The Hamptons are the summer playground of wealthy New Yorkers. They're also home to some of the most expensive real estate in the country — the Hamptons zip code of Sagaponack, for example, topped our list of the priciest places to buy in the country. 

According to a recent report from Douglas Elliman Real Estate, the number of home sales in the Hamptons market is down by 19.2% this year, perhaps because of trouble on Wall Street. Still, that means plenty of high-end homes are still up for grabs.

With the help of real estate site StreetEasy, we've rounded up the most expensive properties currently on the market in this Long Island enclave of exclusivity, which ranges from stately Westhampton in the west to beachy Montauk in the east. Of the 21 priciest listings, the bulk are located in super-rich Southampton.

Median sales prices may have dropped about 34% for luxury listings in the first quarter of this year, but these homes are still up for eye-watering prices.

SEE ALSO: Take a look inside A-Rod's modern Miami home

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21. Starting things off at just under $30 million is this idyllic country-style estate. A hidden enclave of 14 acres with its own custom pond, the six-bedroom home is cozy and spacious, with exposed timber beams and fireplaces throughout.

Location: Bridgehampton

Price: $29.995 million

20. At $32 million, the prime draw of this simple beachside home is its proximity to water, Southampton address, and privacy. With a total four acres, and over 260 feet of waterfront, there's plenty of room for development, too.

Location:Southampton

Price: $32 million

18 (tie). At $32.5 million, this classic Southampton waterfront estate offers all the Hamptons essentials: panoramic beach views, five bedrooms, and pale blue shingles.

Location:Southampton

Price: $32.5 million

A penthouse at 432 Park Avenue that was asking $76.5 million is now in contract,The Real Deal has learned, in a deal that is likely to give developers of ultra-pricey product a pick-me-up.

The five-bedroom, seven-bathroom, 8,055-square-foot aerie, PH 88, is being purchased by a mystery buyer. A spokesperson for the developers, Macklowe Properties and CIM Group, declined to comment on the final contract price or on the identity of the buyer.

The price for the unit – which was first listed in May of 2014, according to StreetEasy – amounts to an astonishing $9,497 per square foot.

Other buyers at the building include Douglas Elliman chair Howard Lorber and his business partner Bennett LeBow of the Vector Group, Elliman’s parent company. LeBow paid $45 million for his unit, while Lorber paid just over $15 million, or $3,750 per foot.

A Macklowe spokesperson said sales velocity has been up at the property over the last several months. Elliman was brought in as the in-house agent for the property in November. Elliman previously had a co-exclusive on the building but sales were primarily managed in house by Macklowe.

The developers also divided some of the units on the 91st through 95th floors of the building into smaller units in a bid to attract a wider pool of buyers.

SEE ALSO: A condo building in Miami is touting scent design as the next big thing in luxury amenities

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NOW WATCH: Meet the big shot residents of 15 Central Park West

The Manhattan office market remained steady with 2.3 million square feet of leases signed in April – though year-to-date leasing figures of nearly 9 million square feet represent a nearly 11 percent drop from the first four months of last year, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

April leasing figures were slightly above average for the year-to-date and represented the highest monthly total since November, when 2.8 million square feet of Manhattan office leases were signed.

The largest deal signed in April was NYU Langone Medical Center’s 390,000-square-foot lease for the entirety of Columbia Property Trust’s 220 East 41st Street in Midtown East.

Overall Manhattan asking rents of $72.48 per square foot through April were up nearly 4 percent year-on-year and only 49 cents lower than the pre-recession peak in September 2008, according to Cushman.

In Midtown, asking rents have accelerated recently and are up nearly 3 percent since the turn of the year alone, to $78.79 per square foot, the brokerage said. Midtown South asking rents have climbed more than 7 percent from April 2015, to $68.19 per square foot, while Downtown asking rents are up 2 percent year-on-year, to $58.86 per square foot.

But Manhattan office leasing remained down overall through the first third of the year, with “a big portion of that decrease” attributed to a “lack of megadeals,” according to Cushman regional research director Richard Persichetti.

