Real LI

Record producer Ric Wake’s former Cove Neck estate sold for $3.05 million, public records show. The sale of the home on Tennis Court Road closed May 28th. Wake owned the 4.18-acre property until November 2008, when the bank reclaimed it at auction in Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola. Wake had tried to sell the property himself, listing it at $6.5 million in 2007. The most recent price asked by the bank was $4.99 million.

Wake is known for his work with such musicians as Clay Aiken, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and Long Islanders Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. Tennis star John McEnroe and his former wife, actress Tatum O’Neal, at one time lived in the carriage house on the compound.

The property was listed with Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate’s Barbara Brundige, who told RealLI in May that the new owners would be using the property as a family compound.

Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Enzo Morabito reports that last weekend’s online auction on Hamptonsauctions.com was such a success that he plans on doing it again the weekend of July 18 and 19.

“It was fabulous,” Morabito told RealLI, adding that there were 36 bids on one property alone. That property, a half-acre tract on Shinnecock Bay in Hampton Bays, started with a minimum bid of $249,000. The property, which is being sold as part of a bankruptcy sale, went for considerably more at auction. “We drove it up to $399,000,” he said.

Morabito said that his auctions appeal to consumers in their 30s to 50s. “Buyers now are so computer-savvy,” he said, adding that interested customers can tour the homes through open houses before the online event. Morabito said he has plans to expand the online auctions to other areas on Long Island and already has auctions planned for properties in Newport, R.I., and Greenwich, Conn.

The upcoming auction features a Wainscott home on East Gate Road with a minimum bid of $650,000. “It is the best-priced property in the Hamptons. The house needs work, but it's the most affordable home in the area,” Morabito said.

One 6.2-acre parcel in Wainscott is an estate sale. Another, a half-acre property on Shinnecock Bay in Hampton Bays, is a bankruptcy sale. The other — a contemporary on two acres in East Hampton, seen here — is a must sell.

They're all part of a two-day online auction that starts June 27 at hamptonsauctions.com.

There are minimum bids on each property, but the highest bidder doesn't necessarily win. In the case of the vacant land, the courts have to approve any sale. And even in the case of the third, the buyer can decide to take any offer — or leave it.

But Enzo Morabito, the agent from Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate who is running the auction, says he is hopeful the event will create the exposure, momentum and sense of urgency the properties need. "It's a marketing technique," says Morabito, who will be holding open houses.

The opening bid on the Wainscott property is $899,000; it's off Montauk Highway, but "goes back three football fields," Morabito says. On the Hampton Bays property, it's $249,000; there are two lots, one of which will be difficult to build on because of environmental concerns, but the property is on a peninsula with incredible views, he says. And the minimum bid for the house in East Hampton is $1,399,000; the house also is off busy Montauk Highway but it is within the village and has been renovated, he says.

Morabito says he plans to start holding such "must-sell" auctions on a regular basis, and wants to expand to the rest of Long Island. "Basically these will be accelerated sales," he says. "There's a reason people are selling them."

Earlier this year, Morabito partnered with Prudential's Vincent Horcasitas for another online auction. Now Horcasitas also is holding his own: Bidding is now on for eight properties through July 12 at auctionsinthehamptons.com. Properties range from a newly constructed house in Water Mill (opening bid is $2.42 million) to 2.39 acres of vacant land in Southampton (opening bid is $599,000).

VALERIE KELLOGG

Baseball’s Edgardo Alfonzo has hit a home run … on his Little Neck mansion, that is. The former New York Met has gone into contract “for close to the asking price” of $3.8 million, says listing agent Nicholas Colombos of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

Colombos says that a Queens family has purchased the Meditteranean-style manse, and the closing is expected by mid-August. While Colombos would not divulge the details of the sale, he did say that the selling price reflected a record for the highest in the area for a single-family home. “The market is picking up,” Colombos says. “People are more confident and making offers.”

Alfonzo’s five-bedroom home originally went on the market in 2006 for $8 million. Records show that he purchased the property in 1999 for $900,000. The baseball player spent the next few years renovating the home with deluxe upgrades, including a $750,000 master bathroom. The basement also has a full batting cage.

The Alfonzo family has never moved into the residence, Colombos says. Alfonzo, who most recently played on the Long Island Ducks, signed a one-year contract with Japan’s Yomiuri Giants earlier this year.

- LAURA MANN

Baseball player Edgardo Alfonzo has once again lowered the price of his Little Neck mansion, according to the Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate Web site.

The former New York Met is now asking $3.8 million for the five-bedroom Mediterranen-style home. He has been trying to sell the home since he put it on the market in 2006 for $8 million. He recently had lowered the price to $4.3 million. Prudential’s Nicholas Colombus has the listing.

Alfonzo, who most recently played on the Long Island Ducks, signed a one-year contract with Japan’s Yomiuri Giants earlier this year.

- LAURA MANN

Even by Hamptons standards, these are big listings.

