Approximately five miles from Manhattan, real estate investor Richard Kurtz's new holding is a 10,000-square-foot English-style country house built in the 1930s by the Henry Clay Frick family. The 63-acre estate hosts two guest cottages, three greenhouses, a pool and tennis courts. At a whopping $58 million it is the largest sale of the year, significantly beating 2005's high of $45 million.


#2
$53 Million
October
New York City, New York

Investment banker J. Christopher Flowers, who ranks 322 on Forbes' list of 400 richest Americans, scooped up the Harkness Mansion on East 75th Street, making it the most expensive single residential sale in Manhattan history. The 22,000-square-foot neo-French Renaissance townhouse, built in 1896, was formerly owned by producers Jaqui Safra and Jean Doumanian who bought the property in 1987 for $6.9 million.


#3
$50 Million
January
Palm Beach, Florida

After unsuccessfully scouring South Florida's luxury estates, financier Henry Kravis settled on the 15,255-square-foot home on five acres along Lake Worth and paid Joyce Fisher, widow of seatbelt inventor Robert C. Fisher, $50 million to move out. The deal obliterated the local record, set by Sylvester Stallone in 1999 when he sold his villa for $27.5 million.


#4
$47 Million
July
Carbondale, Colorado

Sony Records executive Tommy Mottola paid $47 million for Crystal Island Ranch, narrowly clipping the Colorado record set in 2004 when Peter Guber paid $46 million for an Aspen spread. Mottola's 12,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bathroom property is on 949 acres near the base of Mount Sopris and includes an 18-acre lake.


#5
$40 Million
January
New York City, New York

The seven-story-tall Duke-Semans mansion faces the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue and boasts a mansard roof and petaled glass marquee. Cab driver turned real estate and oil baron Tamir Sapir bought the historic property from the relatives of tobacco heiress Doris Duke for $40 million after visiting it only once, and experts say he could spend as much as $10 million renovating it.


#6
$35 Million
February
Malibu, California

This is the first time an African government official, with a $60,000-a-year salary, has made our list. Teodoro Nguema Obiang, whose father is the president of Equatorial Guinea, somehow found $35 million to spend on a 15,000-square-foot, eight-bedroom estate. Just off the Pacific Coast Highway, the mansion has a four-hole golf course, tennis court and pools. Obiang has views of the ocean and, when the smog isn't too bad, of downtown Los Angeles.


#7
$31 million to $35 Million
April
Miami Beach, Florida

South Florida real estate came full circle when the 79-year-old villa once owned by Carl Fisher, the man credited with developing much of Miami Beach, was sold to high-rise developer Ugo Columbo for between $31 and $35 million. The 21,000-square-foot, 12-bedroom Italian renaissance style waterfront mansion is complete with an 85-foot high observation tower.


#8
$30 Million
October
New York City, New York

Boasting abundant outdoor living space, including a 3,000-square-foot terrace, this converted duplex penthouse at 823 Park Avenue also has 10-foot-ceilings, and 7,500 square feet of floor space. The property, which at one point belonged to John D. Rockefeller Jr., sold for $30 million dollars to a hedge fund executive. Like the other Manhattan home sales on our list, 823 Park is a reported fixer-upper whose renovation will be directed by its new owner.


#9
$28.5 Million
March
Carpinteria, California

It was an active real estate year for actor Kevin Costner. Right around the time he paid $28.5 million for an oceanfront, bluff-perched mansion near Santa Barbara, he unloaded his Hollywood Hills home for $11.5 million to American Idol host Ryan Seacrest. Costner's new digs feature five bedrooms, 950 feet of beach, stables and a polo field.


#10
$28 Million
October
Malibu, California

Michael Klein, the son of former San Diego Chargers owner Eugene Klein, unloaded his Malibu Colony home for $28 million dollars to an undisclosed buyer. He had owned the 7,000-square-foot, five-bedroom ocean side mansion, complete with beachfront pool, since 1999.