From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Entertainment lawyer and the mastermind behind the Hands Across America and "We Are the World" events, Ken Kragen, has listed his Beverly Hills home, shown above, for $5.595 million. The listing is here.
--Commercial composer Jonathan Elias has sold his 5,865-square-foot Santa Monica home for $4.395 million.
--Nicolas Cage has leased a unit in the downtown Biscuit Company Lofts with an option to buy. He may have picked up a 3,500-square-foot penthouse unit, which was listed at $4.9 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--Rumor has it that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner may have picked up a 1930s Hollywood Georgian in Holmby Hills which has been listed at $27.5 million for around $22 million. The listing is here.
--Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott have picked up a home in the Westwood area of Los Angeles for $2.275 million.
--Anne Heche and James Tupper have put their West Vancouver, Canada home on the market for $2,450,00 (Canadian). Heche and Tupper bought the home for $2.2 million in May, 2007.
--Michael Bolton has put his Westport, Connecticut home on the market for $11 million. It's our estate of the day on Monday.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
A five-bedroom house in Bel-Air that was once owned by Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal has come on the market for $9,500,000. The listing is here.
--Ryan Cabrera has put his Hollywood Hills home on the market, it's our estate of the day later today.
The four-bedroom home in the Hollywood Hills that previously belonged to Charlie Sheen's wife, Brooke Mueller is back on the market with a $2.395 million listing price (she sold it for $2.317 million last year). The property website is here.
--Actor Justin Long has listed his home for $1.495 million. The listing is here.

From the Luxury Property Blog:
--A home featured in the movie "Moonstruck" as Cher's character's house recently sold for close to $4 million.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Baseball player Mike Piazza will officially list his duplex TriBeCa loft for $6.8 million in September and is looking for a bigger place in Manhattan.
-- Jocelyn Wildenstein spent nearly $8 million for a 3,000-square-foot condo on the Plaza and now another Wildenstein, thought to be Guy Wildenstein, bought on the floor below his former in-law for $31.7 million. Two apartments - 409 and 411 - sold for $21.926 million and $9.787 million under Wildenstein & Company.
--Model Adriana Lima and basketball player Marko Jaric are looking for an apartment in New York. The couple has been seen checking out the penthouse at 40 Walker, a new residential building in TriBeCa, which is listed at $7 million.
--from Page Six, --Ricky Gervais and his girlfriend Jane Fallon have spent $1.66 million for a one-bedroom condo at the converted Barbizon hotel on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--President Ford's Vail, Colorado ski retreat is on the market for the second time in less than two years. Real-estate investor Kevin Hayes, bought the home in early 2007 after Ford's death for $6.65 million and says he spent over $4 million on renovations. He has listed the home for $14.9 million.
--NFL star Michael Strahan paid between $1.5 and $2 million for a loft in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood.
--Real-estate developer R. Donahue Peebles has listed his Washington, D.C., stone Tudor house for $8.3 million. It was our estate of the day on Saturday.

From Real LI:
--Baseball player Edgardo Alfonzo has reduced the price on his home in Little Neck, New York. It went on the market in late 2006 for $8 million and has now been lowered at least four times since then is now listed at $5.3 million. Alfonzo paid $900,000 for the property in 1999 and has spent nearly as much in remodeling. The listing is here.
--New York Jets linebacker Bryan Thomas has taken his Huntington home off the market and has decided to rent the property instead of selling.

From TMZ:
Michael Phelps spent $1.69 million for a condo on the waterfront in Baltimore, Md.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--The Kress family penthouse, a 17-room Fifth Avenue apartment with ballroom ceilings imported from 17th-century Venetian palaces and marble staircases carved from Michelangelo's quarry was previously listed for $50 million then pulled off the market. Next month, the penthouse will be back on the market again with a listing price of around $45 million with Leighton Candler of Corcoran.


From AOL Real Estate:
Remodeling Myths: Water Your Plants at Night?
Dying Cities
Web Sites Let You Check Your Neighbors
Smalltown USA: America's Dreamtowns
Overpriced ZIP Codes

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--via In Touch Weekly, 'Dancing with the Stars' co-host Samantha Harris and her husband, Michael Hess have paid $1,600,000 to buy a in Los Angeles west of the Century City area.
--Slash has finally sold his five-bedroom "lawsuit house" in the Hollywood Hills, possibly to San Diego Padres relief pitcher Randy Wolf.
--An update of the real estate moves of Hilary Swank, she paid $5.8 million earlier this year for a place in Pacific Palisades and told W Magazine that she left New York because of the high real estate prices (Swank and ex-hubby Chad Lowe sold their Manhattan townhouse for $7,050,000 million in January) but likely her romance with her former agent John Campisi, who is L.A.-based also had something to do with it. Nevertheless, New York magazine has spotted Swank browsing for a loft and reported that she was looking at a a two-bedroom unit in the Superior Ink development in Manhattan.
--'One Tree Hill' actors Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush have sold their house in Wilmington, N.C. for $730,000.
--Justin Long, who is perhaps most famous for the "I'm a Mac" ads, has paid about $1,400,000 for amid-century modern home in the Hollywood Hills.
--Nicole Richie has sold her condominium unit in the Empire West building in West Hollywood for $2,250,000.

From the Real Estalker:
--via Newsday, Patricia Kennedy Lawford's estate has sold her Southampton home for $9.8 million.
--via Luxury Real Estate, Eddie Murphy's ex-wife Nicole Murphy has sold their Sacramento area home for the highest price the Sacramento area has ever seen, $6.1 million.Most of the furnishings, including at least 20 TVs and a sleek, black, $200,000 Schimmel Pegasus grand piano were included in the deal.
--The Real Estalker Mama has nabbed some interior shots of the Golden Beach, Florida house that Ricky Martin has put on the market for $22.5 million.
--The Mama takes a look at Peter Guber's Kauai Tara Plantation. This home has sat on the market for $46.5 million for nearly 3 years, we covered it way back in February 2005.
--Amanda Peet and her screenwriter husband David Benioff have sold their Angelo View Drive house high above Holmby Hills and have purchased the former James Cagney estate above Sunset Boulevard on N. Wetherly Drive.
--50 Cent has reduced the price of his Connecticut home to $12 million from $18.5 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Nicolas Cage has pulled his Bel-Air mansion, which was listed at $35 million, off the market.
-- St. Louis Rams owner Georgia Frontiere sold her Bel-Air home for close to $30 million.
--Madonna's former home in Beverly Hills, which was redone by Diane Keaton, just closed at almost $17 million.
--Comedy writer Bill Richmond has purchased a town house overlooking the lake in Calabasas Park for close to its asking price of $1.3 million.
--Gregory Joujon-Roche, a celebrity personal trainer, has listed his Malibu condo for $2.695 million. The listing is here, the home is freshly redecorated and gorgeous.
--Peter Shin, supervising director of the TV show "Family Guy," has bought a contemporary-style house for $1.3-plus million in the Hollywood Hills.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Fashion designer Kenzo has put his Paris home on the market for 12 million euros. it is our estate of the day later today.


From the NY Times Big Deal:
--The buyer of Ricky Martin's former apartment in the Time Warner Center have signed a contract to flip it for around $17.9 million. Martin bought it in 2004 for $6.8 million and sold it in September 2006 for $9.75 million.
--Fewer than a third of the 201 coveted apartments in Robert A. M. Stern's complex 15 Central Park West near the foot of Central Park, at West 61st Street, have now closed. But of those, five apartments were put back on the market almost instantly and more listings are likely.