Judi Desiderio of Town & Country Real Estate is representing 8.98 of oceanfront property in Amagansett for $200 million. That’s about $22 million an acre. Desiderio tells REAL LI that the property is "raw, subdividable land on a pristine sandy beach."

Also in Amagansett, Neil Bersin of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate is representing 9.4 acres of vacant land in for $110 million. The property consists of four parcels on Montauk Highway, which are being sold as one package. Over five acres of that land is oceanfront property.

Bersin would not comment on the listing, other than to say that whoever buys it will be a person “with a very big checkbook."

Public records show the property belongs to Margaret and George Stankevich, who paid $1.7 million for the land in 1999. He is an investment banker and attorney whose clients include the Shinnecock Indian Nation.

- LAURA MANN

Lace up your skates and head over to Cliff Drive in Sag Harbor if you want a peek at hockey great Rod Gilbert’s four-bedroom, three-bath home, which has been listed for $2.395 million. There's an open house from from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Gilbert played right wing for the New York Rangers for nearly 20 years and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1982.

Records show that he purchased the .21-acre property in 2007 for $650,000. The 3,000-square-foot home was built in 2008, and comes with a master bedroom with a Jacuzzi and waterside deck, fireplace and pool with waterfall. The home has views over Noyac Bay.

The listing agents are Richard Kudlak and Linda Casinover of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

If you’re not looking to buy, you may want to rent the home for the summer, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, for $79,000.

- LAURA MANN

Despite the economy, there are still folks who can afford to spend in the high six figures on a Hamptons rental. A 6.64-acre beachfront property in Sagaponack recently rented for the full asking price of $900,000 for Memorial Day to Labor Day, says listing agent Beate Moore of Sotheby’s International Realty. That home is owned by Joanne Corzine, ex-wife of New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who signed the property over to her in 2002 as part of their divorce settlement.

If you have about three quarters of a million dollars to spend, there is still time to score a high-end home, but the field is getting narrower. Jane Gill of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate says that while the market has been steady this year, in the last week or so, “all of a sudden it’s gotten fierce.” Gill says that there are probably “two good houses” in every price range left and that bidding wars have broken out over choice properties. Prices are generally lower than last year, she says, but clients can be more demanding; the client who “brings a check for the full asking price” will secure the best rental.

Gill is currently listing a six-bedroom, 7 ½-bath mansion on 15 acres on coveted Further Lane in East Hampton. The price for this summer rental is $750,000 for Memorial Day to Labor Day. Records show the home belongs to Taya Thurman, half-sister of actress Uma Thurman. British musician Sting is reportedly a former tenant.

Harald Grant of Sotheby’s International Realty is representing a Southampton beachfront home, shown here, designed by famed architect Norman Jaffe. The $750,000 summer rental has seven bedrooms and 6 ½ baths on 2.3 acres, accessible through private gates. The property has an oceanside Gunite pool and spa, Zen garden and a tennis courts. The home was completely renovated in 2007.

Also in Southampton, Noel Love of Brown Harris Stevens is representing a six-bedroom, six-bath, 4.9-acre estate with views of Heady Creek. The Memorial Day to Labor Day rental also has an asking price of $750,000. Love says that the home rents every year, and there’s been a lot of interest in the property. He says he expects that it will be booked before the July 4 weekend.

Over in Sagaponack, the town where Billy Joel owns two homes, John Healey of Town and Country Real Estate has a listing for another $750,000 summer rental: a seven-bedroom mansion that sits on 2 acres with a gym, media room, billiard room, sauna, steam, and spa. There’s even a pool with a waterfall.

— LAURA MANN

A luxury 11.5-acre estate in Bridgehampton known as Sandcastle has come on the market for $50 million.

The newly constructed 31,000-square-foot, three-story house is also on the rental market — for $500,000 for any two-week period in July or August.

The 14-bedroom, 19-bathroom house comes with a two-lane bowling alley, a heated gunite pool with an underwater stereo, a sunken tennis court, a disco and bar, virtual golf, a movie theater with a planetarium on the ceiling, a squash and racquetball court, a half-pipe for skateboarding, a rock-climbing wall, a DJ booth and recording studio, a Jacuzzi, and more.

As a rental, the property will come with a luxury car — either a convertable Ferrari or a Bentley, depending on what the client wants — as well as a chef, butler, full staff and maid service.

The house was constructed by builder Joe Farrell of the Farrell Building Company in Bridgehampton. "It's the first $50 million nonoceanfront house," he says.

"It wasn't built to sell," he says. "I built it for my family." But when he brought in brokers to see the house as a rental, they encouraged him to try selling it for $45 million to $55 million, he says. "That was the only reason we talked about selling it," he says.

Architect Michael Conroy of McDonough & Conroy Architects P.C. of Islandia and Kenneth Alpert of the Manhattan interior design firm KA Design Group worked on the house.

— VALERIE KELLOGG

If you fancy yourself a gentleman (or gentlewoman) farmer, you may want to check out this 18.69-acre compound in Old Brookville, which is now listed for $11 million.

