I've got a fun one to show you today. Lioncrest is a 30,000 square foot English Tudor manor home overlooking the James River in Maidens, Virginia. The castle-like home is on over 56 acres that include formal English gardens as well as more rustic space. It looks old but the MLS says it was built in 1995. It certainly aspires to a different age with its large stone fireplaces, stone arches, use of shields and crests and a huge beamed grand hall that could easily be a setting for a scene in Harry Potter. Some of the wood and stone dates back to the 1600s and there is a concrete tiled roof. The huge house includes a tavern area, elevator, library, multi-car garages and a full apartment. The lower terrace level is home to woodworking shop, garden shop, morning room, pub, three wine cellars, rec room, sauna and more. The listing pics don't show much of the private spaces (the listing says there are nine bedrooms and 10.5 baths) and some are a bit blurry but I bet this is one fun house to tour. It is listed at $15 million.

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This large home in Cotuit, Massachusetts takes traditional Cape Cod style to a new level. The home is on seven acres and has waterfront views. The land includes a pool area and a guest house with a turret and a circular staircase. The shingled home combines rough wood beams and exposed brick with columns and double-height ceilings to create a home that manages to be both cottage cute and a bit extravagant. The listing references a lot of France, pointing out that every room in the house features a chandelier, mostly imported from Paris, the kitchen features a professional eight burner Parisian stove and the master bedroom has glass etched doors reminiscent of Lalique styling. There are four bedrooms total and the home also has a library, fitness area and a wine cellar/grotto. The home is being sold furnished and is listed at $12.5 million.

For more prime properties and lush locations, see Luxury Homes and Mansions.

One of the Real Estalker's many tipsters revealed that Michael Bolton recently put his Westport, Connecticut home on the market. The town of Wesport is a quiet, tony enclave that we've mentioned when looking at homes belonging to Martha Stewart and Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas.

Bolton's home is a six-bedroom expanse located on Nash's Pond. The home is "Tuscan-inspired" and has a formal albeit bland interior design. The home is enriched with dark polished mahogany wood and Italian marble floors and ncludes a screening room, formal dining room, chef's kitchen and a master suite with a veranda. The Real Estalker Mama reports that Bolton's property is two separate lots of over an acre each and that Bolton bought the home way back in 1991 for $975,000. The smaller lot which measures 1.2 acres has a four-bedroom home that has been used as a guest house and also serves as Bolton's music studio. The grounds feature a tennis court, putting green, piazza, swimming pool, formal gardens and a dock on Nash's pond. Bolton has put this property on the market for $11 million.
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Celebrity Big Time Listings unearthed the listing for today's home which proves that it pays to date Ashlee Simpson and be managed by her dad. Musician Ryan Cabrera took his modest musical and reality television success, a gold record in 2004, and bought himself this home in the Hollywood Hills in 2006 for $1.45 million. The optimistically monikered Villa Cabrera is a three-bedroom home built in 1953. The home has some nice classic details like hardwood floors, tiled steps, touches of elaborate iron work, but it Cabrera's decorating choices are definitely not doing this house much of a favor. Cabrera has painted the interior with a crayon box of colors including turquoise and fuchsia. Cabrera has equipped his home with the requisite large televisions including one placed rather close to a bed in a guest bedroom. Cabrera's master bedroom boasts a bed wreathed in electric lights, decked out in red satin sheets and finished with a collection of candles at the foot of the bed, a look Cabrera has repeated in another room. Cabrera has also festooned the home with plenty of art devoted to his musical idols such as the Beatles and Frank Sinatra and he has a large piano and a rack full of guitars. The outdoor space includes a pool, a spa and an outdoor entertaining area with a full bar and a barbecue as well as an outdoor terrace which Cabrera has thoughtfully outfitted with a rumpled futon. The home is listed at $1.699 million.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

The Wall Street Journal's Private Properties column led me to today's home in Washington D.C. on Thompson Circle, in the Massachusetts Avenue Heights neighborhood near St. Albans School. The seven-bedroom home was built in 1929 and has a classic exterior. It was built by Christian Heurich, a brewmaster, as a wedding gift to his daughter. Real estate developer R. Donahue Peebles and his wife, Katrina bought the 0.35-acre property in September for $5.9 million. The couple landscaped, added a laundry room, a wine cellar and finished the basement and look to have given the entire place a bright white coat of paint. It is listed at $8.3 million.

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Our friends at Curbed LA picked a while back and it's too deliciously Los Angeles not to mention. Located in the coveted "bird streets" area in the Hollywood Hills, the listing says that is is an "entertainer's trophy home" but I don't know who the owner is. The contemporary home has three bedroom suites plus a separate two-bedroom guest suite with a private entrance. The home is angled for sparkling night views and has a large terrace and a wedge-shaped pool area carved into the hillside. The style is so contemporary and trendy as to be admirable but perhaps not quite livable (those polished concrete floors above look like an accident waiting to happen). The home includes an open kitchen, media room and a gym. It is listed at $12.85 million and more pictures are available at the property website (worth seeing especially for the trio of stylized mounted deer heads).

For more prime properties and lush locations, see Luxury Homes and Mansions.

