Real LI

Another home has changed hands on Centre Island, this time a 1914 waterfront compound with four-plus acres, a carriage house and a three-car garage with an apartment. The home has four bedrooms, 4 ½ baths and three fireplaces.

The estate had been listed for $5.8 million and sold in less than three weeks for $5.6 million.

Listing agent Carol Cotton of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty declined to comment on the sale.

There’s been a flurry of real estate activity on Centre Island in recent months. Notable deals include an $8.5 million dollar sale (the buyer is said to be radio host Sean Hannity) and a $12.5 million sale to Londoner Colin Buffin.

Billy Joel’s Middlesea is still for sale for $32.5 million, although the rocker recently switched his listing to Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas Elliman.

Baseball’s Edgardo Alfonzo has once again lowered the price on his home in Little Neck, this time to $5.8 million, according to the Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty Web site. The 14,000 square foot home originally went on the market at $8 million in 2006; the most recent price had been $6.1 million.

Public records show that Alfonzo paid $900,000 for the property in 1999 while he was still signed with the New York Mets. Extensive renovations were made to the home, including a $750,000 upgrade on the master bathroom. The home has five bedrooms, 5 ½ baths, batting cage, theater room and spa.

Alfonzo, currently a free agent, played with the Long Island Ducks in the 2007 season.

Hampton Style magazine’s current issue ventures west to the North Shore of Long Island with a feature on actress Cornelia Guest at her Old Westbury ancestral estate, Templeton. The home is full of remnants of a privileged and glamorous past, from equestrian trophies to priceless paintings by Salvador Dali and John Singer Sargent.

Guest, once dubbed the Debutante of the Decade by family friend Andy Warhol, is the daughter of Phipps heir Winston Guest and his wife, society doyenne C.Z. Guest. She recalls a string of notables who have visited there: "I remember the Duke and Duchess of Windsor coming all the time…for the weekend. Truman Capote was always here, Dr. Christiaan Barnard…Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. Prince Edward. The Kennedys. Halston. Oscar de la Renta had a permanent room here…Nureyev would come to stay; he'd be practicing ballet up in his room, and you'd hear him, through the ceiling, jumping up and down on the floor. Just a huge mix of people," Guest tells Hampton Style.

As REAL LI reported last month, Templeton is now for sale, listed at $20 million with Wendy Grant of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty. Guest tells the magazine, “I had a wonderful life here. The worst part about leaving this house is the dog cemetery; every dog I've ever owned is buried up there. That's sad for me, but I want the house to be open, the rooms to be used. People need to move on."

News Corporation chief executive Rupert Murdoch may have a new neighbor to carpool to work with. The house that conservative talk show host and Murdoch employee Sean Hannity was trying to buy has officially closed, real estate sources says. The 16-room mansion on Centre Island closed Wednesday. Hannity paid $8.5 million.

The Hampton-style mansion was purchased from a trust set up after a transfer of the property from Deborah Dolan, ex-wife of Cablevision’s James Dolan.

The home was listed with Peggy McCormack of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty. Regina Rogers of Prudential Douglas Elliman represented Hannity in the deal. Neither agent would comment.

The sale of this home proves that despite a real estate slowdown, homes will sell if the price is right, and Centre Island is no exception. The Hannity house had originally been listed at $13.5 million in 2006, then earlier this year was reduced to $10.5 million. Patricia Altschul’s Centre Island manse went into contract last year soon after a price reduction from $18.5 million to $15.8 million. It closed in March 2008 for $12.5 million to Londoner Colin Buffin. Murdoch also recently dropped the asking price for his nearby mansion from $14.8 million to $12.8 million.

One holdout in the pricing game is Billy Joel, whose Centre Island estate, Middlesea, has been on the market since 2006. It was originally listed at $37.5 million in 2006, with a price drop to $32.5 million in early 2007, but Joel has not reduced his asking price in more than a year now and the home remains unsold.

The asking price of the French Normandy-style estate in Oyster Bay known as Northwood has been reduced to $18 million. The 26-acre property is surrounded by a 114 acres of preserve. (Last year, Nassau County spent $11 million to save 33.5 acres of the property.)

The estate had been 900 acres about 100 years ago, when it was owned by banker Mortimer Schiff. He built a 120-room Tudor home on the property. His son, John, later replaced the mansion with the manor house there today.