Gold Coast Farm, listed with Barbara Brundige and Jyll Kata of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, has been the site of an equestrian center for years. The Colonial manor house dates from the 1800s and has eight bedrooms, a formal dining room, a reception room, a great room and five fireplaces. It is said that members of the Guggenheim and Post families once lived in the home. There are also several cottages and barns on the property, as well as stables and an indoor riding area. Possible subdivision of the property into eight lots is under review.

Brundige says that she is taking a dual approach to marketing the farm by contacting potential buyers in the riding community, and also closely following subdivision proceedings for the property.

— LAURA MANN

A Cove Neck estate once owned by Grammy-winning record producer Ric Wake is now in contract.

The 4.18-property was owned by Wake until last November, when the bank reclaimed it at auction in Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola. Wake had listed the home for sale in 2007 for $6.5 million; the most recent price asked by the bank was $4.99 million.

The home had been listed with Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate. Listing agent Barbara Brundige says she expects the sale to close by July 1. The new owners will use the property as a family compound, she says.

Wake has worked with musicians such as Clay Aiken, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and Long Islanders Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. He recently worked on a project with musician-composer Yanni.

Tennis great John McEnroe and former wife actress Tatum O’Neal at one time lived in the carriage house on the compound, when it was owned by McEnroe’s parents. They sold the property in 2000. The home was once featured in an episode of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm."

— LAURA MANN

It’s all fun and games in Roslyn Harbor. Behind this restored 1869 Victorian exterior lies a state-of-the-art home with a soundproofed music studio room, a game room and a gym. Among the 2.2-acre property’s English cutting gardens, you’ll find a skateboard area with ramps and jumps, and a heated, non-chlorinated Gunite pool with a poolhouse.

The seller, Michael Tunnicliffe, is a partner in the Los Angeles-based Filament Entertainment Group, a combination talent agency, entertainment, and branding and technology business, which lists singer and "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul as a business partner. He also is a private adviser to a number of musicians, entertainers and advertisers.

The asking price is $2.699 million, and is also available for rent for $11,000 per month.

Annual taxes are about $20,900.

Tunnicliffe says he’d be willing to make his marina space and boat -- a 23-foot Sea Ray Sunfast berthed at the Glen Cove Marina five minutes from the house -- available as part of a sale or rental.

Mollie Grossman of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, who is co-listing the property with Donna Ferrara, also of the Roslyn office, says the home is “like a London townhouse … It’s very European inside, Italian.” The 4,900-square-foot house, which has an additional 1,000 square feet in the fully finished basement, includes a Scavolini kitchen and an Hauge water purification system.

Grossman and Ferrara are sharing the rental listing with Eileen Heimer of the Glen Head office of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty.

- KRISTIN TAVEIRA

Two of the 17 Hamptons properties offered in an online auction have gone into contract, say the Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate agents who organized the sales event. One is a house in Southampton where the bidder had hit the reserve price — the lowest price acceptable to the seller; the owner of the other house, in Westhampton, accepted the highest bid even though it came in lower than the reserve price.

Vincent Horcasitas and Enzo Morabito also say that four buyers are vying for a Bridgehampton house that received 26 bids in the auction.

And that motel in the lineup? There are now six offers.

- VALERIE KELLOGG

Bidding ended last night in an online auction for marked-down Hamptons mansions. But did any actually sell?

Time will tell.

"It's not like they're buying the properties on the steps of the courthouse," Vincent Horcasitas of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said this morning. Although bidders for two of the properties hit the reserve price -- the lowest price acceptable to the seller -- negotiations are continuing today offline, he said.

And, "we're also negotiating a couple of other deals," said Horcasitas, who ran the auction with Enzo Morabito.

The auction for the 17 properties began March 13. Properties included houses, a condo, a motel and some vacant land.

There were about 50 bids on eight of the properties, and some received no bids at all, Horcasitas said. This newly constructed 5,500-square-foot five-bedroom, 6.5-bath home on one acre in Bridgehampton received 26 bids. The highest was for $1.865 million; the starting bid was for $1.7 million.

Horcasitas would not identify which of the houses might sell as a result of the auction because negotiations are still under way.

- VALERIE KELLOGG

Baseball’s Edgardo Alfonzo has switched brokers and lowered the price on his palatial home in Little Neck.

The five-bedroom Mediterranean-style mansion, which first went on the market with Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty for $8 million in 2006, is now represented by Nicholas Colombos of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate’s Manhasset and West 17th Street offices. The newest price is $4.3 million, Colombos says.

Colombos says he is hopeful there will be an offer soon. He says that in the month that he has had the exclusive listing, he has had at least nine showings of the property, and a few potential buyers have returned for a second or third look. Colombos says that the home “has great value because of the exceptional workmanship … there are no wood frames … it is all concrete ... it will last forever,” he says.

Alfonzo played with the New York Mets from 1995 to 2000, and most recently played for the Long Island Ducks. In February, Newsday reported that he had just signed a one-year contract with Japan’s Yomiuri Giants.

