacy.

The Real Estalker says that according to a New York Post article, Dano and her late husband, advertising executive Frank Attardi, purchased the penthouse in 2002 for around a million and spent another million or two in updates making the $1.675 million pricetag seem positively modest.

We first heard in April that Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony were checking out the Icon Brickell in Miami but now they have made it one of their many homes. Anthony gushed about the purchase to People Magazine Monday night during halftime of the Miami Dolphins vs. Indianapolis Colts football game at Miami's Landshark Stadium. He told the magazine that once they are through decorating it will be "the sexiest place in town." Anthony is a minority partner in the Miami Dolphins team.

The condo is a three-tower condominium designed by Philippe Starck in a complex that includes the Viceroy Miami Hotel. It's a bright spot in a condo market that continues to be fighting sluggish sales. Building amenities include multiple pools, a spa and fitness center, five restaurants, rooftop pool club, concierge and valet services.

Lopez and Anthony have multiple homes in New York and Los Angeles. Their Bel Air home remains on the market at $7.9 million.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--via Curbed, a building at 70 Broad Street has gone on the market for $45 million. The 15,218-square-foot building can be used as an office, mixed-use property or private residence and was reportedly owned by the late spiritual guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The listing is here.
--via the NY Times, John Steinbeck's former NYC apartment is listed at $2.1 million. The listing is here.
--Vogue contributing editor Lauren Santo Domingo and her husband Andrés Santo Domingo have purchased Michael Hirtenstein's townhouse at 23 Gramercy Park South for $18.5 million. The home was used as the Showtime showcase house and rooms were decorated by interior designers to reflect the themes of various Showtime shows.
--via Curbed, Steve Schwarzman, the billionaire Blackstone Group co-founder who listed his former home in East Hampton last month for $7.2 million, has already dropped the price to $6.75 million.
--via NY Times, Gisele Bundchen already listed her Barrow Street townhouse in New York. The supermodel has also re-listed her triplex penthouse at 347 West 11th Street, which has been on and off the market for two years now. The apartment first hit the market for $10.9 million back in 2007 and is now listed for $4.5 million.
--via NY Observer, the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations has paid $4.235 million for a 2,840-square-foot apartment at Trump World Tower. The apartment will reportedly be used by Afghanistan's UN ambassador, H.E. Zahir Tanin.
--via the NY TImes, the former New Jersey home of Michael Strahan and his ex-wife Jean has gone down in price is now listed for $4.75 million.
--via NY Observer, cardboard magnate Dennis Mehiel has chopped $5.4 million off the price of his Carhart Mansion duplex. It was listed for $34.9 million but is now at $29.5 million.
--Michael Steinberg, a portfolio manager at Sigma Capital, a hedge fund affiliated with Steve Cohen's SAC Capital, has picked up a new penthouse at 885 Park Avenue for $8 million.
--Clara Markowicz, co-founder of Original Media LLC and a co-producer of The Rachel Zoe Project, has paid $3.55 million for an apartment at 21 Astor Place.
--Fashion photographer Alexi Lubomirski has paid $2.095 million for a two-bedroom condo at 52 East 4th Street.
--via Newsday, Richard Gere and Carey Lowell are expected to close on the sale of their Water Mill home this week. The 1.2-acre property was last listed for $7.2 million when it went into contract last month.

--via NY Observer, investor Ephraim Gildor has listed his duplex penthouse at the Park Laurel on West 53rd Street for $28 million. The listing is here.
--Terence Kawaja, a managing director at GCA Savvian Advisors, has paid $7.235 million for a 15th-floor apartment at 150 East 86th Street.
--Goldman Sachs executive Raj Sethi has put the apartment at 15 Central Park West that he bought for $4.1 million in December 2007 back on the market. It is listed at $7.1 million.
--Neil Hirsch, who founded Telerate, co-founded the Bridgehampton Polo Club in 1995, and was once married to comedy club queen Caroline Hirsch, has put his five-story townhouse at 15 Sutton Place on the market.for $12 million.
Leslie Lewis Sword, actress, writer, and daughter of the late Reginald Lewis, the former CEO of Beatrice Foods, has paid $8.136 million for an apartment at 150 East 86th Street


From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Oprah's favorite interior designer Nate Berkus has been spotted checking out a two-bedroom apartment at the Urban Glass House.
--Dutch-born financier Alex Roepers and his wife, Shafi, bought four empty acres on the ocean, right beside Dune Beach, on Meadow Lane in Southampton for around $17.5 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Former American Express Co. Chairman and CEO James Robinson III has sold his 35-acre Warren, Connecticut estate to architect Santiago Calatrava for $5.5 million, which is 25 percent below the $7.35 million asking price.
--Golfer Fred Couples has sold his Montecito, California home for $9.56 million, which is also nearly 25 percent less than the asking price.

From the Real Estalker:
--Ryan Cabrera's Hollywood home has been reduced to $1.1 million. He bought the home for $1.45 million in 2006 and has been trying to sell it since October 2008 when it was listed at $1.699 million. It's finally slid into short sale territory with a new asking price of $1.1 million.

A variety of celebrities seems to have a quiet little getaway home in Snedens Landing, New York. Singer Björk recently put her home in the area up for sale for $1.8 million or for rental for $7,000 a month. Now we learn that Mikhail Baryshnikov has listed his two-bedroom Adirondack style home for $4,500 a month. The quiet retreat has a wrap-around porch, surrounded by quiet woodlands and a nearby stream. The Real Estalker reports that Baryshnikov owns four contiguous properties in the area. This one is a perfect weekend getaway home with an open great room that includes a piano. Upstairs there are two bedrooms and listing pictures show a small brick fireplace in one of the rooms.

One of England's most infamous divorcees, Heather Mills, Paul McCartney's ex, has been spending a lot of time in the United States lately. As my colleague Jared Paul Stern reported last month, this summer she was seen in the Hamptons. The Real Estalker reveals that the former model has hoisted her London apartment on The Bishop's Avenue onto the market for a posh price. Mills bought the home for around £2.35 million late last year and now it's on the market for £3.75 million. The three-bedroom unit is at the Allingham Court condo complex, a building that includes an indoor pool and a gym. The condo looks freshly decorated in a luxe palette of neutral tones, pretty but devoid of any real personality. Mills also owns a home in Sussex and apartments in New York and Paris but this leaves her without a London base.

Perennially perky retired Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton has moved back to her hometown of Fairmont, West Virginia and is eager to sell her Houston home. The Wall Street Journal's Private Properties reports that she has cut the price of her 9,000-square-foot Houston home by 10 percent after three months on the market. The medal-winner-turned-motivational-speaker built the home in 2002 with her husband, real-estate investor Shannon Kelley.

The six-bedroom, home is on two wooded acres in Houston's Memorial Villages area. It has indulgent outdoor space that includes a raised terrace, grotto pool, dining loggia with fireplace and a park-like backyard. The sprawling master bath has a sitting area and there is also a media room and children's playroom. The home is now listed at $4.7 million.

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