"It is the most gorgeous piece of property," says Barbara Candee, who is listing Northwood with Margaret Trautmann on behalf of the Locust Valley office of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty.

The current owners renovated the house two years ago. There are 10 bedrooms, 10 baths and two half bath, as well as a Tudor-style coach house, 12-stall stable, a tennis house, indoor/outdoor har-tru courts, a pool and trails.

On Wednesday, George Ballantyne, senior vice president of Sotheby's International Realty, will address about 100 Daniel Gale brokers at Northwood. The topic will be "Building a Quality Culture." Earlier in the day he will speak to about 60 brokers at another of the agency's listings -- this one in Brookville for an asking price of $5.2 million.

The former Oyster Bay summer home of the late trend-setting Vogue photographer Horst P. Horst is on the market for $1.85 million. The one-story white house sits on five acres of what is left of Horst’s original 12 acres, purchased from the Tiffany estate for about $5,000 in the late 1940s. In a 1991 interview, Horst told The New York Times that he had sold an original Picasso painting to pay for the house.

Horst lived in the home until his death in 1999 at age 93. During his career, he photographed and partied with Salvador Dali, Noel Coward, Greta Garbo and Coco Chanel, all of whom visited him on Long Island. Hewas also responsible for many iconic advertising shots, some of which were taken in the garage at the home.

The house has four bedrooms, three baths and three fireplaces. Taxes are $18,052 per year.

David M. Haggerty and Angela Buzzerio of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty have the listing.

Move over, the Brits are coming to Centre Island.

Last year when Patricia Altschul’s estate Southerly went into contract, listing agent Barbara Candee of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty proclaimed the new owner to be a denizen of the United Kingdom and a “lover of boats.”

Although Candee would not comment further, REAL LI has confirmed the buyer is Londoner Colin Buffin and his wife Susan. Buffin is chief executive of Candover, one of Britain's largest private equity firms and a competitive yachtsman who was surely lured by the property’s deep water dock.

The deal closed March 20. The latest asking price had been $15.8 million. The home sold for $12.5 million. The 10-acre estate had been on the market since 2006.

Altschul was travelling and could not be reached for comment. She is the wife of the late banker and philanthropist Arthur Altschul. His daughter is CBS contributing correspondent Serena Altschul.

Now that Southerly has sold, maybe there is hope for neighbor and Newsday-wannabe-owner Rupert Murdoch, who is listing his nearby estate for sale at $12.8 million. Billy Joel is also still trying to sell Middlesea on the island for $32.5 million.

A young girl riding a scooter with her mother at Heckscher Park in Huntington today stopped at a whiskey barrel planter with writing on the side.

"Isn't this the sailor people who sell houses?" she asked.

Her mother said it wasn't, and moved her along.

Thanks to the picture of the whale painted on the planter, Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty apparently got some props from the tween set.

Heiress, actress and socialite Cornelia Guest has put her 15-acre Old Westbury estate on the market for $20 million. Public records show that the property includes a two-story brick Colonial home built in 1924, with 9 ½ baths and 5 fireplaces. The grounds include a pool, tennis courts, and a greenhouse. The home is listed with Wendy Grant of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty.

Guest is the daugther of the legendary garden writer, equestrian and society doyenne, C.Z. Guest, who died in 2003. The family moved to Old Westbury in 1968, after selling 150 acres in Brookville that is now the De Seversky Center of the New York Institute of Technology.

Guest became famous in the 1980s as the blueblooded beauty who was dubbed “debutante of the decade” by Andy Warhol, once dated Sylvester Stallone, and was a regular at Studio 54, along with friends-relatives, Richard and Robert DuPont. She is also related to Winston Churchill, who was her father’s cousin.

These days, Guest has become better known for her philanthropic and fund-raising efforts in support of causes like the Humane Society of New York.

Conservative talk show host and Long Island native Sean Hannity is in contract to purchase a 16-room Centre Island Colonial mansion, real estate sources tell RealLI. The home is currently listed under a trust named “2002 JLD Childrens,” which was set up after a transfer of the property from Deborah Dolan, ex-wife of Cablevision chief executive James L. Dolan.