Folk artist Thomas Langan is selling the Roslyn Harbor compound that he owns with his wife, Penelope. The one-acre property on Glenwood Road is listed with Antonietta Rijo and Maria Young of the Manhasset office of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate for $2.9 million.

Annual taxes are about $26,207.

The three-bedroom waterfront home with its wraparound deck was built in 1860. The property includes a post-and-beam barn that serves as Langan’s studio and a boathouse leading to a 138-foot dock.

Scenes from Glenn Close’s television show “Damages” were recently filmed on the property. Commercials for Progresso soup and Folger's Coffee also were filmed here, as was the 1999 movie "Double Platinum" with Diana Ross and Brandy.

Langan’s works are in the private collections of luminaries such as John Cleese, Penny Marshall and Caspar Weinberger. He also has a work in the permanent collection of the Museum of American Folk Art in Manhattan.

- LAURA MANN

There’s been a price cut on Sagaponack Greens, the 41-acre property owned by Manhattan attorney and real estate investor Alan Schnurman. The property had been listed with Prudential Douglas Elliman for $64.5 million. It is now co-listed with The Corcoran Group’s Gary DePersia for $47 million, a 27-percent reduction in the asking price.

The property, which Schnurman purchased in 2005 for a reported $25 million, is also available in eight estate-like lots from 1.4 acres to 2.3 acres and ranging in price from $5.25 million to $5.75 million, says DePersia. “It’s the largest combination of land available in Sagaponack so close to the ocean. Nothing compares in size and quality,” DePersia says, adding, “It’s a great opportunity for someone to buy one or more lots, and build a good-sized house with pool and tennis courts, or build a family compound with house and guest house.” No matter how a builder positions a house on the land, DePersia says that each lot would afford “first-floor views” of the ocean.

The lots border a 25-acre agricultural preserve, and are within walking distance to the ocean. Ira Rennert’s 60-acre spread is a stone’s throw away.

Alan Schnurman is partner in the firm Zalman and Schnurman of 1800lawline.com.

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have brand-new neighbors -- themselves. Public records show that the superstar couple purchased the home next door to the one they already own in Brookville for $2.05 million.

The sale closed Dec. 19 on the 2.24-acre property. The deed is in Anthony’s name.

The five-bedroom, 4 ½-bath Colonial originally went on the market last March for $2.299 million with Regina Rogers of Prudential Douglas Elliman. The property shares estate gates with the home that Lopez and Anthony already own. The couple reportedly spent millions of dollars to fortify security and the gates to the estate prior to the birth of the twins, Max and Emme, last year.

At the time the house went on the market, Rogers told Newsday, “In order to access this house, you have to enter through the estate gates. I love the approach, and the long Belgian block-lined bluestone driveway."

The home that Lopez and Anthony had already owned was purchased by Anthony in 2000 for $3.7 million. It has been reported that J-Lo’s mom, Guadalupe, moved in with the couple last year to help out after the twins were born. Could this house be for her?

Read more about the Lopez-Anthony properties here.

If you’re driving through Nassau’s North Shore and think you see a jewel glistening on the horizon, it just may be La Bijou, a newly constructed 11,000-square-foot “chateau” in Old Brookville. The 7 bedroom, 4 ½ bath mansion was completed in 2008, and is listed with Maryam Amid of Prudential Douglas Elliman.

No expense was spared in the construction of the home, which has 21-foot ceilings with handmade plaster crown moldings, Swarovski light fixtures throughout, crystal chandeliers and 6,000 square feet of marble tile floors. The entry foyer includes a 23-foot dome, hand-carved solid mahogany door and a marble winding staircase with hand-forged iron and brass rails.

La Bijou’s amenities including a three-car garage, an office, library, pool cabana, au pair quarters, intercom and security system. The home also has some eco-friendly touches, including energy saving and heat efficient technologies, and the proposed landscape design calls for planting indigenous trees on the perimeter of the grounds.

The price for La Bijou is $11.5 million. That’s a lot of bling.

Looks like Billy Joel is still in a Centre Island state of mind, at least for now. The singer's $32.5 million mansion, Middlesea, which was until recently listed with agent Dolly Lenz, has disappeared from the Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Web site. Lenz could not be reached for comment, but a source close to Joel tells Newsday that the home has not been sold.

Joel purchased the home in 2002 for $22 million, and married wife, Katie Lee, there in 2004. He listed the Tudor-style waterfront mansion for sale in September 2006 with Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty for $37.5 million, later reducing the price to $32.5 million. In fall 2007, Joel's listing with Daniel Gale lapsed. Lenz began representing the property in March 2008.

Middlesea sits on 14.26 acres with 1,550 feet of direct waterfront. The home has eight full and three half baths, and 13 fireplaces. Designer Nate Berkus designed the living room for Joel and his wife.

Read more about the house here.

The Kennedys had their family compound, and now you can too.

An 18.64-acre property in Jericho, once part of the Underhill estate, is listed with Barbara Brundige and John Martin of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate for $8.44 million. The price was reduced earlier this week from $9.799 million.

