Hillary Clinton had planned to spend the last two weeks of August in the Hamptons. But! Next week, she is going to have to take a quick jaunt across the Midwest. You know what they say about the campaign trail: it stretches all the way from Montauk to Des Moines.

• Cynthia Nixon and her fiancée, education activist Christine Marinoni, have picked up a new weekend home: The couple are putting down $1.7 million for a 1,400-square-foot waterfront cottage in Montauk. [Newsday]
• Investment banker Lewis van Amerongen has gone into contract to sell his five-story townhouse at 13 East 71st Street, six months after slashing the price of the home by $8 million. The townhouse had been listed most recently for $16.95 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Kathleen Turner has dropped the price of her home in Amagansett by $1 million. The six-bedroom house, which has been on-and-off the market since 2005, is now listed for $4.95 million. [Newsday, PDE]
• It looks like the recent rumors about Anderson Cooper moving to a former firehouse in Village were true. The CNN anchor picked up the 8,240-square-foot building on West 3rd Street in September for $4.3 million and is now reportedly in the process of renovating the century-old building. [NYP]

• One month after he unloaded his Greenwich mansion for $18.7 million, former Goldman Sachs partner Donald Opatrny has shed himself of his apartment at 15 Central Park West, too. The 35th floor, three-bedroom condo, which Opatrny purchased for $11.6 million in January 2008 and listed for $26 million in June 2009, sold for $21.5 million to an unidentified buyer. [Real Deal]
• Bobby Flay and wife Stephanie March have a new Hamptons home in mind. The couple paid $1.485 million for a 2.89-acre parcel of land in Amagansett, where they're reportedly planning to build a "green" home. [Newsday]
• Steve Madden is spreading out at 175 East 73rd Street. The footwear mogul has paid $2.2 million for a second co-op in the five-story building. Three years ago, he paid $3.6 million for the apartment next door. [Cityfile]

Eight of the 13 entries on Forbes's new list of "America's most troubled luxury neighborhoods" are located in the tri-state area. The worst of the worst: New Vernon, New Jersey, which ranks No. 2 on the list, just ahead of Alpine, NJ. The East End makes a strong showing as well, naturally: Sagaponack and Amagansett come in at No. 4 and 5, respectively. [WSJ, Forbes]

• Albert Hammond Jr.'s East Village apartment has gone back on the market. Hammond originally listed the two-bedroom pad at 141 East 3rd Street for $1.199 million last August, and went into contract to sell it before the buyer dropped out. He later re-listed it for $999,000, but then took it off the market altogether in January. It's now back—and cheaper than ever. Hammond's apartment can be yours for $899,000. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Warhol muse Jane Holzer has finally closed on the sale of her apartment at 23 East 74th Street. The five-bedroom home, which hit the market last June for $22.5 million, had been reduced to $16.9 million by the time it went into contract in March. The deal has now closed: Apparel mogul Jason Rabin and his wife Nicole picked up the apartment for $14.1 million. [Cityfile]
• Gossip Girl co–executive producer Joshua Safran has put his third-floor loft at 77 White Street on the market for $2.295 million. [NYM, Warburg]

• Hedge funder Scott Bommer and his wife Donya have lowered the price of their 29th-floor apartment at the Ritz-Carlton, which they purchased for $28.5 million last July and put on the market for $35 million in November. It's now listed at $29.75 mil. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Jeff Koons has closed on the purchase of a six-story townhouse at 11 East 67th Street for $12 million, two years after he first went into contract. [NYP]
• Loews heiress Laurie Tisch—daughter Bob and Joan, sister of Jonathan and Steve—paid $29 million for a 13th-floor apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue. Her new upstairs neighbor? Rupert Murdoch. [NYO, previously]
• Former Lehman exec Jack Rivkin has put his 7,000-square-foot home off Further Lane in Amagansett on the market for $31 million. [Newsday, Sotheby's]

• Financier J. Christopher Flowers is putting his Upper East Side townhouse—known as the Harkness Mansion—on the market. It's "quietly being offered" for $49.95 million, which is a few million bucks less than what Flowers paid for the 50-foot-wide townhouse when he bought it from Jacqui Safra and Jean Doumanian in 2006. [NYO]
• Former Revlon CEO Jack Stahl has paid $8 million for a 21st-floor apartment at 255 East 74th Street. [Cityfile]
• Equinox founder Danny Errico and his wife Vera have sold their six bedroom, oceanfront mansion at 71 Shipwreck Drive in Amagansett for $11.895 million. [NYP]
• Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson may be trying to back out of a deal to buy a three-bedroom penthouse at 200 East 66th Street. [NYP]

• It looks like Gwyneth Paltrow's Amagansett property is about to get a bit bigger. A trust in her late father's name paid $2.8 million last month for 2.32 acres of land that just so happens to be adjacent to properties already owned by Gwyneth and her mom, Blythe Danner. [Newsday]
• Apollo Real Estate partner Lee Neibart, who paid $7 million for a 16th-floor condo at 15 CPW earlier this month, has already re-listed the three-bedroom pad. It's now on the market for $8.2 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• The 13-bedroom, Georgian-style mansion at 152-156 East 81st Street, which was listed for $45 million in October, is now available at a discount. The 12,000-square-foot manse is now a mere $42 million. [Cityfile, Sotheby's]

Edgar Bronfman Jr. has one less thing to worry about. The Post's Braden Keil reports today that the heir and Warner Music CEO has finally gone into contract to sell the Amagansett property that has been on and off the market since 2006. The three-acre estate, which Bronfman purchased for $12.5 million in 2005, includes a six-bedroom, 8,000-square-foot main house as well as a guest house and pool house. A sale price hasn't been disclosed (yet)—it was last on the market for $14.7 million—but you can take a look around at the property after the jump.

• Now that he's moving into 15 Central Park West, Bob Costas has unloaded his 61st-floor condo at the Time Warner Center for $8.5 million. [NYO]