Hannity, who grew up in Franklin Square and delivered Newsday as a boy, now lives in Lloyd Harbor. The new home in Centre Island is not far from one that his Fox News boss, Rupert Murdoch, has on the market for $12.8 million. Billy Joel is also trying to sell his mansion, which has an asking price of $32.5 million.

The Hampton-style house was built in 2005, and includes seven bedrooms, 7 1/2 baths, seven fireplaces, lighted tennis courts and a gunite pool. The property sits on 6.22 acres and includes 500 feet of water frontage. The taxes are $94,526 per year. The home is listed with Peggy McCormack of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty.

The latest listing price is $10.5 million.

Hannity's publicist declined to comment. McCormick and Regina Rogers of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, who is supposedly representing Hannity in the deal, could not be reached for comment.

In the meantime, the NY Radio message board is abuzz that Hannity might be leaving ABC Radio in the next 60 days. "He apparently is building a home studio and may do the show from there via a different syndicator such as Fox," according to a post. That studio is being built at the Centre Island home, a real estate source tells RealLI. "He is supposed to close in about a week and a half, but isn't going to move in until he builds a studio on the property," the source says.

Powerhouse broker Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate now has the listing for Billy Joel's "Middlesea" estate in Centre Island. The 14,000-square-foot house is listed for $32.5 million. Lenz describes the property on her site as a "magnificent Tudor-style waterfront manor ... sited on over 14 acres of rolling lawns and naturalized landscaping." The estate "boasts 1,550 feet of direct waterfront that affords mesmerizing water views from every vantage point." Apparently "Oprah" designer Nate Berkus not only did up Joel and wife, Katie Lee's place in the West Village, as we discovered this week on the show. According to the Prudential listing, Berkus designed the living room here, too.

The property includes a gym, indoor and outdoor pools, a gourmet kitchen, a tennis court, a bowling alley, a guest cottage, a music room, a smoking bar and a wine cellar. There are threef buildings, with a total of 24 rooms, including eight full baths and five half-baths. There are 13 fireplaces.

Annual taxes are $208,463.

Joel last had the house listed with Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty for $32.5 million. The listing lapsed last year, although word was that he still wanted to sell it.

See more photos of the property here.

Art collector Marvin Schein has put his 1928 waterfront brick chateau in Glen Cove on the market for $17.5 million. The mansion is located on almost nine acres of beachfront property, with views of the Long Island Sound and a private lake. There are two cottages and a greenhouse on the property.

Taxes are $102,872 a year.

Schein is a member of Henry Schein Inc.'s board of directors. After taking over day-to-day responsibilities of the medical products distributor in 1971 from his father, Henry Schein, Marvin Schein modernized the warehouse operations. He founded the Schein Dental Equipment Company, a subsidiary.

Schein has an extensive art collection. In 2006, Schein sold Amedeo Modigliani's "Jeanne Hebuterne (au Chapeau)" at a Sotheby's auction for $30.1 million. The price was the second highest Modigliani painting ever auctioned. He bought the painting in 1997 for $8.7 million.

Bonnie Devendorf of the Locust Valley office of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty has the listing.

The price on a 16-room Centre Island Colonial mansion, originally listed in late 2006 for $13.5 million, has been lowered to $10.5 million.

The home is currently listed under a trust named "2002 JLD Childrens." Public records show that the previous owner was listed as Deborah Dolan, whom real estate sources tell REAL LI is the ex-wife of James L. Dolan, chief executive of Cablevision Systems Corporation.

The Hampton-style house was built in 2005, and includes seven bedrooms, 7 ½ baths, seven fireplaces, lighted tennis courts and a Gunite pool. The property sits on 6.22 acres and includes 500 feet of water frontage. The taxes are $94,526 per year.

The home is listed with Peggy McCormack of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty.

Despite the downturn in the housing market, the co-listing agents of the Estates at Green Fields in Old Brookville pulled out all the stops for an open house last week. NUVO, a new sparkling vodka, was served at the cocktail party inside a Hamptons-style Colonial at the development. Organizers from Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty and Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate also arranged for the latest Jaguar to be on display. Representatives of Wells Fargo and Preferred Mortgage were on hand to discuss financing with prospective buyers. The development used to be called the Estates at Green Fields.

Photo by Patrick McCarthy

This Glen Cove estate was built for Lydia Pratt, a daughter of Charles Pratt, who founded Standard Oil, for her wedding to philanthropist Frank Lusk Babbott. The asking price is $4.2 million.

