Starwood Hotels & Resorts veteran Barry Sternlicht is looking for real estate to surge in Greenwich, Connecticut. The wealthy New York City suburb got spanked over the past year as the city's financial industry gurus saw their bonuses jobs disappear and flooded the market with ostentatious homes on the market at a time when buyers were few and far between. A year later, Sternlicht thinks this town is ready to stage a comeback.

Sternlicht just raised the asking price on his 5.8 acre estate in Greenwich to $5.95 million, even though the local market is about to finish its worst year in the past 30. Jean Ruggiero, Sternlicht's real estate broker, said he pushed up the asking price because "we felt like we were giving it away." People showed some interest in the home, and the fact that other sellers were cutting prices didn't mean that Sternlicht had to follow. "Just because people are lowering their price doesn't mean it's right, because he's not a desperate seller, "Ruggiero said of Sternlicht.

The new number is 8.3 percent higher than the $5.495 million Sternlicht previously asked, even though prices for single-family homes in Greenwhich dropped 40 percent year-to-date.

Originally, the home was put on the market at $8.25 million in June 2008, and it was cut three times from September 2008 to April 2009. It boasts a tennis and shuffleboard court, pool and guest house ... and is of course gated.

Even at $5.95 million, Sternlicht will come out ahead. He bought the place in November 1994 for a mere $2.93 million.

Today's estate of the day is a New Canaan, Ct. home on 6.43 acres that was built for entertaining. It is the ultimate family compound with a guest cottage, swimming pool, a pond stocked with trout and a one-of-a-kind sports pavilion.

The main house, which was built in 1983, is 9,244 square feet with five fireplaces, interior stone walls, rustic wood beams, seven bedrooms, 6 full baths and 2 half baths. The kitchen was remodeled in 2005 and has alder-wood cabinetry, French antique limestone floors and a hand-carved limestone sink. There's a two-story family room with a cathedral ceiling, wide-plank white oak floors and a wall of Tischler windows, setting the ease and comfort for family gatherings. The two-story foyer has a circular staircase and there are two adjacent living rooms, one with a window wall and the other with sliding glass doors leading to a deck, each overlooking the glorious pond and swimming pool setting. The main-level master bedroom suite has a corner fireplace, a wall of French doors opening to a deck, and luxurious his and her whirlpool baths. Additional features include a library with separate office and bath, game room and exercise room.

The 10,600 square feet three-level sports pavilion is the ultimate entertainment facility. Winner of a prestigious award for excellence in design and construction in 2005, the pavilion offers a French country kitchen and dining area that seats 30, all overlooking a NBA-level half basketball court with regulation scoreboard. There's also a stage replete with dark maroon velvet curtain and Broadway-level lighting and sound system. The dance studio has a ballet bar and mirrored walls. The fairy-tale setting continues downstairs with a state-of-the-art golf simulator room where you can choose to play one of 50 different courses around the world, including St. Andrews and Pebble Beach. There's also a movie theater with over-sized leather seats for 25; a bowling alley, and a game room that features billiards, pinball and a milk shake bar. The three levels of the "sports barn" are linked via an elevator and a circular log stairway hand-made in Colorado. There's a TV lounge setting on all three levels, and on the third level, there are three bedrooms and three baths.

The property has a trout pond with two waterfalls and a heated pool complete with a pool spa. The pool house features a sauna, two changing rooms, two showers and a bathroom. There's also a cabana with a state-of-the-art kitchen, bar, stone fireplace, Viking grill, wood-beam ceiling and seating for 25. The garage, which is within the sports pavilion, includes a catering kitchen with an extra-large refrigerator and sink. There is also a charming guest cottage with a living room, fireplace, kitchenette, bedroom and full bath.

The house is listed at $12,500,000.

For more information, contact the listing agent, Barbara Cleary of Barbara Cleary's Realty Guild at (203) 966-7772.

The Froh Heim Mansion takes its name from the German words for "happy home"and whoever wins the home's auction on September 26 might be very happy indeed. The home in Far Hills, New Jersey is on 11 acres and was originally built for a mining industrialist by venerable New York City architects Peabody, Wilson and Brown. The Mediterranean style home has 16 rooms with seven bedrooms. It was built on a grand scale, a 47-foot banquet dining room includes a limestone fireplace and four crystal chandeliers. The home has been updated with modern features including central air conditioning. The grounds include a pool, wine cellar, barn and two caretaker apartments. The auction is being held with no minimum reserve bid but this home was previously offered for sale for $8.9 million.