NYC seems to be surviving the housing market's slow decline better than most cities. Case in point: This $80,000,000 condo at 15 Central Park West. Located on the 40th floor, the home, built in 2007, is 5,276 square feet and has unobstructed views over Central Park West and the Hudson River. Of the 9.5 rooms, there are 4 bedrooms and 5.5 baths, and the major rooms have 14-foot ceilings. There's a library and a fireplace (only one?). The ground floor suite is 1,222 square feet with private street access that would work for owner staff offices. There's also the usual building amenities: doorman, courtyard, health club, pool, and garage. As with most condos and with many homes in NYC, you pay way more than the purchase price. This home requires monthly maintenance/CC of $5,425 and monthly real estate tax of $2,081. Too bad the photos only show you the view -- I'd love to see the kitchen and bathrooms in a home like this!

[Thanks, Raeann]

Another big spender joins the celebrity foreclosure follies. This time it's Roc-A-Fella Records company co-founder Damon Dash and his wife, fashion designer Rachel Roy. The high-profile pair could lose two of their Manhattan apartments. Eastern Savings Bank says the couple owe $7.3 million on the properties and were supposed to make hefty monthly payments of $78,500 but haven't done so since January. Dash has a $100,000 federal tax lien on the properties and reportedly owes the city of New York $2 million in back taxes. Damon Dash is allegedly has a $50 million fortune amassed from his hip-hop empire.

Today's estate, Swanhurst Serenity is a vintage grand dame in Spring Lake, New Jersey. Located overlooking the lake, this early 1900s beauty is also within walking distance of both the beach and town. The seven-bedroom estate could use a bit of updating but it has plenty of historic details to treasure like the columned wraparound porch. The one-acre property also includes a guest house in need of an update. This estate is listed at $7.999 million.

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Now this is just getting ridiculous. First Roman Abramovich was rumored to have bought Villa Leopolda, the pricey estate in Villefranche-sur-Mer on the French Riviera. Then Russian precious metals mogul Mikhail Prokhorov was said to have snapped it up. As my colleague Jared Paul Stern reported over the weekend, Prokhorov is the 24th richest man in the world with a $22 billion fortune and was briefly detained during an investigation into a suspected prostitution ring at a ski resort in the French Alps. Turns out Prokhorov still has some hurt feelings over that bit of police drama says BBC News and according to a spokesman, refuses to do business in France until he gets a proper apology.

We are starting to run out of Russian billionaires to pin this on. Well, that's not entirely true, there is still a long list but hopefully someone will own up to the $750 million purchase pretty soon. You can't keep a secret that big for too long.

We've been looking at a lot of traditional homes lately so let's mix it up with a big slice of modern. Today's home was designed by architect Rafael Vinoly in 1994. It sits on a five acre hilltop setting with long views in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The home has both indoor/outdoor pools and a glass bridge to the private tower which houses the master bedroom, penthouse office and an observation deck. The interior features lots of heavy concrete, wood ceilings and so much stainless steel, the owner probably has to employ a designated polisher. It's stunning but I wonder how easy it is to live in. It's listed at $10 million.

I mentioned this one back in 2006 but it deserves another look with some new pictures. There's a reason it's been on the market for a long time, it appeals to a very particular style. This eight-bedroom home in Chandler, Arizona has a manor style that seems rather out of place in the Southwest. The home was built in the 1980s by someone with a taste for the baroque. It is on over 11 acres and the home itself has over 13,600 square feet of space. Most of the furniture is remaining with the house because it was purchased for the home. The home also has an English bar with a pool table, a large theater room, game room, wine cellar and two workout rooms. The estate also includes a guest house, gardeners house and a garage that can hold 15 cars. Murals, stained glass and an amazing barrel vaulted library room all contribute to the overall sense of English style gone theme park. A Sotheby's listing shows the home at an even $10 million but the property website has it at $8.8 million. It was listed at $11.5 million back in 2006.

For more prime properties and lush locations, see Luxury Homes and Mansions.

The mysterious billionaire who just bought the world's most expensive house - the $750 million Villa Leopolda (above) on the French Riviera - is none other than controversial Russian precious metals mogul Mikhail Prokhorov, the AFP reports. Luxist readers may remember Prokhorov as the over-the-top tycoon who announced plans in April to spend $150 million launching a magazine for snobs in Russia, called simply Snob. Prokhorov is ranked as the 24th richest man in the world with a $22 billion fortune. Some earlier reports had erroneously identified the villa's buyer as Roman Abramovich. Last year Prokhorov was briefly detained during an investigation into a suspected prostitution ring at the ritzy ski resort he frequents in the French Alps.

Just when I was despairing of finding a fun celebrity home to dish about this Sunday, the Real Estalker Mama delivered with the news that infamous porn goddess Jenna Jameson has put her Los Angeles home on the market. Jameson's three-bedroom home is a sweet little piece of Los Angeles history, a Spanish style charmer that was a former Valentino family home.

The multi-story Mediterranean is a quirky mix of California casual with some of the more bold choices you might expect from a woman with a reputation to uphold such as a bordello-red bathroom and a media room with black striped walls, a zebra striped ottoman and sliding glass doors leading out to the courtyard spa. There's much to love here including the tiled staircases, gleaming hardwood floors and beamed ceilings. It also must be noted that she has one impressive shoe collection in her large dressing room. But the house does seem to be one of those hillside homes that gives you stairs at ever turn, stairs to the entrance and the home has a piecey multilevel vibe. Not great as a family home.

Jameson must be in a hurry to move (there is that pregnancy rumor after all) because she's put the home on the market for the same price she paid in 2006, $2.7 million.