Built in 1890, the 6,895-square-foot house has views of the Long Island Sound and backs the Welwyn Preserve. The Georgian-style white clapboard house has seven bedrooms, six bathrooms and two half-baths. "The house is different than the other Pratt estates because it is not brick," says Carol Cotton, who is listing the property on behalf of the Locust Valley office of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty. The 6.09-acre property has been approved for a three-lot subdivision.

Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty agents can take potential buyers through Billy Joel's Centre Island home, a source within the firm tells RealLI. The agents were notified this week by e-mail that "they got permission to show it again." Joel let the listing on the $32.5 million house lapse last year, although word was that he still wanted to sell it. Last year he also bought two oceanfront homes in Sagaponack.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has chopped $2 million off the asking the price on Rosehearty, his 5-acre waterfront estate on Centre Island.

The 10,000-square-foot Colonial home went on the market last June for $14.8 million. The new asking price is $12.8 million. Despite the price drop, Murdoch and wife, Wendi, still stand to make a $5 million profit on the home; they purchased Rosehearty in 2003 for $7.8 million.

The home has 11 bedrooms, 7 ½ baths, and seven fireplaces. There’s also a pool, tennis courts and 260 feet of beach frontage. Listing agent Barbara Candee of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty says that the price reduction, "has been made to prepare for the spring market which is now upon us."

Move over, Forest Hills Gardens: Douglaston is giving you a run for your money. According to the Real Deal, in 2006 Douglaston was home to five of the 10 priciest residential real estate deals in the borough of Queens. It's too early to tell yet, but if one recent closing is any indication, the 2007 numbers should stack up nicely.

In November, Anna Carlucci of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty sold a waterfront Colonial in the tony Douglaston neighborhood of Douglas Manor for $5.3 million. Carlucci says the Shore Road home “obtained one of the highest selling prices in the area.”

Carlucci is currently listing another Douglas Manor gem, a 1910 Colonial designed by famed furniture maker Gustav Stickley, a major figure in the American Arts and Crafts movement. The Prospect Avenue home is listed for $2.595 million. Carlucci says that many of the original Stickley details remain, including light fixtures, door handles and built-in bookcases. Carlucci says that one light fixture alone has been appraised at $20,000 by the Sotheby’s auction house.

This Gustav Stickley-designed home in Douglas Manor is for sale for $2.595 million. Another home sold in the neighborhood for $5.3 million in November.

The Glen Cove townhouse-style condo where retired teacher Denice Fox was murdered remains on the market for $899,000. The three-bedroom, 3.5-bath unit at 7 Willada Lane in the gated community of Cove Landing went on the market a year ago. Fox and her husband, Jay Fox, bought the condo in 2005 for $990,000. It has soaring ceilings, and access to a private deck from the master bedroom on the first floor. "I feel a warmth at the house," daughter Rebecca Fox told Newsday in December. "I feel the love that she had when she was there." Lillian Haug, who is listing the property on behalf of the Sea Cliff office of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty, is holding an open house of the property Saturday and Sunday by appointment only. A virtual tour of the house can be seen by clicking here. To read about the case, click here.

Newsday photo / Dick Yarwood

Should Billy Joel decide to put his Centre Island estate back on the market, he's now got more competition: The Hamptons-style waterfront home of Lowe Worldwide chief executive officer Stephen Gatfield has been listed for $11.25 million. The Centre Island home is next to Southerly, which is owned by Patricia Altschul, wife of the late banker and philanthropist Arthur Altschul (Arthur Altschul's daughter is CBS contributing correspondent Serena Altschul). That house, listed for $15.8 million, is in contract to a boat-loving United Kingdom native. A Brit, Gatfield is returning to London with wife, designer Eliza Tepper Gatfield, because of his frequent need to travel to the Far East. Morning Tide, as the 8,000-square-foot house is known, has "a slightly more angled view" than Southerly "looking more toward the Long Island Sound," says Barbara Candee, who is listing the property on behalf of the Locust Valley office of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty. The custom designed house, completed in 2005 on 3.5 acres, has seven bedrooms and 5.5 baths, a tennis court, a wine room, a gym, a pool and a pool house warmed by a fireplace. "It's really a beautifully crafted home," says Candee, who is also representing Southerly as well as the nearby $14.8 million home of publisher Rupert Murdoch. Daniel Gale once represented Joel's $32.5 million home, which the singer took off the market last year.