There have been only nine Manhattan office leases greater than 100,000 square feet signed through the first four months of this year, compared to 21 such deals at this point last year, Persichetti told The Real Deal.

“Although you might say demand is down, a lot of that is attributed to the large deals,” he said. “Clearlye we’re not on pace for the same amount of large deals that we had last year.”

But Persichetti said he expects the lack of large deals to “balance out over the next eight months,” with economic forecasts indicating “strong employment gains, specifically in office-using employment,” for the city’s economy and “more large tenants in the market looking for space then there were a year ago.”

Midtown office leasing totaled 1.5 million square feet in April; while representing the strongest month seen in 2016, Midtown leasing this year-to-date is down 21 percent year-on-year but still “above the historical average,” Cushman said.

Midtown South leasing totaled more than 580,000 square feet in April, buoyed by Credit Suisse’s 186,000-square-foot renewal at 11 Madison Avenue. With 1.9 million square feet of leases signed in the year-to-date, the Midtown South market is outpacing last year’s performance by more than 24 percent, according to the brokerage.

There were nearly 196,000 square feet of leases signed in the Downtown market in April, with 1.2 million square feet of deals total in the first four months of 2016 representing a 3.4 percent jump year-on-year.

The overall vacancy rate in Manhattan jumped only 0.1 percent in April from the previous month, to 9.1 percent. Midtown’s vacancy rate inched up to 9.4 percent for the month, while Midtown South vacancy dropped slightly to 6.1 percent and Downtown vacancy ticked up to 10.5 percent, according to Cushman.

SEE ALSO: The lower Manhattan real estate bubble is bursting

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NOW WATCH: Humans are defying the law of evolution

The Wall House in Cascais, Portugal, looks like paradise. Its most distinctive features are the pools. One is on the ground floor, right in the middle of the big patio. The other one is suspended above it with a glass bottom, making you feel like you're swimming in air.

Written by Jacob Shamsian and produced by Carl Mueller

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Josh Altman is no stranger to big money.

The star of Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles" and cofounder of real-estate firm The Altman Brothers has sold over $1.5 billion in real estate, including the most expensive one-bedroom house in history, which sold for over $20 million.

Today, the 37-year-old has an estimated net worth of $10 million— but his journey hasn't been all rainbows and unicorns.

He first reached the seven-figure mark at age 26 ... and promptly lost it all by 26 and a half, he tells Farnoosh Torabi on an episode of her "So Money" podcast.

Ironically, it was a highly successful real estate investment — he and his brother put in $5,000 each to buy a house for $400,000 (with 100% financing) and ended up flipping it and making $200,000 — that precipitated the loss.

"We kept enrolling that money into bigger and bigger properties," he explains to Torabi — properties that they couldn't necessarily afford.

When the economy collapsed in 2007 and 2008, "I ended up getting stuck in a house that I couldn't move. I had lost all the money that we kept enrolling into the next one and into the next one."

"I thought that I'd never be able to get back to where I was," he continues. "But now, looking back, it was one of the best learning experiences I could have ever had. I learned I'm never going to be that person who's buying stuff that I can't afford."

Spending less money than you make is a simple concept, but one that many people struggle with — it's one of the reasons why many Americans are dangerously deep in credit card debt and have little to nothing in their retirement savings accounts.

Altman learned the consequences of buying more than you can afford the hard way.

Now, he pays himself first: "The second I get a check, I take half of it and put it into a separate account that I can't touch. That's my No. 1 rule. I don't even think I have more money than I have because it's already in a different account that I don't even look at."

SEE ALSO: A real-estate expert who sold an $11 million home in 10 hours explains how to make your own luck

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NOW WATCH: 4 lottery winners who lost it all

One of the biggest causes of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 was as obvious as looking in the front yards of homes across the country.

Foreclosure signs popped up at a startling rate, and many Americans fell behind on their mortgage.

Nearly a decade after the worst of the housing crisis, the financial wound that hit many looks as if it is finally healed.

According to Capital Economics, the delinquency rate for US mortgages and foreclosure rate for homes are now back to their historical averages.

