• Andrew Rayburn, the entrepreneur and founder of Big Game Capital, has put his three-bedroom pied-à-terre at 165 Charles Street (left) on the market for $8.45 million. [Cityfile, RTP]
• Andrew Cohen, a managing director at Dune Capital, and his wife Suzi paid $7.575 million for a fourth-floor, four-bedroom apartment at 1120 Park Avenue. [Cityfile]
• Art advisor Franck Giraud, who oversees GPS Partners with Philippe Segalot and Lionel Pissarro, paid $4.2 million for a 12th-floor apartment at 30 East 10th Street. [Cityfile]
• Coburn Packard, a former senior VP at Lehman Brothers, and his wife Carrie paid $3 million for an apartment at 101 Warren Street, the Tribeca building developed by Ed Minskoff. [Cityfile]

• Paul and Carol Kleinberg, the founders of the electrical contracting firm that bears their name, paid $9 million for a penthouse apartment at 520 West 19th Street. [Cityfile]
• Casino developer Richard Fields is selling his 38th-floor apartment at 15 CPW for $27 million. The flip will yield him double what he paid for the place in June, but it's $8 million less than what he was looking for when he first listed it in September. [Real Deal]
• Peter Lusk, the former COO at Tony Forstmann's private equity firm Forstmann-Leff International, and his wife Jeanne, have sold their 15th-floor co-op at 1 East 66th Street for $7 million. [Cityfile]

• James Torrey and his wife, Podie Lynch, have gone into contract to sell their 23rd-floor apartment at 131 East 66th Street, which they originally listed for $14.5 million in October and dropped to $12.5 million a month later. Torrey is the founder of the hedge fund Torrey Associates and was one of Barack Obama's top fundraisers during the 2008 election cycle. [Cityfile]
• Publishing entrepreneur and Democratic fundraiser Win McCormack has paid $8.7 million for a 12th-floor apartment at 170 East End Avenue. His new neighbors will include Adam Bronfman, Johan Santana, Dominique Levy, and Michael Fascitelli. [Cityfile]
• Former Lehman Brothers exec Marco Naldi has sold his three-bedroom apartment (and accompanying storage unit) at 545 West 110th Street for $2.55 million to Verizon exec Shawn Strickland. [Cityfile]
• Architect Jay Lockett has sold his family's waterfront property on Beach Lane in Quogue to Randy and Bev Cardo for $2.15 million. [Newsday]

Those three months of work really paid off nicely for Peter Kraus: The ex-Merrill Banker—who collected $25 million for laboring at the bank from September until the end of the year—closed on the purchase of Carl Spielvogel and Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel's co-op at 720 Park last week for $36.63 million. [Real Deal, previously]

• Michael Waldorf, who works for one of the very few hedge funds that will actually record gains for 2008—he's a senior vice president at John Paulson's Paulson & Co.—has closed on an apartment at Riverhouse (left), the new development in Battery Park City. Waldorf and his wife, Julie, paid $6.175 million for a 28th floor apartment in the building also known as 1 River Terrace. [Cityfile]
• Fashion designer Domenico Vacca has dropped the price of his condo at the Museum Tower. Vacca and his wife paid $6.15 million for the unit in February and first listed the apartment for $9.5 million this summer. It's now been reduced to $8.9 million. [WSJ]
• Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Thani of Qatar has listed his three-bedroom apartment at Trump Park Avenue for $14 million. Al-Thani paid $6.1 million for the 3,300-square-foot condo in 2005. [WSJ]

• Bruce Lisman, the former co-head of global equities at Bear Stearns, has cut the price of his apartment at 923 Fifth Ave. The four-bedroom is now $16.75 million, down from the $22.5 million he was seeking when he first put the home on the market in November of last year. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Colombian ambassador to the U.N. Claudia Blum and her husband Francisco Barberi have paid $3.9 million for a third-floor co-op at 936 Fifth Avenue, which happens to be right next door to the other apartment they bought in the building for $3.35 million earlier this month. [NYO]
• Michael Mancuso, the recently-appointed CFO of SPX, paid $2.5 million for a three-bedroom apartment at 137 Reade Street. [Cityfile]

