Real LI

The foreclosure backlog that has played a major role in slowing Long Island's statistical home price recovery showed the first signs of easing last month, according to a report released June 13 by RealtyTrac.

Scheduled foreclosure auctions, which signal that a distressed property has completed New York's extremely lengthy foreclosure process, more than doubled in both Nassau and Suffolk counties,...

Journalist Christopher M. Collora will talk about his new book "Long Island Historic Houses of the South Shore" (Arcadia, $21.99) from 5:30 to 7 p.m. June 15 at the Vanderbilt Planetarium in Centerport.

The event is free.

Collora will be project images onto the planetarium’s 60-foot dome. He will also share segments from his new video documentary.

Collora’s book explores...

Inside one Roslyn Estates Colonial listing for $2.998 million is what seller Marc Bender tried to turn into “the most unique game room that anybody could find outside a five-star Las Vegas hotel.”

The room, which has three televisions and a 10-person poker table, was devised by Manhattan designer Susan Morrow. It can accommodate 30 to 40 people. The custom poker table will stay for the right...

Sellers Lori and Jeffrey Miller

Address 243 Rider Ave., Malverne

Asking price $449,000

The competition A similar-size Tudor on Birch Road is on the market for $479,000.

Recent sale in the area A smaller home on nearby School Street sold at the end of February for $240,000.

Taxes After a grievance win and effective October 2013, $11,900, including village taxes, as of...

George Washington didn’t sleep in this 7,000-square-foot Colonial in Brookville, but one of his relatives has. For about the past 11 years, in fact.

Diane Kerr, the homeowner, says her bloodline traces to George’s half-brother, Augustine Washington Jr.

Kerr and her husband, Ron Mason — who have hired Paula Handler Moss of Laffey Fine Homes to market their home for $2.799 million — are...

Ex-Met Carlos Beltran has reduced the asking price of his Sands Point estate again.

The St. Louis Cardinals outfielder is now asking $4.998 million, says Nicholas Colombos of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, who is listing the property with Angela Dooley of The Colombos Team.

That’s an $802,000 slash since it first came on the market last year. Read more about the house here.

(If you're...

Alan Radi’s four-bedroom, three-bath high-ranch on the water in Oceanside was a serious bachelor pad in its day. It’s now too big for him, so he has put it on the market for $975,000. The bachelor is moving to Costa Rica and will split his time at another property in North Palm Beach, Fla.

The property is listed with Carla Raso of Ed McNulty Realty.

Radi, 67, had the house built in 1971...

Newsday's LI Home editor Valerie Kellogg appeared on News 12 Long Island Tuesday, as she does every Tuesday around 7:15 p.m., to talk about three high-end homes on the market.

Here's the clip, in case you missed it, with a list below of the agents representing each of the properties. To see past segments, click here.

OLD WESTBURY PROPERTY:

Mollie Grossman, Douglas Elliman Real...

Want to live like a modern-day princess? The Great Neck home of Chanel “Coco” Omari -- one of the stars of Bravo's "Princesses: Long Island" -- is on the market for $2.88 million.

The seven-bedroom, three-bath Contemporary has been featured in the new reality TV show, which follows six college-educated women on Long Island who still live with their parents while they search for a...

Pent-up demand and a limited supply of homes for sale boosted U.S. home prices 12.1 percent in April compared to a year earlier, real estate analytics firm CoreLogic said June 4. That marks the largest increase since the height of the housing bubble in February 2006. Even the monthly price gain between March and April 2013 was notable, at 3.2 percent.

Less remarkable, however, were the housing...