"It must be remembered that after declining steadily since 2010, the delinquency rate has now returned to its historic norm. It is now at its lowest since the middle of 2006, and is equal to the average seen from 1985 to 2005," said Matthew Pointon, Capital Economics property economist.

The delinquency rate measures the number of homeowners that are behind on their mortgage payments but are not in the foreclosure process.

Pointon said that it was disappointing that the rate didn't decline for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2013, but it's not unexpected given that the rate is close to its nonrecessionary norm.

What made the lateral move more palatable, he said, was the continued decline in the foreclosure rate.

"More encouragingly, the foreclosure start rate is continuing to drop, and the decline over the past few years has outpaced that of delinquencies," said Pointon. "At just 0.35%, it is at its lowest rate since 2000."

Thus, the housing market, while having a number of new problems, still looks healthy for those already in homes.

SEE ALSO: This map shows the hidden reason for America's new housing crisis

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NOW WATCH: The secret to selling your house for more money

Once again, billionaire hedge funder Steven A. Cohen is seeking a buyer for his Manhattan duplex penthouse.

The mansion in the sky is now up for grabs for $72 million— down $7 million from its listing price last summer. He first put it on the market in 2013, when it was offered for $115 million. He later listed it for $98 million, and then again for $79 million.

Cohen, who runs Point72 Asset Management — formerly SAC Capital — picked up the apartment for $24 million in 2005. He hired the late architect Charles Gwathmey to redesign the 9,000-square-foot space, which has five bedrooms and six baths. Located at One Beacon Court — part of the Bloomberg Tower complex — it's in a prime location on the southeast corner of Central Park.

It's now listed withRichard Steinberg and Matthew Slosar of Douglas Elliman. 

SEE ALSO: This Upper East Side luxury condo tower comes with a music studio designed by Lenny Kravitz

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The modern, two-story penthouse is filled with light.

It's part of the Bloomberg Tower complex, which means that restaurants like Le Cirque are just steps from the base of the building.

The kitchen has stainless-steel appliances and contemporary fittings.

Josh Altman became a millionaire at age 26.

It all started when he and his brother Matt, cofounders of real-estate firm The Altman Brothers, put in $5,000 each to buy a house for $400,000 (with 100% financing). They ended up flipping it and making a $200,000 profit.

That successful investment triggered more, and Altman reached the seven-figure mark at the ripe age of 26.

He promptly lost everything by 26 and a half, but he learned from his million-dollar mistake and has since established himself as a real-estate powerhouse.

Today, the star of Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles" has sold over $1.5 billion in real estate and has earned his million back tenfold: He has an estimated net worth of $10 million.

On an episode of Farnoosh Torabi's "So Money" podcast, Altman shared his best investing advice, and a rule he follows before making any investment: "Invest in something that you know."

For him, that means real estate. "Personally, I like to invest in real estate, because I'm an expert at real estate. I like to drive down the street and see my investment — touch it."

When he's investing outside of the real-estate realm, "It's got to be something that I use," he says. "If I like Colgate toothpaste, then I'm going to invest in Colgate. I don't invest in things that I don't use. That's my investment strategy personally, and it's worked for me."

That's not to say the average person should start picking individual stocks — in fact, many experts advise the opposite— but if you do decide to take any investment risks, play to your strengths. Next, be diligent, Altman emphasizes, because, "Nothing's a home run. Nothing's a sure bet."

Part of being diligent is planning for the worst, he explains. "In good markets or bad markets, you always have to look at what your exit strategy is in a worst-case scenario. When I buy a property to develop, I don't go off of the number everybody else is saying it will be worth. I go off of the number that I know that I can literally get rid of this property tomorrow for this price if I fire sale it — and I need to be OK with that."

SEE ALSO: A 'Million Dollar Listing' star says he learned a lifelong lesson from becoming a millionaire at 26 and losing it all in 6 months

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NOW WATCH: JIM CRAMER: This is where you should invest your first $10,000

San Francisco's housing market is, in a word, insane. 