• Kenneth Cole has sliced $2 million off the price of his penthouse at 101 West 79th Street. Cole originally listed the four-bedroom apartment for $18.95 million. He just reduced it to $16.95 million, but it's unlikely Cole and wife Maria Cuomo will have much stuff to move out if they find a buyer. Although the fashion mogul has owned the apartment since '85, the family spends most of its time at homes on Sutton Place and in Westchester. [Cityfile, Carol E. Levy]
• Billy Joel has taken his Centre Island mansion off the market after failing to find a buyer for the $32.5 million property. Joel bought the waterfront estate, which is known as Middlesea, for $22 million in 2002. It's also where he tied the knot with Katie Lee back in 2004. [Newsday]
• Katharine Muir has listed her five-story, eight-bedroom townhouse at 42 West 71st Street for $7.3 million. [Cityfile, TE]

• Bruce Bent II, an exec at his father's embattled money management firm, Reserve Management Company, and his wife, food writer Rebecca Bent (left), have listed their full-floor penthouse at 99 Jane Street for $16.5 million. [NYT]
• Model Shalom Harlow sold her one-bedroom apartment at 259 Bowery for $1.9 million. [BTL]
• Merrill Lynch exec George Bianco and his wife Shirley paid the bargain-basement price of $2.2 million for a 19-foot-wide brownstone at 123 West 85th Street. [NYT]

• Writer/director John Ridley paid $6.65 million for a three-bedroom apartment at 15 Central Park West in July, relisting it just a few days later for $13 million. He seems to have had a reality check: He's dropped the price down to $9.995 million. [WSJ, Corcoran]
• Scott Kleinman, a partner at Leon Black's Apollo Management, has paid $5.8 million for a 20th-floor apartment at 15 Madison Square North. [Cityfile]
• Goldman Sachs managing director Tim Furey and his wife Catherine paid $3.145 million for a seventh-floor condo at 215 West 88th Street. [Cityfile]

• Nearly seven months after it was reported that Christine Wasserstein, the second wife of Bruce Wasserstein, had found a buyer for her apartment at 1030 Fifth Avenue, she's finally closed on the sale, albeit for less than its original $34 million asking price. The 11th-floor co-op, which is still listed in Bruce's name on property records, sold to Blackstone senior managing director Prakash Melwani for $27.5 million. [Cityfile]
• Denise LeFrak Calicchio has paid $2.55 million for a two-bedroom condo at 255 East 74th Street. [Real Deal]
• Is there no one in the world who wants a faux Roman palace? Victoria Gotti has put her Old Westbury mansion on the market for the fifth time in recent years. The manse is now listed at $3.5 million. [Newsday, Laffey]
• Film producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori has put his 5,500-square-foot penthouse at the Trump International on the market for $28.5 million. [NYP, PDE]

• Rupert Murdoch may soon have a new neighbor: The 13th floor two-bedroom co-op located directly below his penthouse at 834 Fifth Avenue is expected to hit the market shortly with a price tag of around $30 million. [NYO]
• Diandra De Morrell Douglas, the ex-wife of Michael Douglas, has closed on the sale of her townhouse on East 71st Street for $9.38 million, two months after it was first reported that she'd gone into contract on the property. [Cityfile]
• William Taft V, the great-great-grandson of President Taft, and his wife Begum, have paid $2.6 million for a 14th-floor apartment at 255 East 74th Street. [Cityfile]

• Jimmy Breslin and his wife, former City Council member Ronnie Eldridge, have paid $1.65 million for a 38th-floor apartment in Kent Swig's Sheffield 57, two months after selling their old condo on Broadway for $3.3 million. [Real Deal]
• John Clay, co-founder of the asset management firm Clay Finlay LLC, and his wife Jennifer, have paid $9.6 million for a 20th-floor apartment at 15 Madison Square North. [Cityfile]
• French exec Alain Bréau, currently the CEO of Mory Group, paid $2.08 million for a two-bedroom pied-à-terre at 200 East 66th Street. [Cityfile]