Brundige says that several large families have already looked at the estate, which includes a seven-room guest cottage with a gym, a housekeeper's cottage, two barns (one with a half-court basketball court on the second floor) and a home office over a three-car garage with heated floors. The main house, Brundige says, has undergone a $1 million renovation. There's also a heated pool and a tennis court.

Brundige says the estate is "like an arboretum" with many plantings and a waterfall near the tennis court. The property was once part of a 100-plus acre estate owned by the Underhill family since the 1700s, when Jericho was still a Quaker farming village. In the late 1970s, 81 acres adjacent to this property were purchased by the Tilles Investment Company, which later sold 50 acres to the state, county and town for preservation.

The current owners purchased these 18 acres from the Underhill family. The property consists of one 14-acre parcel and one 4-acre parcel, development rights included, Brundige says.

Looks like Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony will be putting out the welcome mat for new neighbors soon. The house next door to the couple's home went on the market earlier this year for $2.299 million, listed with Regina Rogers of Prudential Douglas Elliman. It is now listed as “in contract” on the Prudential Web site.

The five-bedroom, 4 ½-bath white Colonial, built in 1972, sits on 2.24 acres. It is accessed through estate entry gates shared by the Lopez/Anthony compound. It’s been reported that prior to the birth of twins Max and Emme, the expectant couple spent millions to fortify the gates and improve security at their mansion next door.

In the meantime, it looks like Lopez and Anthony may be spotted on the North Shore more often, now that their Bel Air, Calif., mansion was just listed for sale. According to the celebrity real estate blog Real Estalker, they’ve listed their “French farmhouse estate” there for $8.5 million. The couple’s home in Brookville is a 10,000-square-foot home on Country Lane. Public records show that Anthony purchased the home in 2000 for $3.7 million.

A Cove Neck estate owned by Grammy-winning record producer Ric Wake was reclaimed by the bank at auction earlier this week in Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola, the court clerk's office confirms.

The "upset price" for the home had been set at $4.4 million. There were no bidders. The property is now owned by Bancorp Bank.

Wake, who has produced recordings for Brookville residents Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez and singer Mandy Moore, has had the home on the market for the past year, listed at $6.5 million. While the bank now has ownership of the property, it will still be represented by Prudential Douglas Elliman’s John Martin and Barbara Brundige, who could not be reached for comment.

Tennis great John McEnroe and former wife actress Tatum O’Neal at one time lived in the carriage house on the 4.18-acre compound, when it was owned by McEnroe’s parents. They sold the property in 2000.

The home was featured last year in an episode of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

An Art & Crafts home on Sag Harbor's historic Main Street is listed with Gioia DiPaolo of Prudential Douglas Elliman for $3.995 million. The five-bedroom, four-bath home was built circa 1920, and sits on .63 acres on a stretch that locals calls “Captain’s Row.” It is said to be one of a handful of village homes that have a "candlestick" fence.

The 3,000-square-foot house has a fireplace, a two-car garage, a heated gunite pool and a cabana. The home was completely renovated in 2004 by Bob Tortora, and featured later in a spread in Hamptons Cottages & Gardens magazine. Tortora also worked on late actor Roy Scheider's Sag Harbor house, which Scheider moved into after selling his Sagaponack property to Billy Joel.

Interior designer Lorraine Kirke has lowered the price of her East Hampton mansion to $11.5 million, according to the Sotheby’s International Realty Web site. The home has been on the market with Sotheby’s since early this year, and had been priced at $12.95 million. It had been listed last year with Prudential Douglas Elliman for $14.5 million.

The 7,000-square-foot, 11-bedroom home sits on 1.14 acres, has three fireplaces, a heated pool and a guest cottage.

Kirke owns the West Village Boutique Geminola. Her clients have included celebrities like Salma Hayek, Nicole Kidman and Sarah Jesisca Parker.

She is married to Simon Kirke, drummer for the rock band Bad Company.

Could the Hamptons be losing the shine in home prices?

Median closing prices for Hamptons and North Fork homes dropped a combined 9.2 percent in the second quarter compared to a year ago, even though spring is considered the strongest season for sales, according to a report commissioned by Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate. That means the median closing price is $817,500, compared to $900,000 the same time last year.

The decline was largely due to the Hamptons’ 11.8 percent drop from a year ago, because the North Fork saw closing prices go up by 13.1 percent in the same period, data showed.

“You have a contraction in credit, which diminishes affordability, and you have concerns over the financial services sector in the city, with Wall Street layoffs and bonus cuts,” said chief executive Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel, the Manhattan-based appraisal company that did the report. “Those have an impact on the bulk of the East End market.”

In those regions, figures show second-quarter prices going up by 3.5 percent from the previous quarter, not unusual with more buyers getting out when the weather warms.