Thanks to a perfect storm of interrelated factors — from a tangled web of city policies that prevent development to an influx of young tech workers who want to live in trendy areas — San Francisco doesn't have enough housing for everybody.

In fact, despite a dip in prices, the average price of a home in San Francisco in April 2016 was still $1.2 million dollars, says homebuying brokerage Redfin.

But there's a wide variety of neighborhoods in San Francisco, and some are pricier than others. And so, there are neighborhoods where even $1.2 million won't get you much. 

Here are the 23 San Francisco neighborhoods, out of 50 total, where the median home price is $1 million or more, with data taken from Redfin's April 2016 report. Just keep in mind that those averages take homes and condos alike into account, so prices may seem a little lower in areas with lots of little apartments. 

Spoiler alert: The most expensive neighborhood in San Francisco had a median home price of $2,137,500.

SEE ALSO: Here's what it's like to buy a first home in San Francisco, one of the world's most competitive real-estate markets

San Francisco ain't huge — the whole city fits into 49 square miles. But if you squint at this map, you can see that there are lots of little neighborhoods within neighborhoods, all over the city.

San Francisco's Outer Richmond district covers most of the northwest corner of the city, out to the Pacific Ocean. Homes here averaged a cool $1 million.

On the other side of Golden Gate park from the Outer Richmond district is the Outer Sunset, which is similarly quiet, with great access to the rest of the city via streetcar. Homes here had a median price of $1,035,000.

Buying a home could be one of the biggest purchases you make.

It could also be one of the smartest. 

"The benefits of home ownership can far outweigh the costs," writes Lesley-Anne Scorgie in her book "The Modern Couple's Money Guide."

Scorgie is a money management coach and founder of financial coaching website MeVest.

She bought her first home when she was 21 years old in Calgary, Alberta, right when she graduated university.

"I literally had sweat droplets on my forehead as I handed the realtor my deposit check for $10,000 — an amount that had taken me four and a half years to save," she writes, recalling the memory of her signing away the money she worked so hard to save.

However, Scorgie proved it was worth it. 

She was able to sell that home seven years later for double what she paid. And then she was able to purchase a much better home in a better location with a small mortgage.

"Home ownership makes sense in the long run," she writes.

It's worth mentioning that selling your home for twice the purchase price isn't exactly standard, but there are takeaways applicable to any potential homeowner. For instance:

Buying can help you build equity

First of all, Scorgie says, putting down money to pay for your home rather than paying rent is investing money in an asset. 

This asset helps you build equity — the difference between the value of the home and the value of the mortgage. As you pay down your mortgage, you increase the equity you have in the property. So even though you are paying the bank back for lending you mortgage funds, you're also putting money toward the equity in the home you own.

"Rather than paying rent (in other words, putting your money towards your landlord's mortgage), you are investing money in an asset that builds equity," Scorgie writes in her book.

Despite the equity,  some people — including Robert Kiyosaki, author of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"— consider homes a liability, since they absorb rather than generate money. Between mortgage payments, property taxes, and repairs, owning a home can be expensive.

"I am not saying don't buy a house. What I am saying is that you should understand the difference between an asset and a liability," Robert Kiyosaki writes. "When I want a bigger house, I first buy assets that will generate the cash flow to pay for the house."

Buying might encourage you to develop healthy money habits

According to Scorgie, having to pay off a mortgage might also encourage you to manage your finances. It could force you to budget, save, and develop healthy financial habits such as paying yourself first, a habit many millionaires follow.

"You're on the hook for comping up with your mortgage payment and if you don't, the bank will seize your home," she writes. 

Eventually, buying should lessen your monthly costs

"Down the road, you'll pay off the home and your mortgage payment will disappear," Scorgie writes. 

When that happens, your overall home costs are going to be lowered, whereas if you were to rent, you'd have a fixed — or increasing — rent payment as long as you live in that home. 

Also, she points out, when you put down a payment on a house you pay only a portion of the home's value but you still get to use 100% of the home. 

However, if buying a home is far out of reach, Scorgie advises to rent while trying to build savings rather than putting yourself in a financially burdensome position. She has seen many instances where couples have borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars more than they can truly afford in their monthly budget.

