Today's home, a classic historic Sag Harbor mansion has popped back on and off the market always at an increasing price. The NY Post reported back in 2006 that Hamptons broker Tara Newman had sold it three times starting at $995,000 in 1989 and going all the way up to a record $6.85 million in 2006.

The home in question is known as the Hannibal French House, an Italianate residence on Main Street which was built in 1875 and designed by Stanford White's mentor, Minard Lefevre. This beautiful home has seven bedrooms and its Gilded Age gorgeousness includes a ballroom with original fleur-de-lis molding and nine fireplaces. The grounds are graced with a boxwood garden and an elliptical pool. In its long history the home has served as a rest home for nuns, a restaurant and the vacation home of Thomas Edison's son, Charles Edison, who was governor of New Jersey. The home is was listed at $7.5 million a few weeks ago but is already down to $5.995 million.

As we mentioned a little while back, the New York Observer recently reported that casino mogul Steve Wynn's New York City apartment was up for sale. Now thanks to a post from the Real Estalker, we found out that the listing has gone live. Wynn's Fifth Avenue palace is a two-bedroom apartment that measures around 3,500 square feet.

Steve and Elaine Wynn are getting a divorce (actually it's their second divorce, they were first married in 1963 but divorced in 1986 and then remarried five years later). Their full-floor apartment was once a four bedroom home but the renovation trimmed the number of rooms and expanded the spaces with an eye toward the grand and bland. The main living area was once the living room, formal dining room and library and has views over Central Park. The master suite was created from three bedrooms and has his and hers bathrooms.

As the floor plan reveals the resulting layout is a bit odd. The master bedroom has been placed next to the living room to take advantage of the best views but this means that the two bathrooms are sequential rather than side by side. The kitchen is directly opposite the second master bathroom and the dining room has been shoved to the back of the apartment right in front of the laundry and utility areas. The home has been redone in shades that design books likely refer to as variations of honey, taupe, caramel and rattan but mostly it's just beige, elegant, but beige and with a hotel's anonymity. Particularly curious is the kitchen which seems to have matching granite floors and counters. The apartment is priced at an outrageous $25 million but it seems doubtful that the Wynns will get their price.

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Shaquille O'Neal's name doesn't seem to have done much for selling his own home but maybe his former rental will have better luck. Shaq finally sold his Miami home after it had been on the market for years getting $2 million less than he paid for it and just about half of his original $32 million asking price. A home that he rented in Paradise Valley, Arizona has gone through a deep price cut too. Both Shaquille O'Neal and Emmitt Smith did each rent this large house for a year. Shaquille O'Neal recently moved out with his family.

The five-bedroom home was built in 2002 and has approximately 8981 square feet of space. The grounds include a pool and there is a master bath that features a tub that might even have been large enough for Shaq. The home is on a two-acre lot and is located near golf courses and restaurants. The listing agent reports that the home was originally offered at $6.5 million but it can now be had for $3.6 million.

[Thanks, Mika]

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We don't have many pictures of this one but Villa Rockledge is a beautiful older home in the expensive seaside town of Laguna Beach in Orange County, California. Unlike many of the town's expensive cliffside homes this one has a long history. The Press-Enterprise reports that it was built over a four year period from 1918 to 1922 for Frank Miller, former owner of the Mission Inn in Riverside, who built the home as a gift for his second wife Marion and called it Mariona, a name which is still shown on a brick arch in one of the home's entry points. The residence was added to the National Registry of Historic Places by the State of California and the U.S. National Park Service in 1984.

The 8,065 square foot compound includes a main house, six guest houses which are rentals and a secluded beach. The current owner, Roger W. Jones, bought the home in 1973 for $420,000 and has researched the history of Villa Rockledge even writing a book "The History of Villa Rockledge," published in 1991. Celebrities from the grand ages of moviemaking including Errol Flynn, Clifton Webb and Bette Davis visited the home which was designed so that even the bathrooms have ocean views. Jones has said that he he restored Villa Rockledge closer to its original condition exposing beams and brick.