At The Pierre hotel in Manhattan last Wednesday, agents with Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate and their guests ate, drank and danced to a live band in the ornate ballroom, while banks of food, from sushi to chocolate maltballs, waited in side rooms with murals on walls.

“There’s a woman with two legs,” said a senior official from the real estate agency, and along came a woman dressed like an 18th century French aristocrat, standing inside the middle of a table, decorated like a puffed-out skirt. As she walked around, the table rolled with her, and celebrants picked h’ordeurves off the table top.

Despite a slowing market, some of Long Island’s biggest real estate companies showed they can really party.

How about dancing cages at the party thrown by Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates?

“I have agents in their 70s dancing in the cages,” said Elliott, founder of the Woodbury-based agency.

The cages weren’t hanging from ceilings but rested on platforms at the Pine Hollow Country Club in East Norwich, where Elliott usually has his monthly office meetings. Each year, the broker books the cages and finds that the agents he least expected to go wild – the mild-mannered types during the work day – are the ones who really groove behind bars.

This year, Elliott even booked a Rod Stewart look-alike to perform, complete with sunglasses.

Just before the holidays each year, Elliott has to ask himself a tough question – how can he top last year’s holiday party?

For Brown Harris Stevens, festivities took place under a recognized New York City landmark, Gustavino’s, an architecturally-striking catering space under the 59th Street Bridge in Manhattan.
A trio of brokers, all once professional singers, performed and company president Hall Willkie, according to one report, rarely left the dance floor.

Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty took over The Carltun at Eisenhower Park, where a 10-piece band and two bars – martini and raw - entertained close to 500 people. In the Palm Court, a guitar duo played for those who wanted to hear each other talk and be merry at the same time.

The backdrop to food were ice carvings, including one in the shape of the world’s largest animal. As one guest joked, “Everyone had a whale of a time.”

Newsday photo by J. Conrad Williams. Monique Van Vooren at her Bayside home in 2007.

Actress Monique Van Vooren has switched real estate agents for her home on Oakland Lake in Bayside from Bellmarc Realty to Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty. Veronica Raehse, who had previously co-listed the property for Bellmarc says that Daniel Gale will be the fourth agency to handle the property.

One reason for the switch may be that while Bellmarc represents homes outside Manhattan, it specializes in listing in that borough. Daniel Gale is known for representing homes on the North Shore of Long Island and in areas like Douglaston, Bayside and Little Neck in Queens.

Belgian-born Van Vooren, who starred in the 1973 cult classic, "Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein" had listed her lakefront mansion last summer with Bellmarc for $1.995 million. The Daniel Gale listing for the home shows a slightly higher price of $2.095 million.

The Mediterranean style dwelling was built in 1935, and was originally owned by Van Vooren’s late husband, Gerard Purcell, who was at one time manager for musician Al Hirt, writer Maya Angelou and comedian Jay Leno.

In August, Manhattan-based Van Vooren told Newsday that she renovated the house with interior designer Geoffrey Bradfield. Van Vooren said the home was, "an Old World gem," with its vaulted ceilings, wrought iron doors and full-length leaded windows. "You couldn’t reproduce it today," Van Vooren said.

Here's one solution to a slow market -- advertise on billboards. For $550 a month, the Syosset/Muttontown office of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty features a listing for Manhattan-bound commuters on the Long Island Rail Roadt. This one, spotted over the weekend from a westbound train, is at the Syosset station. "We’ve been getting calls on them. We just love it," says broker Kathleen Pisani, whose $2.9 million Muttontown listing is currently the feature. Apparently, all 14 Daniel Gale offices are using billboards across their territory to get an edge on the market. They used to compete for the prized space by drawing names out of a hat, but now listings are taken on a first-come, first-served basis, says an advertising coordinator for the firm.

Former Newsday publisher Raymond Jansen's waterfront Lloyd Neck estate is now on the market for $2,395 million. The five-bedroom, two-bath farmhouse, a former tavern built in 1794, first appeared for sale after Jansen retired in 2004. The asking price was $2.795 million. The listing had been off the market. It was relisted two weeks ago, says Margaret Hargraves, who is co-listing the property with Peggy Moriarty on behalf of the Cold Spring Harbor office of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Reality. The house had once been the site of the oldest black oak in the United States. It is believed to have been there since 1450. Last year, it was felled the remnants of tropical storm Ernesto.