"In certain circumstances, such as an overheated housing market, or if your income or credit score is too low, it makes more sense to rent rather than buy a home," Scorgie writes. 

SEE ALSO: 'Million Dollar Listing' star shares his 10 best tips to seal any deal

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NOW WATCH: 4 lottery winners who lost it all

Silicon Valley has some of the highest home prices in the country, but it's finally cooling down as the latest tech boom slows.

According to Bloomberg, the demand for the most expensive homes in the valley is cooling.

For instance:

• In Palo Alto, homes costing more than $5 million were sitting on the market for a median duration of 16 days in April, versus 11 last year and 10 in 2014. So far in May, that median has stretched to more than 30 days.
• In Los Altos, just next door, there were six $5 million homes on the market for an average of 25 days as of mid-May.
• In Atherton, one of the most expensive Silicon Valley suburbs, there were 25 $5 million-plus homes on the market for an average of 100 days as of mid-May.
• In Santa Clara County, where all of these suburbs are, only 13 $5 million-plus homes sold in the first quarter versus 20 years ago.

The reason: slowing VC investments in tech companies, combined with a slower economy in China, where a lot of buyers came from.

But that's not to say that there's some kind of real-estate bust happening. The average house prices in the area are still among the highest in the country — around $970,000 for the San Jose metropolitan area. And the average time on the market for the rest of the country is 67 days.

SEE ALSO: The 30 startups whose value ballooned the most during the 'steroid era' of funding

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NOW WATCH: These real-life robocops are patrolling the streets of Silicon Valley

For years, commercial real estate has been an attractive asset for global institutional investors. Although 2016 is expected to remain a strong year for real estate, volatile financial markets across the globe have left many investors concerned about its future stability.

To help make sense of the current volatility, CBRE, one of the world’s leading commercial real-estate and investment firms, has prepared a report that explores what is driving volatility within global markets and their impact on real-estate investments. Here are 5 major factors:

1. China

Although China’s rapid economic growth has helped boost the global economy over the past two decades, in recent years the country has faced a slowing economy and weakened currency, leading to fears that economies and growth outside of China might be impacted. To counteract the slowdown, Chinese policymakers are aiming to shift the economy away from debt-fueled capital investments, state-owned heavy industries, and exports toward more sustainable growth such as domestic capital markets, private-sector entrepreneurship, and services and household consumption. While these steps have the potential to boost demand for commercial real estate within the country in the long term, some observers are losing confidence in the government's ability to steer the economy, accentuating global market volatility.

2. Oil

Declining oil prices mean less money spent at the pump for consumers. But for global investors, lower oil prices have sparked a number of concerns in market stability. The drastic drop in oil prices has caused a sharp decrease in capital investment and sparked economic shocks in oil-producing regions such as Saudi Arabia and Russia. Despite oil prices rebounding slightly, experts say it will be some time before they return to the levels we saw in mid-2014. Factors such as Iran’s return to the market and the drop in demand growth from China and other emerging markets haven't helped the oil market's volatility either.

3. US domestic concerns

The Fed’s decision to raise interest rates in December was met with a positive reaction by both the stock market and the bond markets, given the US’s rebounding economy. Stock market volatility in China, however, caused many to fear that the Fed’s four predicted interest-rate increases for 2016 may be too ambitious. Fortunately, the stock market recovered strongly and experts expect the Fed to raise interest rates only twice this year.

In addition, discrepancies exist in the market’s view of where we sit in the cycle with market “bears” believing the economy is nearly at the end of its recovery stage because of low unemployment and skyrocketing rent. In contrast, “bulls” believe there is room left in the economic cycle, citing unprecedented volumes of foreign capital flows and strong underlying US economic fundamentals.

4. Geopolitics

Although the economic impact of geopolitics is difficult to measure, political risks have even more power to undermine investors' confidence. Europe has long been considered a global real-estate safe haven, but ongoing political challenges — such as the steady flow of refugees from Africa and the Middle East, terrorist attacks, and the upcoming June vote by the UK to leave the EU — have the potential to alter investors' plans to do business on the continent.