The fact that the home is on the National Registry of Historic Places means it can't be torn down but it does seem to be in need of some major renovation. It is listed with Susan Weir for $34.9 million but an MLS listing shows a couple more pictures that reveal a very dated kitchen. It's likely that any new owners would want to spend a significant amount of money on renovation. Because of its idyllic location and charm Laguna Beach hasn't been hit as hard by the real estate market slump as other parts of Southern California but prices in this town have fallen off in the past year. This home seems to combine the best parts of Laguna Beach, the stunning ocean views clear to Catalina as well as the quirky rustic style that graces some of the older homes in the area.

Today's Malibu, California beach home has a bit of celebrity provenance, this beach home high up on a bluff was once owned by rock star and restaurateur Sammy Hagar. Hagar's former beach house has enviable waterviews. A rustic seaside garden leads to a staircase and the beach below. A sundeck on the bluff edge includes a hot tub and lounging area. The home itself has a funky and distinctive look that harks back to an older Malibu style when it was a surf-driven beach community rather than a celebrity enclave. There are beamed ceilings, a pitched roof, polished teak floors and fireplaces that look like they've seen a lot of use on foggy nights. The home has six bedrooms including a truly stellar master suite. The expansive suite has a fireplace and sitting area and a balcony that opens out to the ocean. The current decor is a bit eccentric in some places. The combination of a pot rack and greenery in the kitchen is the type of decorating move that makes the Real Estalker call for nerve pills. Overall though, this is a beautiful and private abode. It is listed at $10.9 million.
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Last week we covered the Wall Street Journal's mention of a luxury villa on the French Riviera. Now we are zooming in for a closer look. Villa Shamballa is in the town of Cap,D'Ail a seaside resort town in southeastern France that borders Monaco. The contemporary style villa was completed last year and spreads over 9,300 square feet. It has ten bedrooms, two terraces, a stone guest house and a wine cave. The home's hillside location delivers incredible views of the Mediterranean Sea. The home was built by retired real estate developer Jean-Claude Rahn and his wife Ursula Neuerberg, of the German cigarette manufacturer Haus Neuerburg and the home has been visited by celebrities including Prince Albert of Monaco, Claudia Schiffer, Michael Shumerer. The home is listed at 38.5 million euros.

Like quarterback Dan Marino, former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar has a home in Weston, Florida for sale. But Kosar's situation is a bit more urgent. Kosar has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with his top 20 debts clicking in at $19.5 million including around $1.5 million to his former team the Cleveland Browns. Small wonder then that his Florida home is up for sale. Kosar has not paid the property taxes on the home for the last couple of years.

Kosar's home in Weston is a 9,900 square-foot mansion on the lake which has a large backyard area with a summer kitchen, pool, spa and cabanas. It is located in the same community, Windmill Ranch Estates, that Marino lives in and the home has a similar Florida Mediterranean style. This ample residence includes an office/library, a kitchen and a separate butler's kitchen and seven bedrooms. This home is listed at $3.5 million.

Kosar's financial woes seem to stem from a number of factors including Florida's depressed real estate market and some bad investing advice. His top creditor is Florida Bank which is owed $9.7 million in real estate development foreclosures. He also owed KeyBank $3.2 million for loan guarantees and a personal line of credit and owes his ex-wife Babette Kosar $3 million from the couple's divorce settlement. Like many ex-football players, he was also in the restaurant business. His Bernie's Steakhouse, a Miami-area restaurant closed last year. Kosar is said to be optimistic about his ability to get out from under his debt and he has many supporters in Cleveland and elsewhere cheering him on.

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[via Move Trends]

Action star Jason Statham may life in a home in mid-Century home in the Hollywood Hills but he also owns a spare and bare apartment in the Broadway Building on Vine in Hollywood. Statham's unit at the Broadway is on the eight floor and takes up 2,140 square feet with two bedrooms. The Real Estalker Mama reports that he picked up this home for $1,543,515. If this was an investment property it may not have been such a great investment. He has listed the home at $1.395 million.