The North Fork has been attracting more year-round residents with relatively cheaper prices than the Hamptons. In the second quarter, it had a $605,000 median closing price, versus the Hamptons’ median closing price of $970,000, the report said. That was a 17.8 percent increase from the previous quarter for the North Fork, versus the Hamptons’ 9.9 percent hike, data showed. North Fork homes sold faster and at smaller discounts than Hamptons homes, according to the figures.

Miller said North Fork price hikes may be a blip, because other indicators of real estate health were either flat or showed bigger discounts in prices as houses stayed longer on the market compared to a year ago. For example, it took an average of 133 days to sell a North Fork home during the second quarter, compared to 103 days a year ago.

Paul Brennan, Prudential’s regional director of the Hamptons, said the rich aren’t dropping $20 million easily any more.

“There’s plenty of people looking,” he said. “There’s plenty of activity, but there’s not seriousness about buying. It’s eerie — people out here with lots of money but they’re not spending it.”

The median closing price for the spring house hunting season went up .1 percent from the same time last year for most of Long Island and Queens, according to the second-quarter report commissioned by Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

The $445,450 median is not only a slightly higher than $445,000 median closing price for last year, it’s also higher than the $435,000 median closing price for the first three months of the year. That’s no surprise, considering housing sales warm up as the weather grows warm too.

It’s not clear if that year-over-year increase is a blip. The Multiple Listing Service of Long Island has been consistently reporting drops in median closing prices compared to a year ago.

The quarterly report, prepared by Manhattan-based appraiser Miller Samuel Inc., does not cover North Fork and Hamptons sales, which are done separately.

Hamptons Designer Showcase home, for sale for $12.5 million.

Sagaponack will be a hotbed of design ideas this summer when two world-class designer showhouses open, just minutes from one another.

Prudential Douglas Elliman is the real estate sponsor of this year’s Hamptons Designer Showcase, which kicks off with a gala preview on July 19 at 59 Farm Ct. in Sagaponack. The gala’s honorary chair is the “Prince of Chintz” Mario Buatta. The showcase runs through Aug. 31, with proceeds to benefit Southampton Hospital. The house itself is for sale for $12.5 million, co-listed by Bonny Aarons and Janette Goodstein of Prudential Douglas Elliman and Andrew Saunders of Saunders & Associates. The six-bedroom, 7 ½-bath home has many green features, including geo-thermal heat and solar panels.

At nearby 151 Sagg Main, the 2008 Hamptons Cottages & Gardens Idea House opens with a gala July 25. The 150-year old house, the former home of "From Here to Eternity" author James Jones, has been given a “green” makeover by developer ModernGreenHome and a retinue of architects and designers. Proceeds of the Idea House will benefit five East End charities, including the Peconic Land Trust, the Child Development Center of the Hamptons, Fighting Chance, The Nature Conservancy and The Retreat. The Idea House runs through Aug. 24.

Photographer Peter Beard and wife, Nejma, have gone private in their efforts to sell their five-acre Montauk estate, which has been on the market for nearly three years.

The couple have shared the blufftop property for two decades, listing it for sale in 2005 for $32 million with Linda Stein of Prudential Douglas Elliman. Stein was the “agent to the stars” who was murdered in her Manhattan apartment in October 2007. At the time of Stein’s untimely death, the Beards’ property was listed at $26 million. John Golden of Prudential co-listed with Stein.

Nejma Beard tells REAL LI that the estate was taken off the public market on Dec. 1, 2007, but that is indeed still for sale. “There is no hurry,” Beard says. “I am selling through personal contacts only now, and we have quite a lot of interest. However, I only want someone who is not a developer, who will respect the environment and will not despoil it as so many buying in Montauk have done.”

The property has a carriage house and several cabins, and is the last oceanfront parcel before the Montauk Lighthouse. Property records still bear the name of model Cheryl Tiegs, to whom Beard was once married. The Beards' neighbors include musician Paul Simon and J.Crew chief executive Millard Drexler.

Beard declined to provide details on the current asking price. Of her efforts to find the right buyer, she says, "It is a special and magical place ... One can only ever be a guardian to land, one has to respect it and pass it on to like minds. It is a true sanctuary and needs the right people."

The price has been lowered on Elaine de Kooning’s former studio in East Hampton. The 1.2-acre property went on the market early last year for $2 million. The asking price is now $1.6 million. The home has been used by a succession of creative types including de Kooning, abstract expressionist and scrap-metal sculptor John Chamberlain, and the current owner, abstract artist Richmond Burton.

The 2,500-square-foot studio is located in the Northwest Woods, has 20-foot ceilings and an additional 2,900 square feet of living quarters. It is listed with Josiane Fleming and Robin Kaplan of Prudential Douglas Elliman.

De Kooning was married to abstract expressionist icon Willem de Kooning in 1943. The couple separated in 1957 but never divorced. Elaine moved into this home in the late 1970s and designed and added the studio. Her husband maintained a separate residence in nearby Springs.

Elaine, who died in 1989 (Willem died in 1997), was known for her portraits, including a commissioned painting of President John F. Kennedy, and her "Bacchus" paintings, which Kaplan says were created in the studio.

