• 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]

• Lee Neibart, a senior partner at William Mack's Apollo Real Estate Advisors, and his wife Joyce, have paid $7 million for a three-bedroom apartment on the 16th floor of 15 Central Park West. [Cityfile]
• That was quick. James Nicholson, who paid $27 million for John and Lauren Veronis' Meadow Lane home earlier this month, has already put the property back on the market. It's now listed at $33 million, believe it or not. [Newsday, Sotheby's]
• Journalist Cathleen Trigg-Jones and her husband, plastic surgeon Michael Jones, have listed their 10-bedroom townhouse at 430 West 147th Street for $4 million. [NYP, PDE]

• Want to share an elevator with Rupert Murdoch? Today is your lucky day. Les Wexner, the CEO of Limited Brands (and onetime mentor to Jeffrey Epstein), has "discreetly" listed his five-bedroom apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue for $60 million with brokers Serena Boardman and Larry Kaiser. Wexner and his wife Abigail originally purchased the co-op in "fixer-upper" condition for $9 million back in 1997. [NYO]
• Christopher Pesce, a managing director at Steve Schwarzman's Blackstone Group and the former global head of prime brokerage at Bank of America, has paid $6.3 million for a condo at 101 Warren Street in Tribeca. [Cityfile]
• Who says the Hamptons real estate market is dead? John Veronis, a co-founder of the boutique merchant bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson, has sold his six-bedroom, oceanfront home on Meadow Lane in Southampton for $27 million. [Newsday]

You're going to be shocked to hear this, but it turns out lots of Wall Streeters are looking to sell their lavish, eight-figure homes, a process that isn't quite so easy given the state of the economy. Today's Wall Street Journal has details on a collection of former high-flyers at Lehman and AIG who are now (desperately) looking for offers. But not everyone is moving out because they're suffering! It's unlikely any one in New York is making more money right now than John Paulson, the hedge fund mogul who bet against the housing market and won big. (He'll probably continue to rake it in: Just today he announced plans to launch a new distressed investment fund.) Just in case you're still sitting pretty—or you're playing the lottery this weekend and you're an optimist by nature—you'll find details on four of the homes after the jump.

Ian Schrager and Aby Rosen may have been willing to support Calvin Klein's plan to tear down his Southampton castle and build a more modern home on the site, but it seems their enthusiasm isn't shared by all of Calvin's neighbors on Meadow Lane. Bill Williams Jr., who recently retired as a partner at the white-shoe law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, filed a letter of complaint with Southampton's Architectural Review Board in advance of a public hearing earlier this week. Williams' objection to Klein's proposal, however, doesn't have anything to do with any interest in preserving the gaudy castle. He just doesn't care for Calvin's taste.

It's been nearly two months since the town of East Hampton first began its crusade against Ron Baron, the investor accused of razing the 3,000-year-old dunes on his 40-acre beachfront property without obtaining the proper permits in advance. At the time, East Hampton threatened Baron with a $500-a-day fine until the problem was resolved and the "habitat was restored." Unfortunately, it turns out that $500 a day doesn't go very far when you're trying to scare a billionaire into submission.

A couple of weeks ago, it was revealed that Calvin Klein had asked for permission to demolish the ugly castle in Southampton he'd purchased a few years back for $30 million in order to replace it with a much more modern creation. So what does the notoriously fickle designer have planned for the beachfront plot? Intrepid blogger Sally Spanburgh filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out, and she now has an architect's rendering to show for her efforts. The sketch seems to be more in line with Klein's minimalist aesthetic; whether recommendation letters from Aby Rosen and Ian Schrager will be enough to get him approval from the Southampton Village Board of Historic Preservation has yet to be decided.

Just in case you had any doubt the real estate market in the Hamptons is in the dumps, there's new data today to support the claim. The average home sale price fell 23.3 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, and the number of sales declined by 28.8 percent. Here's a way to boost the Hamptons real estate market in these troubled times: Why not offer up tours of the homes of disgraced Wall Streeters? We'd gladly hand over a ten-dollar bill for a guided tour of ex-Lehman COO Joe Gregory's $32 million Bridgehampton home. [Real Deal]

Some people dream of owning a castle; Calvin Klein wants to tear his down. Five years after the designer paid nearly $30 million for a gaudy 50,000-square-foot Southampton estate known as Dragon's Head, Klein filed an application this week to demolish it so he can replace it with a more modest (and much more minimalist) 17,500-square-foot number. To lend credibility to the plan, Klein had neighbors Ian Schrager and Aby Rosen write letters to the Southampton Village Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review on his behalf. We're not exactly sure how having someone who was in trouble for destroying an endangered bird habitat on his property this past summer bolsters his cause, but we'll keep a good thought for you, Cal! A few more photos of what's been described as "Disneyland on LSD" after the jump.

The recession affects all of us. Not wanting to appear insensitive or out of touch, it's become fashionable among the wealthy to moan about the sacrifices they have to make, too. Only problem?

♦ John Paulson, the hedge funder who testified on the financial meltdown in front of a congressional committee yesterday, is having a meltdown of his own in the Hamptons. Seven months after he put his mansion on the market for $19 million—and after lowering the price to $16.9 million in August—he's dropped it once again. The Southampton spread is now listed at $13.9, which is getting close to the $12.75 million he paid for the property in 2006. [WSJ, PDE]
♦ Murat Ozyegin, the son of Turkish mogul Husnu Ozyegin, paid $6.2 million for a three-bedroom apartment 40 East 66th Street. [NYO]
♦ The 12,000-square-foot Harlem house built by Barnum & Bailey co-founder James Bailey is on the market with a $10 million listing price. [WSJ]

How do you get half of the Hamptons to hate you instantly? Destroying the 3,000-year-old sand dunes on your property is a good way to start. Billionaire fund manager Ron Baron now stands accused of razing part of the beachfront property he purchased in May 2007 when he spent a record $103 million for 40 acres of prime East Hampton real estate. Baron has since constructed a 30,000-square-foot mansion on a nearby parcel, but it was the recent destruction of the historic dunes near his house that now has environmental groups up in arms.

Hope you're not planning to sell your house in the Hamptons: The average price of a home dropped 23 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period a year earlier, a far steeper decline than Manhattan's seven percent dip. [Crain's]

Good news if you're house-hunting in the Hamptons: More than 1,500 properties are now on the market, up from 1,000 at this time last year. Prices have yet to drop, though, since many homeowners are hoping to rent their mansions next summer rather than take a lower offer to sell now. [NYT]

1) The final big event of the season was the Robert Wilson-hosted concert benefit at the Watermill Center on Saturday. Rufus Wainwright, Kate, Anna and Martha McGarrigle, and Jessye Norman performed for a crowd including Isabella Rossellini, Calvin Klein, Amanda Hearst, Steven Klein, Daphne Guinness, Patrick McMullan, Bob Colacello, Jamee Gregory, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Luigi Tadini, and Lisa Anastos. [Paper/PMc]

Good news for anyone looking for a huge bargain in the Hamptons now that we've reached the end of the season. After languishing on the market for four months at $19.5 million, billionaire hedge funder John Paulson has slashed the price of his 6,800-square-foot Southampton home. It's now just $16.9 million. Even with the $2.6 million discount, Paulson will still collect a profit (assuming he sells at that price, of course). He bought the three-acre property from Jurgen Friedrich for $12.75 million in 2006. But after his hedge fund's stellar year in 2007—Paulson himself collected ten figures, making him the highest-paid man in finance for the year—it was clear he'd have to trade up, and he picked up an estate nearby for $41.3 million. After the jump, photos of Paulson's hand-me-down.

Most mayors live in big homes. Quogue's may soon be heading to the Big House. George Motz, the village's mayor, was arraigned yesterday on securities fraud charges. Prosecutors allege that Motz bilked investors out of $1.4 million by "cherry-picking" stock trades that benefited his own Manhattan brokerage and investment house. It's bad news for Motz, sure, although it's good news for weekend residents who will have something else besides presidential politics to gossip about over the long weekend. [Newsday]

Think there's no downside to owning beachfront real estate in East Hampton? Think again! Martha Stewart reports that her Lily Pond Lane home was seriously damaged after it "suffered a blow from a powerful bolt of lightning." Martha says the electronic driveway gate, sprinkler system, and her "rather costly stereo" all had to be repaired. But she says she has insurance, thanks goodness. We were worried for a sec! [Martha Stewart]

Last week, a corrections officer working as a bouncer died after being beaten by a patron at the microbrewery Southampton Publick House. This week, an 64-year-old Easthampton man killed his wife and then himself in a murder-suicide. [NY Post via Observer]

Howard Stern and fiancee/model Beth Ostrosky are supposedly getting married today, presumably at his/their place in the Hamptons. According to "Howard 100 News" reporter Lisa G., they planned a casual, barefoot ceremony on the beach. Only, where are the paparazzi and the helicopters? Where is the army of Post reporters filing dispatches from the Island? Is this all just some misdirection by Page Six chief Richard Johnson in order to snag an invite to the real ceremony in another location? Where are the pictures? And Beth says she planning to run a marathon in the morning. Does that make sense? [P6] Update: Lovable stammerer Ellen Degeneres probably married her smoking-hot fiancee Portia De Rossi today as well, in their gazillion-dollar Beverly Hills Xanadu! Oh, the love!