The corner apartment has views over Hollywood Blvd. including a nice view of the Capital Records building.The living room tries for the sexy lair look with a huge white sofa, low slung coffee table and white shag rug. There's a clean and cool kitchen and a pair of rather clinical bathrooms. Not a lot of warmth in this place.

The Boradway does have a few celebrity owners including Danny Masterson, WIlmer Valderama, Jack Osbourne, Emma Henning and Charlize Theron. It offers Kelly Wearstler designed common areas, valet parking, a fitness center and the main draw a swimming pool, spa, sun deck, outdoor fireplace and lounging cabanas up on the roof over looking the lights of Hollywood.

Two and a half Catalina? That's the property website name for the home being put up for sale by Charlie Sheen's wife Brooke Mueller. The pair, who recently added twins to their family, have listed their 1927 Mediterranean in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. The LA Times Hot Property column broke the news that the home is listed for $3.697 million and reports that the Sheens spent the past year restoring the gated villa but are now looking for a home with a bit more room.

This classic Southern California Spanish-style home has four bedrooms in 4,179 square feet. White walls contrast against dark wood floors and a wood-beamed ceiling. The remodeled kitchen features a steel stove, green cabinets and a patio-like stone floor. Some of the decorating elements are a bit busy. A bathroom appears to have a leather-coated wall. The palatial glass cabinet of a shower in the master bedroom has a tile design that while striking, does not exactly inspire relaxation. The master bedroom does have a great private balcony area that is partially covered so you have your choice of sun or shade. The property includes a fountain in the tiled front courtyard and in the back there is a pool with a stone waterfall. This home is listed at $3.697 million. Property Shark's records show that Mueller picked up the home (through an LLC) for $2.575 million in late 2007.

A Florida home once owned by Richard Rochon, co-founder of private equity investment firm Royal Palm Capital Partners, heads to auction next month. This is no ordinary home, but is a huge Renaissance-style mansion in the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club area of Boca Raton. The home was on the market for $21.9 million. Rochon's lender, Thornburg Mortgage Inc., filed a foreclosure notice on the home in December.

The auction of the 25,000 square-foot waterfront home is scheduled for July 11. There is no minimum bid but potential buyers must show up with a $250,000 deposit to participate. The home has six bedrooms, an elevator, wine room, an indoor lap pool, a theater, and 475 feet of boat dockage space. The property includes a waterfront terrace, outdoor pool and spa, cabana bath, summer kitchen and a practice putting green. The home is a slightly larger version of other huge mansions I've seen in the Boca area. Some distinctive details include a two-story formal living room with a hickory floor, coffered wood ceilings, his and hers offices and a master wing that includes a bedroom with double-height ceiling and stone arches. The Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club is a private, by-invitation only club with a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course, a 30,000-square-foot golf clubhouse, fitness center, clay tennis courts, swimming pool, and two championship croquet courses. The auction website is here.

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Last month Joan Rivers put her New York City penthouse on the market for $25 million as part of her decision to move to California to be closer to her daughter, Melissa. It turns out that her Connecticut country house is also on the market. The Real Estalker led us to the listing for Rivers' home in New Milford, Connecticut.

Her four-bedroom country home is a bit more relaxed than her Manhattan abode although it still has touches that make it uniquely Joan Rivers such as the obligatory leopard print rug in one of rooms. The Real Estalker unearthed an article about the home in Architectural Digest from February 2003 in which Rivers, with her characteristically sharp tongue, said the home had looked like a Denny's before she got to it. She bought the property for $1,438,400 in 2000. After taking ownership, she had the home pulled down to the foundation and then created the current home salvaging only the stone fireplace in the living room and a few stone columns from the original home.

Rivers favors an elegant style fussied up with all sorts of expensive antiques. The many tchotchkes are all high quality, there are just too many of them. For example, it's hard to imagine why an oil painting has been stuck above the stove in the kitchen or why blue-and-white ceramics teeter on a heavy beam above a bed in one of the guest rooms. The master bedroom is a girly pink fantasy complete with a canopy bed facing what appears to be an illustration of Joan and Melissa Rivers hanging over the fireplace. And the less said about the statuary in the master bath, the better. The over-75-acre property includes a swimming pool and pool house, detached barn/garage and a private pond. This home is listed at $6.5 million through Klemm real estate.