• David Ratcliffe, the CEO of Southern Company, the fourth-largest utility company in the U.S., has paid $2.075 million for a two-bedroom pied-à-terre at 7 Wooster Street. [Cityfile]
• Samir Billan, the owner of the Upper East Side French-restaurant Michelle's Kitchen, has sold his 17th floor apartment in the Rupert Towers on Third Avenue for $1.7 million. [Cityfile]
• Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen appear to be one step closer to building their dream house in LA. They've closed on the purchase of a 3.6-acre vacant lot of land in Brentwood—which they were first rumored to be buying in August—for $11.75 million. [BTL]

It appears real estate mogul Richard Mack has finally taken note of Manhattan's faltering real estate market. This afternoon Corcoran's Carrie Chiang dropped the price of Mack's townhouse on East 94th Street from $59 million to a more modest $49.95 million. That's still substantially more than what he paid for the former home of Spence-Chapin: Mack picked up the 24,463-square-foot building for a mere $23 million in 2007. Then again this property comes with a view of Lyor Cohen's townhouse across the street, so maybe the occasional Russell Simmons or Tory Burch sighting will make up the difference. [NYO, Corcoran, previously]

• It's not all bad news for the Plaza. An unidentified buyer just closed on a three-bedroom apartment in the building for $5.01 million. Originally listed at $6 million in April, the apartment was reduced by $500,000 in July. The buyer is listed in property records as Perla Properties LLC. [Cityfile, previously]
• Claudia Blum, the Colombian ambassador to the United Nations, and her husband Francisco Barberi have paid $3.35 million for a third-floor apartment at 936 Fifth Avenue. [Cityfile]
• Bill Royall, president of the college recruiting firm Royall & Co., paid $5.5 million for a duplex penthouse at 4 Sutton Place. [Cityfile]

• Natasha Lyonne has sold her penthouse studio in the Gramercy Towers on East 16th Street for $440,000. The once-troubled actress is now renting in the East Village. [NYP]
• The owners of two 15 CPW condos who listed their ninth-floor apartments as part of a package deal for $21.5 million back in August, have lowered prices for a second time. You can now buy the combo deal for $18.495 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Alan Alda and his wife Arlene have paid $3 million for a two-bedroom, 51st-floor apartment at the Millennium Tower on West 67th Street, the same building where they purchased two adjoining apartments in 2000 for $4.9 million. [NYP]

Eileen Ford, the co-founder of Ford Models (her husband and partner, Jerry Ford, passed away earlier this year) has been trying to sell her New Jersey mansion for two years now. Last week the Journal reported that she'd discounted the property from $8 million to $6.5 million. Luxist has a few photos inside the home.

♦ Music manager Chris Lighty, who has worked with the likes of Diddy, 50 Cent, and Busta Rhymes, has picked up two condos in the Chelsea Stratus building on West 24th Street for $5.28 million. [NYO]
♦ Tech exec Michael Sprague has put his five-story townhouse at 73 Bedford Street on the market for $8 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
♦ Giuseppe de Corato, CEO of the fashion company Luigi Borrelli, and his wife, Holly Lang, have sold their apartment at 15 West 20th Street for $2.65 million. The buyers are Greg Sovell, co-founder of the underwear line C-IN2, and Andrew Cohen. [Cityfile]

♦ Theater producer Rocco Landesman and his wife Deborah have sold their penthouse at 240 Riverside Boulevard (otherwise known as The Heritage at Trump Place) for $10.5 million. The couple picked up the three-bedroom apartment with jacuzzi for $4.233 million back in 2006. [Cityfile]
♦ Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner, who purchased a West Village apartment for $4.1 million two months ago, appears to be giving up on plans to build a home on the East End: He's sold a 2.5-acre plot in Amagansett for $7.5 million. [Newsday]
♦ The duplex at 155 Perry Street that Josh Groban was spotted touring recently has undergone a price cut. It's now listed at $3.5 million, down from $3.85 million. [Curbed, Core]

It's not all bad news for the upper-end of Manhattan's residential real estate market. Hedge fund manager John Griffin, who once worked for Julian Robertson before founding Blue Ridge Capital, and his wife Amy, have paid $32.25 million for a 10th-floor spread at 1030 Fifth Avenue, where Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols are also residents. The apartment, which wasn't even officially on the market, was owned by private equity exec Richard Schmeelk and his wife Priscilla. [NYO]