A source has told Newsday that the Crown Prince of Dubai has made an offer of $15 million for the 1916 Glen Cove Beaux Arts mansion known as Winfield Hall. The mansion, originally built by businessman F.W. Woolworth, is now owned by Martin Carey, brother of former Gov. Hugh Carey. Carey is said to have rejected the offer.

Nancy Donin of Prudential Douglas Elliman, who is listing the 16.39-acre estate, denies the report. “It is not the Prince of Dubai,” Donin tells Newsday. “There was an offer, and it was a lot more than $15 million. It is still being negotiated.” The current asking price is $19.5 million.

The Woolworth house had been a Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty listing.

The folks at Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty received accolades for Best Overall Marketing Package at an international luxury real estate conference held earlier this month in Vancouver.

The Daniel Gale marketing team, under the direction of senior vice president James P. Retz, has recently revamped the firm’s website and expanded Premier Properties, the firm’s bi-monthly marketing guide, and included a browseable version of the publication on its website.

The 12th Annual Luxury Real Estate Membership Conference of LuxuryRealestate.com was attended by more than 250 brokers and agents from six countries.

Left to right, Abby Sheeline, marketing coordinator; Richard Gomez, graphic designer; James P. Retz, senior vice president, marketing and technology; Katherine Robinson, marketing and direct mail specialist; Gina Stival, graphic designer; Susan Goldson, marketing director.

The new owner of the 10-acre Centre Island estate known as Southerly hails from the United Kingdom, and is "a lover of boats," says listing agent Barbara Candee of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty.

The property, which has a deepwater dock, currently belongs to Patricia Altschul, wife of the late banker and philanthropist Arthur Altschul. His daughter is CBS contributing correspondent Serena Altschul.

The listing price for the mansion was $15.8 million. Candee did not reveal the selling price, but says that the transaction will close sometime in 2008. "It is a very happy outcome," she says. "The homeowner has been lovely and patient in this marketplace." The estate had been on the market for a little over a year.

Altschul's neighbors include Billy Joel and Rupert Murdoch, who have had their homes on the market this year.

Looks like Southerly, Patricia Altschul’s 10-acre Centre Island estate, has a buyer.

The home is now listed as “under contract” on the Web site of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty. No word on the selling price, but the asking price had been $15.8 million for the better part of this year. The estate went on the market in 2006 at $18.5 million.

Altschul is the wife of investment banker and philanthropist Arthur Altschul, who died in 2002. He was the father of CBS contributing correspondent Serena Altschul.

The 10,000-square-foot, eight-bedroom Georgian-style home was decorated by Mario Buatta, whose client list has included Mariah Carey and Barbara Walters. The property overlooks Oyster Bay Harbor and comes with a deepwater dock, a private sandy beach and a two-bedroom cottage with its own fireplace.

Altschul's neighbors include Billy Joel and Rupert Murdoch, who have had their homes on the market this year.

The former Mets All-Star infielder and current Long Island Duck Edgardo Alfonzo has lowered the price of his Little Neck house -- complete with basement batting cage -- to $6.1 million. The 14,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, 5½-bath mansion has deluxe detailing throughout, including a master bathroom made of white- and gold-colored onyx. That bathroom alone cost $750,000 to build. The home was most recently listed with Peggy Moriarty of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty for $7.6 million.

Glen Cove designer Greg Lanza might have staged this Oyster Bay Cove house. But did he need to? Built in 1993, the 12,000-square-foot Contemporary features a lighted tennis court, an indoor pool with sauna and lots of style. "It's very cool ... very sleek," says co-listing agent Deborah Hauser of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty. Price: $3,999 million.

Billy Joel's Centre Island listing with Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty has expired. See the story here.

This 1929 Muttontown house has some pedigree: It was designed by the architectural firm of Delano & Aldrich, whose partner, Wiliam Delano, also designed nearby Oheka Castle. The Georgian manor, which includes seven bedrooms and 6.2 baths (as well as a two-bedroom brick cottage) is listed for $6.1 million with Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty.