Check out Bob’s weekly column from this coming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (already available online) in which Bob breaks the news of basketball star Juwan Howard paying $2,547,500 to purchase a condo unit in Chicago’s Trump Tower. Also featured: Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade paying $1,425,000 for a town home in Chicago, and former Chicago Bulls forward Antonio Davis selling a home he had owned in Burr Ridge, Ill. for $2,750,000.

Happy New Year everyone!

Check out Bob’s weekly column in this coming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (but available online now) about former Chicago news anchor Stacia Dubin buying a mansion in Glencoe, Ill. for $2,725,000 and selling her condo unit on Chicago’s Gold Coast for $720,000.

Also featured: mansion in Lake Forest, Ill. called “Bluff’s Edge” — which formerly was owned by Internet entrepreneur William Lederer and which was designed by celebrated architect Andrew Rebori — is on the market for $6,495,000.

Happy holidays, all!

Check out Bob’s weekly column in today’s Chicago Tribune, in which Bob breaks the news of Chicago Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich taking a major loss on the sale of his house in Deerfield, Ill., which he just sold for $730,000 after buying it new in 2004 for $906,500. Hinrich continues to own a 9,270-square-foot mansion in Bannockburn, Ill. that he purchased in 2007 for $4,400,000.

Also featured: Chicago Sun-Times columnist and former nationally syndicated movie-review co-host Richard Roeper had listed his condo unit in the River North area of Chicago for $1,699,000, but recently — in response to the news of his listing becoming public — took it off the market; and a 5,414-square-foot mansion in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood that retired TV anchor Walter Jacobson once owned is on the market for $2,550,000.

Today we want to deviate from our usual format to pass on our disappointment that esteemed New York Times “Big Deal” columnist (i.e., the Grey Lady’s version of a celebrity real estate columnist) was laid off from the paper last week.

New York magazine reports that Barbanel, 57, was let go from the Times on Wednesday. A quick look at newspaper databases shows that he had written for the Times since at least 1977. Barbanel’s wife, Times staff writer Anemona Hartocollis, remains on staff.

Our thoughts are with Barbanel and his family — layoffs are of course horrible things — but Barbanel’s quite talented, and we look forward to seeing his byline again soon. There already are too few of us celebrity real estate writers out there; our small fraternity doesn’t need to get any smaller. Here’s hoping 2010 brings better things for Barbanel — we’re sure that it will.

Check out Bob’s weekly column from this past Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, in which he breaks the estory of Chicago Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster listing a house in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood for $2,250,000. Dempster will continue to own another mansion nearby that he purchased in late 2008 for $2,690,000. Also featured: Edmonton Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin rents out his condo in Chicago’s River North neighborhood for $5,150 per month.

Embattled actor Nicolas Cage — who is facing financial troubles the likes of which few others can relate, if for no other reason that so few people out there own as much real estate as Nic — has sold a 3,480-square-foot house in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills for $1,375,000.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on Cage’s unremarked sale of the house at 6266 Mulholland Highway in Los Angeles. Records show that the actor’s Hancock Park Real Estate Trust sold the house on October 1 to a producer who is not a celebrity, with the deal being recorded on October 30. Cage’s trust purchased the house in 2005 for $1,800,000, according to public records..

For whatever reason, we have held off lately on reporting on most of the various changes to Cage’s real-estate portfolio (i.e., sales, listings) that clearly have been spurred by the actor’s well-chronicled financial troubles. Other websites out there have a decent job of trying to identify all of Cage’s properties and provide the status of each. And once the smoke clears, we’ll probably put together a similar post.

For now, though, let’s talk about the house at 6266 Mulholland Highway, which we have to confess that we had not known until now that Cage had owned. Built in 1964, the two-bedroom house has three baths, an open floor plan, jetliner views of the entire city, a large living room with a rock fireplace and terrazzo floors, and a main level master suite with a fireplace, a large bathroom area and a walk-in closet, according to public records and listing information. Outdoor features on the 0.33-acre (14,374-square-foot) lot include a pool and waterfall, according to public records and listing information. Cage most recently had been allowing an elderly resident live in the house, according to listing information.

Cage (shown here with his wife Alice, his son, Weston, and his son’s girlfriend) long had expected to lose money on the Hollywood Hills house, which had been listed for $1,395,000.

Check out a cached version of a listing sheet for the house, here.

At long last.

We here at Big Time Listings long have been hunting for exactly where husband-and-wife actors David Duchovny and Tea Leoni bought in Manhattan, after they pulled up stakes from Los Angeles (Malibu, to be precise) in 2008, in the midst of marital troubles. Finally, we have the answer.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report that the couple — still together even though they have had a tumultuous relationship over the last few years, to say the least — paid $6,250,000 in April 2008 to purchase a co-op apartment on 78th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Records show that the couple purchased the house through their same trust — generally speaking — that they had used to own their property in Malibu. However, in New York City public records, the trust now is spelled slightly differently (in the Upper East Side transaction, it was called their “Salvator Trust,” whereas in Malibu, it was the “Salvatore Trust”). And, we would note that the couple used two different trustees (money managers) for the purchase: 1) Carolyn Malcolm (also known as Carolyn Rossip Malcolm), who represented them in their previous ownership of their home in Malibu; and 2) Warren Grant, a veteran money manager known most by loyal readers of this blog for representing Cher in her property ownership. Could this be because Duchovny and Leoni now are keeping their respective finances separate? One wonders.

So what information is there about Duchovny and Leoni’s new, $6.25 million co-op unit on the Upper East Side? Unfortunately, not much; the apartment did not appear to have been listed in the MLS. Records show that the couple purchased it from a Manhattan real estate agent. Built in 1927, Duchony and Leoni’s new, Art Deco-style building has nine stories and 38 apartments, with a doorman.

Residents of the building over the years have included Urban Outfitters CEO Glen Senk, who sold his co-op there in late 2006 for $1,400,000; and the late Merrill Stenbeck, who had been the widow of the late Investment AB Kinnevik investment company chief Jan Stenbeck, according to public records.

Actor Mark Ruffalo has sold his three-bedroom, 2,957-square-foot house in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills for $1,650,000.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on Ruffalo’s sale of the house at 3295 Bennett Drive in the Hollywood Hills. The deal, which came in below Ruffalo’s $1,685,000 asking price, closed on September 1, but was not recorded with Los Angeles County until September 29.

In some respects, this sale isn’t that big of a surprise. We had written back in September that Ruffalo had accepted an offer to sell the house, which he purchased in 2004 through his Piccolo Trust for $1,650,000. So yes, dear readers, it’s true — over a five-year period, Ruffalo made $0 on this house.

Built in 1933, the East Coast traditional-style house has two and a half baths (a third full bath is in a guest unit), superb original detail, French doors throughout, two wood-burning fireplaces, central air, a sun room, a separate breakfast room, a living room with an exposed-beam ceiling, and a kitchen with granite counters, a Sub-Zero refrigerator, and Viking appliances, according to public records and listing information. The house, which according to public records sits on almost exactly a half-acre, was featured in January 2009 in the now-defunct Domino magazine. Check out an online listing sheet for the house — complete with photos — here.

The buyer (a trust, but not one of the kinds that typically shield celeb purchases) does not appear to us to be a celebrity.

Although we’ve been looking, we still haven’t been able to figure out just where Ruffalo (shown here in bed onscreen with his “We Don’t Live Here Anymore” co-star Naomi Watts) and his brood (including actress wife Sunrise) are off to. When we find out, we’ll of course provide that information here (and tips are welcome!). Stay tuned.

Well, when it rains, it pours. After yesterday’s exclusive post about “24″ actor Kiefer Sutherland unloading his loft and recording studio in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake area for $3,000,000, we now have learned that Sutherland quietly sold a two-bedroom condominium unit in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood — in a building dating to 1874! — just a few months ago, for $3,500,000.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on Kiefer’s sale of the unit at 134 W. 10th Street in Greenwich Village. And Sutherland actually made a profit on the unit (not the easiest thing to do in this housing market!), having purchased it through his Dave T. Doglas Trust (and yes, it’s spelled Doglas and not Douglas) in 2006 for $3,150,000 according to public records.

Records show that Sutherland went to contract to sell the unit on June 10, with the deal closing on August 3, according to public records. The transaction was not recorded with New York City officials, however, until September 23. The buyer, a real estate owner-developer, is not a celebrity.

The unit that Sutherland sold is in the Jefferson Court Condominium complex, and the building in that complex that Kiefer’s unit was in was built in 1874 (the other building in the Jefferson Court complex is at 11 Christopher Street). The 1,540-square-foot full-floor unit has two baths, a balcony, a terrace, a private roof, and a kitchen with custom-designed cherry Italian cabinetry, Viking appliances, and basaltina stone countertops, according to listing information. Other features include a light-filled master suite with a large windowed bath with a whirlpool tub, according to listing information. The unit also has travertine marble and glass tile in both baths, four-inch white oak flooring, a Miele washer/dryer and central air conditioning, according to listing information.

Check out a past listing sheet for the unit here and the most recent listing sheet for the unit here.

We previously have reported many times (and were the first ever to report) on Sutherland having paid $8,250,000 last summer for a town home in the Village.

Actor Kiefer Sutherland has sold his 14,400-square-foot loft/recording studio in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake area for $3,000,000.

In a Big Time Listings exclusive, we can report on the sale by Sutherland’s Dave T. Doglas Trust (which sometimes is spelled Dave T. Douglas Trust, but not in this transaction) of the building, which is at 1019 N. Madison Avenue in the Silver Lake neighborhood. The deal closed on September 16, and was recorded on September 22. The buyer is not a celebrity.

Previously, we had broken the story back in July 2008 of Kiefer listing the building for $4,895,000. And prior to that, we had broken the story among celebrity real-estate gossips about where Sutherland’s digs actually were. As we previously noted, the gate of the loft/recording studio (a converted ironworks foundry/warehouse), which was built in 1928, was reported by the Ottawa (Canada) Citizen in 2007 to have been a “message board” for Salvadoran and Ukrainian street gangs in his neighborhood.

Sutherland paid just $700,000 in 2002 for the building, and then converted its downstairs to a recording studio known as IronWorks Music, which he co-owned with singer Jude Cole. Upstairs were Sutherland’s three-bedroom, 6,000-square-foot living quarters. Features in the loft living quarters include four baths, 25-foot ceilings, polished concrete floors warmed by radiant heat, rooms all opening onto one another, and a cook’s kitchen, according to listing information.

Now, Kiefer has moved on. We also, back in September 2008, were the first to report on Kiefer’s new digs — an $8.25 million, five-story town house on Greenwich Street in Manhattan’s West Village that the actor had purchased.

Sutherland also has owned properties in on La Maida Street in Los Angeles’ Sherman Oaks area (which he still owns) and on Placidia Avenue in L.A.’s Toluca Lake area (he quit-claimed this house, however, to his ex-wife last summer). However, we don’t believe either one will become his permanent residence while he’s working in southern California. We’ll keep an eye out for where Kiefer plans to live from now on while he’s in Los Angeles. Stay tuned.