From the Real Estalker:
--Pete Sampras and his wife Bridgette cut the price on their Beverly Hills mansion from $25 million to $23 million. It seems to have worked. The home is now listed as "looking for backup."
----Actor Willem Dafoe has put his house in Accord, New York on the market for $850,000. It was our estate of the day on Saturday.
--Kimora Lee Simmons has put her Beverly Hills home on the market for $7.75 million. It is our estate of the day later today.
--Technology guru Halsey Minor, ho bought a Bel Air home for $20 million in 2006 now has put the home on the market for just $12.9 million. Why? Rumor has it that the much of the home as been stripped down and is empty and dirty. The listing is here.
--TV personality Debbie Matenopoulos and music executive Jay Faires have put their home, Wolf's Lair, shown at right, on the market. The Norman-style castle was built in the 1920s and includes a guest house with interiors by architect John Lautner, a heart-shaped pool and eight bedrooms total on the property. The couple reportedly bought in 2002 for $2.9 million and have now listed it at $7.5 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
-- Baseball pitcher Jaret Wright has sold his Dover Shores home in Newport Beach home for $1.67 million.
--Novelist Jackie Collins has eased out a Bel-Air area property she owns for $20,000 a month.
----Looks like Avril Lavigne has finally unloaded her home in the Mulhollland Estates area of Beverly Hills. the home which was first listed in March 2007 for $6.9 million has reportedly received a $5.2 million cash offer.
--Carla J. Christofferson, co-owner of the L.A. Sparks and a partner with the O'Melveny & Myers law firm, has listed her 5,300-square-foot Hollywood Hills home for $5.5 million. The restored 1928 California Spanish-style five-bedroom home includes a THX theater with a 96-inch projection screen. The virtual tour is here.

From Big Time Listings:
--Mr. Big Time takes a look at the real estate doings of Robert Downey Jr. and Hilary Duff.
--Actor and comedian Brad Sherwood has placed his four-bedroom house in Los Angeles' Encino area on the market for $4 million. The listing is here.
--Actor and movie director Michael Apted and his wife, writer Dana Stevens, have paid $1,784,000 for a three-bedroom house in Del Mar, Calif., in San Diego County.
--It's time to play "Which celebrity's house is this?" checking out a six-bedroom house in Brentwood which recently sold after having been on the market for $8,499,000.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Katie Holmes, who is set to appear in a Broadway show in the fall, is on the hunt for a rental on the Upper East Side, she's been spotted cruising apartments with monthly rates over $60,000.
--Entertainment lawyer Paul Schindler has sold his four-story co-op apartment on the Upper East Side for $16.5 million. He and his wife closed on a $13.4 million apartment at the Plaza.
--Ted Koppel has dropped the price of his Potomac, Maryland home. He first listed it in 2005 for $4.1 million and is now asking $1.94 million for the six-bedroom home which as an indoor pool, a gym with a sauna, maid's quarters and a horse barn.
--The Park Avenue apartment of the late socialite and philanthropist Frances Todman has sold for $22 million.
--From Page Six, Philip Seymour Hoffman and his girlfriend Mimi O'Donnell are buying a three-bedroom co-op loft n Manhattan's West Village that had been listed for $4.4 million. Big Time Listings unearthed the listing here.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--The New York State Court of Appeals has said that a shipping heir named Alistair Economakis and his wife, Catherine can proceed with their plans to take over 47 East Third Street, a a 15-unit, 60-room, 11,600-square-foot rent-stabilized tenement building and turn it into a luxury mansion without getting approval from the state's low-income housing agency. They bought the building and have taken over six apartments, which leaves nine units with tenants who've refused to get bought out.
--Nightlife king Simon Hammerstein has bought his first New York apartment, paying $1.27 million for a loft at 265 Water Street.
--Chinese pianist Lang Lang and his parents have picked up a duplex opposite Carnegie Hall, paying $1.895 million last month for a duplex at City Spire on West 56th Street.
--The brother of Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, the only president in Kazakhstan's 17-year post-U.S.S.R. history, Bolat Nazarbayev and his wife have paid around $20 million for a corner unit facing Central Park at the Plaza.
--Joy and Leonard Toboroff, the 74-year-old vice chairman of a Houston-based oil/gas-drilling outfit named Allis-Chalmers Energy are selling their duplex apartment that stretches across two Tribeca buildings, 39 and 41 North Moore Street with a list price of $17.9 million. The listing is here.

As some business jet services like MAXJet and Eos are folding, while fuel costs and other annoyances plague private plane owners, a company called Talon Air apparently sees nothing but clear skies ahead. The on-demand luxury private jet charter and management service just added the ultra-luxe Legacy 600 (pictured here) to its fleet in order to meet increasing demand. We asked Adam Katz, Talon's owner and founder (and full-rotation pilot) to explain his apparently incongruous bullish outlook.

"The luxury travel sector will continue to improve," Katz tells Luxist. "The absence of those jets in the market just increases the demand for ultra high-end services like ours. Operators providing safe, luxury travel with all the amenities that are associated with these services will continue to prosper." As for onerous tariffs, "The government's inclination to impose further taxes on the general aviation and corporate or luxury travel operators will not change the broad demand for high end services," he insists. "People will always be willing to pay a fair price for exquisite, safe and convenient travel."