Real estate developer and author R. Donahue Peebles, who purchased a 10.1-acre Bridgehampton compound last year for $5.39 million, has just added another East End home to his collection.

Florida-based Peebles will close next week on a $1.91 million, three-bedroom waterfront home in Sag Harbor, just minutes away from his current property. He acquired the house in an estate trust auction. Peebles plans to keep both homes, using the Sag Harbor place as a cabana and guest house, says Lori Barbaria of Prudential Douglas Elliman, who represented Peebles in the purchase of both his Long Island homes. He also owns homes in Coral Gables, Fla., and Washington, D.C.

Of the new property, Barbaria says, “It’s very hard to get a house in that location … They rarely hit the market.” Barbaria says that the house is perched high, affording panoramic views across to Shelter Island and Connecticut. “It’s on the only Sag Harbor waterfront that has a real beach in front of it.”

Peebles is the chairman and chief executive of the Peebles Corporation, a Miami real estate development firm. He is currently developing a $2 billion, 13-acre property near the Las Vegas Strip.

Peebles recently raised more than $300,000 in Miami for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. A source tells REAL LI that there has been talk of a possibility that Peebles will host another Obama fundraiser at his Bridgehampton home.

There’s been a price drop on Belle Meade, the Greek Revival mansion in Quogue once owned by Ford Models founders Eileen and Jerry Ford.

The 11-bedroom home originally went on the market with The Corcoran Group last year for $10.5 million. It is now listed with Michael Shaheen of Prudential Douglas Elliman for $8.999 million.

Belle Meade was built in 1906 and is attributed to architect Stanford White. The home is being sold by the heirs of the latest owners, Dr. Robert and Robin Cushing, whose daughter Hilary married at Belle Meade in 1985. The wedding, catered by Martha Stewart, was featured in Stewart’s 1987 book, “Weddings”.

Belle Meade sits on 3.5 acres enclosed by privet hedges. Amenities include a heated Gunite pool and a Har-Tru tennis court.

The new buzz on Shelter Island's Bumble Bee Manor is a drastic price reduction from $35 million to $21.9 million.

The 3.25-acre estate is a co-exclusive between Andrea Ackerman of Prudential Douglas Elliman and Harald Grant and Ingrid Brownyard of Sotheby’s International Realty. Built in 2005, the gated estate overlooks Coecles Harbor with 325 feet of open, expansive waterfront. The 10,000-square-foot cedar-shingle style main house has 16 rooms, a banquet-sized dining room and an elevator, office, fitness room and media room.

Ackerman says that in addition to the estate’s own deepwater dock that will accomodate a yacht, there is also a nearby association dock that can hold any overflow of boats when guests come to party. There’s a three-bedroom guest house, a Caribbean-style poolhouse with a glass cupola and an infinity pool that looks as if it disappears into the harbor.

Bumble Bee Manor first went on the market in 2006. Shelter Island's Shorewood Manor recently sold for $12.4 million after a drastic price reduction from $33 million to $22.4 million.

Dottie Herman, chief executive officer of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, will be honored June 21 at the 12th annual "Heart of the Hamptons" gala for the American Heart Association. The part-time Hamptonite will join honorees Robert McMahon, president of U.S. Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co., Inc., Dr. Michael Wolk, past president of the American College of Cardiology, and super model Christie Brinkley, whose Bridgehampton house is on the market with Prudential rival The Corcoran Group. WNBC newsman Chuck Scarborough will be the master of ceremonies for the event, which will be held on the grounds of the Hayground School in Bridgehampton.

Newsday file photo

Actress Kathleen Turner has once again lowered the price of her home on Bluff Road in Amagansett, listed with Rachel Thompson of Prudential Douglas Elliman.

In 2005, after splitting with her husband Jay Weiss, Turner put the home on the market for a reported $8 million, later taking it off the market and renovating it. Last year Turner again listed the six-bedroom home for $6.9 million. In January, REAL LI reported another price drop to $6.25 million.

The Prudential Elliman Web site now shows that Turner has lowered her price yet again to $5.9 million. Records show that the Oscar-nominated actress paid $488,500 for the home in 1990.

The 5,000-square-foot home was built in 1903 and overlooks a 25-acre preserve.

Dan's Papers recently reported that the house will be sold during the divorce proceedings.

Thompson could not be reached for comment.

The Hamptons meets pop culture in Paramount Pictures’ mega-hit, “Iron Man," starring Robert Downey Jr., who got married there, and Amagansett’s own Gwyneth Paltrow. During one scene, Paltrow’s character Pepper Potts rolls her eyes and tells Downey’s character Tony Stark that a painting he's about to buy is not from the artist’s “Springs” period as Stark thinks…it was painted in an area of East Hampton called Springs, where the artist had a studio.

This moviegoer's recollection of the dialogue is that Potts refers to a Willem DeKooning painting; a blogger at Dan’s Papers remembers it as a Jackson Pollock painting. Whether Pollock or DeKooning, both artists did have studios in Springs, and longtime connections to the Hamptons.