Today's estate is one of Georgia's most lavish. Dean Gardens in Johns Creek was created by Larry Dean, a software entrepreneur, who created this massive home with 58 acres that include elaborate gardens. Dean has been trying to determine what to do with the home and surrounding property for several years including floating ideas for turning it into a subdivision with condos. The listing says the home was recently appraised for $35 million. It includes two carriage house apartments, a caretakers cottage, wedding chapel, Asian tea garden, grass tennis courts, amphitheater, conservatory ,lake and 18 hole golf course.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently reported that the property has been on and off the market for 15 years for prices ranging from $20 million to $40 million. Compared to that the current price of $13.9 million seems like a steal.

The details here are just extraordinary, a hodgepodge of tastes and styles. The rotunda was inspired by Florence's Brunelleschi Cathedral. Art Deco and Art Nouveau flourishes abound in the bedrooms. Much of the terrace level is given over to a Moroccan theme and a game room has a 1950s diner look. A separate website devoted to the home shows off the many theme rooms including the Peacock room, the Egyptian suite and the elaborate French bedroom.

Today's estate is one of the grandest in New Orleans, a city known for its grand homes. The Brown Mansion on St. Charles Avenue was built in 1904 for W.P. Brown, a local cotton mogul. The Romanesque Revival home has nine bedrooms and approximately 14,000 square feet of space. The home, which looks like it belongs on a university campus, was built with the finest materials and has ornate plaster details, carved wood ceilings and massive fireplaces. The stone home sits on private gated grounds by landscape architect Rene Fransen and has a terraced patio with a heated pool and a hot tub. There is also a built-in three car garage. It is listed at $8.5 million.

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We seem to have a motivated seller in the form of model-turned-actress Estella Warren. The Real Estalker reveals that the lovely "Planet of the Apes" star has put her home on Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills on the market for $1.95 million. Even the listing description conveys a certain sense of urgency saying that it is available immediately. The relatively small home (2,247 square feet) has three bedrooms and is lacking many of the bells and whistles of some Hollywood homes like a media room or a large eat-in kitchen. Warren paid $1.78 million for the home which is on the same street as the home which was the site of the Manson murders. As the Real Estalker reminds us, the Polanski/Tate house has since been torn down.

This home is clearly staged for sale with white walls, white furnishings and those poppy color accents and vaguely contemporary paintings meant to make a home seem fashionable. The home was built in 1959 and though it has been updated some charming details such as the French doors and a colored glass bathroom window are in evidence. The kitchen has a bit of an odd color scheme with a red tile back splash and gray cabinets. The maser bedroom has glass doors that lead to the garden and the master bath includes a large grayish shower with a bench. Outside there is a basic pool and a brick patio with views of the hillside. Unlike some celebs who seem to start with a high price and then scramble backward it seems that Ms. Warren has a fairly realistic sale price but in this market who's to say if that will be enough for a fast sale.

We've featured a lot f Southern California homes lately but this one is quite lovely, a newer home in Brentwood that you would swear was a 1920s classic. As the LA Times Hot Property column reports this one belongs to Richard Foos, the former head of Rhino Records, and his wife, Shari.

The Thomas Callaway-designed Mediterranean was completed in 2002 and the Foos have spent years decorating it. The seven-bedroom home is on grounds that include a swimming pool and views of the Santa Monica mountains. Each of the seven fireplaces has a distinctive style some are tiled, some have unique sculptural curves. Modern touches include a music system that provides sound throughout the house, solar heating and retractable push-button walls on the loggia. One amazing feature is the gameroom done in knotty-pine paneling and featuring a juxebox, pinball machines and soda fountain. The property also includes a separate guesthouse with a wraparound porch.

Rhino Records started as a single store and went on to become a record label purchased by Time Warner in 1998 for a reported $60 million.The Foos are said to be selling the house because they are looking to downsize. This home is listed at $19.9 million.