The twin-engine Legacy 600 (see the gallery below) can accommodate up to 13-passengers in its plush, Wi-Fi equipped 6-ft. tall cabin. It cruises at a speed of up to Mach 0.80 and has a range of 3,250 nautical miles, enough to fly nonstop from New York to London, from London (or Geneva) to Dubai, and from Singapore to Beijing. And judging from the glowing testimonial on Talon Air's website, tennis ace Pete Sampras is a big fan.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Actor/musician Steven Van Zandt, who is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, and his wife, Maureen, have bid on a three-bedroom, three-bath penthouse in a former church on West Fourth Street. The apartment with stained glass windows has an asking price of $5.99 million.
--Actress Frances McDormand and her filmmaker husband Joel Coen have listed their Hudson Valley hideaway. The home on a country road in the town of Esopus, NY has three bedrooms, a screened porch and an old-fashioned kitchen. It is listed at $895,000. The charming home is shown above and the listing is here.
--The Russian Federation have purchased one of Manhattan's pricier townhouses for $35 million. The 25-foot-wide residence at 36 E. 75th St. was built in 1893 and has six bedrooms.
--The price has dropped on the 2005 Hamptons Cottages & Gardens Idea House. Hamptons C&G publisher Richard Ekstract and his wife, Eileen, have lowered the price of their eight-bedroom, 7,500-square-foot Bridgehampton mansion on 3.7 gated acres. It is our estate of the day later today.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Tobey Maguire has bought a 0.93-acre vacant parcel in Brentwood.
--Comedian Carlos Mencia has purchased actor Eddie Cibrian's Encino mansion which was listed at $4.395 million. Cibrian has paid $2.5 million for a mansion in Calabasas.
--Actor John Leguizamo has paid $5,750,000 for a town house in Manhattan's Washington Square area.
--Turns out that Mark Harmon did not buy a new place in Malibu, it went to someone else with a similar name.


From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
Dr. Marlene Krauss and her husband, Dr. Zachary Berk have paid $7.65 million for the triplex penthouse at the Claremont House, a 1980's-era condo on East 72nd Street between Park and Madison avenues. It was our estate of the day in December 2006 when it was listed at $8.995 million. The couple own the floor below the penthouse, and are combining the two units into a four-level apartment. The couple has put their 15th floor home on the market for $4.75 million to raise money for renovations. The listing is here.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--As the Real Estalker Mama previously reported, the movie producer Jon Peters is asking $39.5 million for four adjoining Beverly Hills parcels he bought in 1996 but never fully developed. The listing is here.
--Limited Brands marketing chief Ed Razek has bought an oceanfront villa in the Turks & Caicos. Thetvilla is in Dellis Cay, a 560-acre, residential development being constructed on a private island with a master plan by Pritzker prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid.
--Baseball player Steve Finley, has trimmed 3.4 acres from his home for sale and reduced the price to $13.95 million. The listing is on the Barry Estates website.

From the Real Estalker:
--Jessica Alba has paid around $4.05 million for a new Beverly Hills home.
--Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have been spotted house hunting in Los Angeles.
--Another huge estate hits the market in Los Angeles. The Singleton family has put their Holmby Hills home on the market for $85 million. The main home, designed by Wallace Neff is 15,520 square feet with 10 bedrooms. It is on over seven acres. The listing is here.
--Kate Hudson has reportedly been looking at real estate in TriBeCa.
--Producer Max Mutchnick and partner Erik Hyman are set to purchases a major estate in Hancock Park.
--Television writer Juanita Bartlett has put her Martha's Vineyard home on the market for $12.95 million. The listing is here.
--Writer and producer Aaron Sorkin recently picked up a beautiful home in the Sunset Strip area of Los Angeles for $6.1 million.
--Tennis star Pete Sampras and his wife actress Bridgette Wilson-Sampras have listed their Beverly Hills mansion for for $25 million. The listing is here.
Actor Harvey Fierstein has put his Brewster, New York home on the market for $749,900. The listing is here.
--via the London Sunday Times, the Toprak Mansion in London has been sold for £50 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--L.A. Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt who bought a Malibu home from Courteney Cox and David Arquette last summer have now bought the house next door for close to $19 million. The new home is California bungalow built in 1949.
--An heiress from Mexico named Jeanette Longoria has bought the Hollywood Hills home belonging to Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia, which Big Time Listings reported sold back in December for an asking price of $2.725 million.
--We've been following the story of the former home of Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, since 2006. It hit the market for $10 million but is now listed at just $6.9 million. The home has amazing details including prehistoric caves with dinosaur footprints, mineral shells and fossils. There are five bedroom suites,an espresso lounge with views of the Santa Cruz Mountains and a pet suite. The original website for the estate is here.

From the Malibu Real Estate blog:
--An interesting analysis of prices in the desirable seaside community

From AOL Real Estate:
--A list of the best cities to rent in.
--Yes, you really can get a house for $100K.