Incidentally, the 2,500-square-foot Springs former studio of DeKooning’s wife, Elaine, has been on the market since last year. The most recent listing price is $1.6 million, a reduction from the original $2 million asking price. The studio is listed with Josiane Fleming and Robin Kaplan of Prudential Douglas Elliman.

AP photo

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.

It’s hard to imagine what you could ask for that “The Point” in Westhampton does not already offer. This newly constructed 11,500-square-foot, cedar-shingle Nantucket-style home sits on 2.2 acres with 180-degree views overlooking Moriches Bay, the inlet and the ocean beyond.

The second floor of the home includes a master suite with its own office, fireplace and captain’s deck and three guest suites, each with private baths and terraces. An elevator opens to both the master and guest suites. The property also includes a two-bedroom guest house, a heated pool, cabana with full bath and wet bar, 380 feet of bulkheading, a boardwalk and a deep water dock.

But see the place at your own risk: Listing agent Lynn November of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate says that visitors should “prepare to be overwhelmed by the combination of breathtaking waterviews, gracious elegance, and sweeping grounds of a timeless treasure." The price for the home is equally impressive at $20 million.

For photos of The Point as it was being built, see here.

This brand-new Mediterranean-style home in East Hampton recently went on the market for $1.995 million. The 4,000-square-foot has four bedrooms and five baths, a professional kitchen with granite countertops, radiant heat floors, three fireplaces and 20-foot cathedral ceilings. The half-acre property has a heated gunite pool with a bluestone terrace, a waterfall, a barbecue and outdoor fireplace and a separate pool house with a basement. The property also has its own boat slip of up to 40 foot.

The house was built by Ricardo Guichay.

"It's the only mediterranean available in East Hampton," says listing agent Hara Kang with the East Hampton office of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

Whoever buys the house will say they are neighbors with "Sex and the City" star Kim Cattrall,
soccer legend Pele and actress Mercedes Ruehl.

How has Long Island real estate fared so far this year?

"The pace of inventory growth may be easing," says Jonathan J. Miller, president and chief executive officer of Miller Samuel Inc., the real estate appraisal and consulting firm. "Also given the abundance of weak economic news, price indicators were better than expected, although still weak, ranging from flat to small declines, depending on the market."

First quarter statistics for Long Island and Queens (minus the Hamptons) compiled by Miller Samuel for Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate also show the following:

- The median sales price in Nassau dropped to $449,500, down 2.3 percent. In Suffolk, the median sales price was $360,000, a drop of 6.5 percent.

-The median sales price in the North Shore market was up 6.4 percent, with a median sales price of $750,000.

-In the luxury market, it took an average of 141 days for a property to sell, up from 121 days at the same time last year.

-There were 14,141 listings in Suffolk, an increase of 5.3 percent from the same period last year. "With more inventory competition, properties took an average of 18 days longer to sell," the report says. There were 9.862 listings on the market in Nassau. "Sellers are listing at a pace that is rising faster than the market can support," according to the report.

The Old Trees saga continues…

As RealLI reported last week, the 10-acre Southampton estate that had been on the market since 2006 finally sold two weeks ago for $39.25 million. The asking price was $48 million.

The buyer and seller of the property, as revealed last week in the The Palm Beach Daily News, were financier Donald Burns, who sold Old Trees to Harlem real estate developer Rodney Propp.

The plot thickened this week when the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal provided further details on who might actually be putting out the welcome mat at Old Trees this summer. Both papers report that shortly after purchasing the estate, Propp flipped the property to hedge fund manager John Paulson. The Journal says that Paulson paid $41.3 million.

When RealLI asked Don Burns for a comment on the sale, Burns declined to name his buyer, but said, “I know the identity of the current owner, and I have a sense that his family is an excellent match for this one-of-a-kind home.”

Incidentally, as RealLI has reported, Propp’s Bridgehampton home is currently on the market with Susan Breitenbach of the Corcoran Group for just under $14 million. The Journal reports that Prudential’s Michael Shaheen is now listing Paulson’s Southampton home. The asking price $19.5 million.

So if Propp sold off Old Trees quickly and is also selling his Bridgehampton home, inquiring minds want to know if he’s already got another home lined up in the Hamptons. A source tells RealLI that he just may be the person who purchased that $60 million Gin Lane home that last month was rumored to have gone to Tiger Woods. Propp did not return calls for comment, so we’ll have to wait and see.

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.

"I once got a customer because I knew John Lennon and Yoko Ono," Arlene Reckson, a Corcoran Group senior vice president, tells Dan's Papers. "I was part of their entourage in the '70s and when the Daily News did a piece on the anniversary of Lennon's death, I was mentioned. The customer had seen my name ... and made the connection." The article's other goodies: Beth Troy of Town and Country Real Estate in East Hampton got a client because of a great haircut, Christopher Stewart of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Amagansett finds customers on the playground with his son, and Katia Delouya of Devlin McNiff Real Estate in East Hampton hooks them in with her French accent.