L.A. talent manager Sandy Gallin, who has represented divas like Dolly Parton, Barbra Streisand and Michael Jackson, has listed his mansion in Bel-Air (above) for $32 million. Gallin, a serial property flipper, intended for this, his 42nd house project, to be "a place to wind up and stay," but found the estate "too big and too lavish for me," he tells the Wall St. Journal. The mansion was built in 1936 by architect Paul Williams, and Gallin purchased from the estate of award-winning actress Jane Wyatt two years ago for $8 million.

He planned to tear it down and build a modern monstrosity but the city refused to grant permission. Instead Gallin restored and enlarged the existing house boosting the square footage to 12,000 with seven bedrooms and 12 baths. The Real Estalker adds that there's an entire wing devoted to a master suite with dual baths, and the living room opens onto a "living lounge" with a covered porch, cobblestone floor and fireplace. Also inside are a billiards pub, a glass-encased wine room, a media room, a gym, a yoga studio, steam room and a swimming pool.

Back in March we reported that American Idol star Simon Cowell was installing a private tanning salon in his new $22 million mansion in Beverly Hills. Now the London Daily Mail reports Cowell is finally ready to occupy the lavish 11,550-sq.-ft. estate. Cowell bought the property for $12 million nearly two years ago but razed the original structure. The new modern mansion has 24-ft. tall windows in the living rooms with sweeping views over Los Angeles. Neighbors include Tom Cruise, Madonna, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and Victoria and David Beckham.

"I look out over the Hollywood Hills into my neighbors' gardens," Cowell said in an interview last year. "It's an amazing view." Not good enough to "see into their homes," he noted, "so you can't see them in the shower - but you can see into their gardens. It's great fun. I just like to keep an eye on what is happening." Cowell has described the modern mansion as his "dream home" and has said he's been involved in the design "right down to the doorknobs."

The five-bedroom mansion features a state-of-the-art gym in the basement, a luxury spa complete with wet steam room, a custom-made media room with a marble bar area and plush leather seating for 20, a gallery for Cowell's gold and platinum records and awards, and an indoor lap pool. The property has a separate staff quarters containing a servants' kitchen for Cowell's live-in butler and maid. The pool cabana has a retractable roof, wet bar and changing rooms and there's a putting green at the rear of the property.

It looks like Mariah Carey was only dreaming when she reportedly made an offer on Fleur de Lys, the $125 million Beverly Hills mansion once ranked as the world's most expensive estate (that title is now held by the $150 million Spelling mansion). According to the Real Estalker, the pop star just purchased this somewhat more modest mansion in Bel Air (above) that once belonged to Farrah Fawcett for about $7 million. The private gated estate on 3 acres designed in the Hamptons style and originally built in 1950 is about 10,000-sq.-ft. with 6 bedrooms and 7 baths.

The property features incredible 360-degree views and the renovated house has an "Aspen-style" great room, seven fireplaces, formal living and dining rooms, a library, media room, office, an eat in gourmet kitchen. The grounds boast three gated entrances, two motor courts, a huge rectangular swimming pool with a poolside pavilion, a large brick terrace, several lush lawns areas, a gazebo, and an Indoor racquetball court. The closing price is about $2.5 million less than the sellers were originally asking.

Five months ago when Forbes ranked the world's most expensive houses (in terms of current listings) only three of them clocked in at over $100 million. And in fact, one of those, Leona Helmsley's Dunnellen Hall in Greenwich, CT which started out at $125 million had already been reduced to $95 million by the time the list was published (it's currently being offered at $75 million). The other, Fleur de Lys in Beverly Hills listed at $125 million, was therefore the world's most expensive and one of only two $100 million-plus properties officially on the market.

Re-surveying the field now we've decided it's time for a new World's Most Expensive list, mainly because despite the recession - or, perhaps, because of it - there are now seven properties in what we've dubbed the Hundred Million Club (N.B. - those listed at only $100 million don't make the cut), three of which are in the U.S. These are the modern-day equivalents of the magnates' great estates we wrote about back in February.

Some recent market activity which regular Luxist readers will be aware of makes a new ranking imperative. For starters, last month Candy Spelling listed her Holmby Hills mega-mansion at $150 million, making it the world's most expensive estate. Then just last week a mansion at No. 10 Belgrave Square in London hit the market for around the same price - £100 million, or about $149 million (depending on exchange rates), while a second Belgrave Square property finally completed renovations and has been listed at £80 million, or about $120 million.

We also received confirmation this week that an incredible 40-room private mansion in Paris' Place des États Unis (above), built in 1890, has been listed at €105 million, or about $138 million. Fleur de Lys, whose "world's most expensive" status (though not its "legendary estate" status) was also usurped by the $135 million Manaplan Residence in Palm Beach now languishes in 5th place (sorry, Mariah).

Here is our new ranking of the world's most expensive estates (in terms of current verifiable listings), all members of the Hundred Million Club:

1. The Manor - Holmby Hills, CA: $150 million
2. No. 10 Belgrave Square, London, UK: $149 million
3. Place des États Unis, Paris, France: $138 million
4. The Manalapan Residence, Palm Beach, FL: $135 million
5. Fleur de Lys, Beverly Hills, CA: $125 million
6. No. 31 Belgrave Square, London, UK: $120 million
7. Updown Court, Surrey, UK: $110 million

Madonna has signed a contract to buy a four-story brick townhouse on East 81st Street in NYC for about $40 million, sources tell the New York Post. Reminiscent of a London townhouse, the 12,000-sq.-ft., 26-room classic Georgian residence (above) is notable for its extraordinary 57-foot width, making it one of the widest houses on the Upper East side. It features 13 bedrooms, 14 baths, a 3000-sq.ft. garden bordered by tall trees, rhododendron bushes and roses, and has a double-car garage, another Upper East Side rarity.

The historic mansion features a 38' x 22' drawing room with tall south windows overlooking the garden, a paneled dining room off the garden terrace, an intimate library, 11' ceilings, 9 fireplaces, a Georgian staircase, an elevator, a wine cellar with a grotto, and space for a rooftop garden. A portion of the townhouse, which currently functions as separate living quarters with its own entry, can be combined with the main residence and probably will be.

Madonna plans major renovations including significant security upgrades. "The townhouse is perfect for Madonna," a source tells the paper. "She's trying to recreate London in New York City, and this is in the style of a London townhouse." Meanwhile, the pop star is said to be searching for an English country house-style estate in the horse country of the East End of Long Island or Westchester, north of the city. As we reported recently, she has also been renting a mansion in Palm Beach.

In a recent Classicist column on magnates and their mansions we discussed the famed Hearst Castle at San Simeon, one of the most lavish private residences ever constructed. Now in a beautiful new book due out May 1, Victoria Kastner focuses on the equally impressive estate itself, which encompasses 120 acres of luxuriant gardens and 450 square miles of pristine coastland, that belonged to William Randolph Hearst.

In Hearst's San Simeon: The Gardens and the Land, Kastner, Hearst Castle's historian, draws on many anecdotes from famous visitors - Hollywood celebrities, literary figures, and politicians flocked there - and examines the varied artistic influences contributing to San Simeon's design and the recent efforts that preserved its surrounding land from commercial development. It features Victoria Garagliano's stunning color photographs, plus historic images and original drawings.

The book (above) is available for pre-order on Amazon.

A mansion in London's posh Belgrave Square has hit the market for £100 million, or about $150 million, tying it with Candy Spelling's The Manor in Beverly Hills for the title of the world's most expensive estate (in terms of current listings). The six-floor, 21,000-sq.-ft. white-stucco-fronted building has 12 bedrooms, 20-ft. ceilings, a basement swimming pool, gym, media room, and every imaginable luxury fitting. The property has been gutted and revamped by Lebanese developer Musa Salem, the London Times reports.

Across the Square another house has recently come on the market for £80 million, or about $120 million. The eight-bedroom, 20,000-sq.-ft. house is being sold by Saudi Arabia's Juffali family, following the death of its owner. Belgrave Square is also home to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the Emir of Dubai, as well as several embassies. The Square was built for the 2nd Earl Grosvenor, later the 1st Marquess of Westminster, in the 1820s and is one of the grandest in London.

Caustic radio personality Don Imus has just listed his waterfront Westport, Connecticut estate (above) for $30 million. The 10,000-sq.-ft. white clapboard "Greco-Georgian" Revival mansion features 16 rooms including six bedrooms and six baths, with classic white-painted wooden interiors, a library, and multiple bay windows, the Wall St. Journal reports. The four acre property also has a two-bedroom guest house and a two-bedroom gatehouse with parking for six cars.

The estate boasts 215 ft. of sandy beach frontage on Long Island Sound. Imus, 68, bought the property in 1997 for $4.6 million and finished building the house in 2000. If he does manage to get $30 million for it, he'll beat the price record for Westport - the tony town known for famed resident Martha Stewart - held by the $25 million sale in 2006 of talk-show host Phil Donahue's house, the Journal notes. The listing is here.

Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

Move over Fleur de Lys: Candy Spelling's legendary massive 123-room Holmby Hills mansion has officially hit the market with a record-breaking asking price of $150 million. That's $25 million more than the Beverly Hills behemoth Mariah Carey is said to have made an offer on recently, and officially makes the Spelling mansion, called "The Manor," the world's most expensive estate in terms of current listings, the Wall St. Journal reports. The 57,000-sq.-ft. mansion, which has at least 11 bedrooms and 16 baths, was built by TV producer Aaron Spelling on the site of Bing Crosby's former estate, which they razed .

Features include a bowling alley in the basement, a beauty parlor and a barber shop in the 17,000-sq.-ft. attic, a gift wrapping room, doll museum, a home gym, a wine cellar and wine tasting room, a humidity-controlled silver storage room, a china storage room, and a screening room where the screen rises up out of the floor with paintings moving up to reveal the projector, the Real Estalker reports. The gated grounds encompassing five acres include a motor court with a fountain, covered parking for dozens of luxury cars, formal gardens including a rooftop rose garden, a swimming pool and spa complex and of course a tennis court.

Embattled pop star Rihanna is recovering from the recent Chris Brown debacle by shopping for a brand new Los Angeles mansion, according to reports. She's eyeing a lavish Hollywood Hills house formerly owned by Jerry Seinfeld, on the market for $6.25 million, E! Online reveals.

The 5,913-sq.-ft. mansion has three bedrooms, five baths, a pool and hot tub, and and a hilltop view of Tinseltown. "She wants a home with a great view," the star's real estate agent Russell Filice told E!. "She hasn't made any decisions on anything yet. I think it's early on in the process."

The Real Estalker reports that Rihanna also scoped out a five-bedroom, four bath house on Sunset View Drive that measures over 5,000-sq.-ft. and has an asking price of $4.495 million. It features a mirrored wet bar in the living room, an infinity edged pool looking out over the lights of L.A., and Cameron Diaz as a neighbor.

TV star Simon Cowell obviously hasn't been much affected by the credit crunch; he's installing a private tanning salon in his brand new $22 million Beverly Hills mansion (above) so he can maintain the perfect bronzed appearance, the London Daily Mail reports. The paper got an exclusive look at plans for the lavish 11,550-sq.-ft. estate, which is due to be completed next week, and they revealed a solarium off the master bedroom complete with one full-length tanning machine and a smaller "booster" facial tanner. Cowell, 49, is reportedly worth $190 million.

He bought the property for $12 million nearly two years ago but razed the original structure to build what he has called his "dream home," the paper reports. The new modern mansion has 24-ft. tall windows in the living rooms with sweeping views over Los Angeles. Neighbors include Tom Cruise, Madonna, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and Victoria and David Beckham. "I've been involved in every aspect of the design of the new place, right down to the doorknobs," Cowell tells the paper. "I have other houses but this is my dream home."

Cowell and his ex-girlfriend Terri Seymour, who will have her own suite at the house, visited the property last weekend in his Bugatti Veyron and he later returned in his black Bentley convertible, the paper reports. The five-bedroom mansion also features a state-of-the-art gym in the basement, a luxury spa complete with wet steam room, and an indoor lap pool in addition to the solarium. The property has a separate staff quarters containing a servants' kitchen, and a source tells the paper Cowell will have a live-in butler and maid.

Other features of the estate include a custom-made media room with a marble bar area and plush leather seating for 20 in a private cinema. The pool cabana has a retractable roof, wet bar and changing rooms and there is a putting green at the rear of the property. Cowell s also building a $13 million vacation home in Barbados. His main UK property is an $11 million house in London's upscale Holland Park. He also owns a villa in Spain and a $1.5 million investment property on the Palm Jumeirah island in Dubai.

Pop diva Mariah Carey has reportedly made an offer on Fleur de Lys, the world's most expensive estate, which is listed at $125 million. The the palatial 15-bedroom mansion in Beverly Hills (above) was built by Texan billionaire David Saperstein. The five-acre estate is home to a 41,000-square foot French limestone mansion inspired by France's magnificent Vaux le Vicomte palace outside Paris. It features Italian marble walls, French limestone floors, gold-embossed leather wall coverings, gold-leaf crown moldings, a ballroom with ceiling frescoes, a library complete with rare books, two kitchens and a screening room with seating for 50.

Surrounding the mansion are rolling lawns, ornamental gardens and mature trees, a 3,000-square-foot manager's house, staff quarters for 10 people, a spa and pool with a pavilion, a championship tennis court, and a lavish garden folly. Contactmusic reports that after three months of house hunting Carey and her rapper / actor husband Nick Cannon have made an offer on the estate, for an undisclosed amount. "They like the home because there's so little that needs doing to it," a source close to the couple allegedly remarked. The house is currently owned by Saperstein's ex-wife Suzanne, whom he ditched for the childrens' hot Swedish nanny.