5. Hyperconnectivity

While investors have never had more real-time data at their fingertips than they do today, as useful as technology can be, there is a such thing as being too connected. Access to vast amounts of data has left many investors overwhelmed by the daily swings in global markets, creating a reactionary-mindset. Additionally, data is democratizing investor’s access to information creating a connected system amplifying the potential for swings in the availability of capital on a global basis.

What does this mean for real-estate investments?

Despite these factors in global-market instability, real-estate investors remain confident. In a recent report, CBRE found that 82% of global investors surveyed planned to invest the same or more globally in 2016 compared with 2015. While many real-estate investors are resetting expectations and asking more questions, market uncertainty appears to have a minimal effect on real-estate gains. In fact, CBRE Capital Markets experts believe investments will actually improve across North America and Europe despite market volatility.

To learn more about navigating today’s global capital markets, visit CBRE.com/GlobalCapital.

This is an excerpt from Brief #1 in CBRE’s Global Capital Thought Series – Volatility: The Near-Term Normal? To download the full piece click here.

This post is sponsored by CBRE.

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In some US cities, million-dollar homes are becoming the norm.

Take San Francisco, where 57% of homes have a value of $1 million or more — or San Jose, where 46% are seven-figure homes.

That's according to real estate site Trulia, which looked at the share of million-dollar homes in the 100 largest US metro areas in a recent report.

Trulia then zeroed in on the top 10 metros that have seen the most drastic increase in share since 2012. Of those 10 metro areas, seven have doubled (or nearly tripled) the number of million-dollar homes in just four years, while the other three expensive areas (Honolulu, San Diego, and New York) have almost, but not quite, doubled the amount.

Read on to see where seven-figure homes have spread the most:

SEE ALSO: Here's the income you need to comfortably pay rent on a 2-bedroom apartment in 15 of the largest US cities

Los Angeles, California

Percentage of million-dollar homes in May 2012: 8.0%

Percentage of million-dollar homes in May 2016: 16.3%

Percentage increase: 104%

Ventura County, California

Percentage of million-dollar homes in May 2012: 4.3%

Percentage of million-dollar homes in May 2016: 9.0%

Percentage increase: 109%

Orange County, California

Percentage of million-dollar homes in May 2012: 7.1%

Percentage of million-dollar homes in May 2016: 16.1%

Percentage increase: 127%

We’re betting that Craigslist founder Craig Newmark didn’t find the lovely Greenwich Village co-op that he just purchased for $5.9 million on his namesake website.

Newmark and his wife Eileen closed on the duplex — located on the first two floors of a four-story, 19th century townhouse at 52 West 9th Street – on May 5, according to city property records.

The three-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom home comes with 11-foot ceilings on both floors, a wood-burning fireplace, a landscaped garden and a basement featuring a temperature-controlled wine room.

The duplex also comes with a private two-story carriage house that has been converted to a temperature-controlled library with 18-foot-high ceilings and a wood-burning fireplace of its own.

The Newmarks purchased the home from the estate of late attorney and Wall Street investment banker Robert Pirie, who died last year.

Mary Vetri of Brown Harris Stevens, who had the listing, did not immediately return requests for comment.

Neither the Newmarks nor representatives for Pirie’s estate could immediately be reached for comment.

SEE ALSO: Take a look inside A-Rod's modern Miami home

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NOW WATCH: Meet the big shot residents of 15 Central Park West

If you're staying in the Hamptons for a month, the best way to go is the Sandcastle estate in Bridgehampton, New York.

With 31,000 square feet of insane amenities — like a movie theater, bowling alley, walk-in refrigerator, wine room, climbing wall, basketball court, private gym, and spa — it's highly unlikely you could ever get bored. 

All that doesn't come cheap, however: the mansion is listed for rental at the cost of $1 million a month, or $500,000 for a shorter term.

It was built by legendary Hamptons home builder Joe Farrell, and was offered for sale as recently as 2013, according to the Real Deal. Though Farrell received his $43.5 million ask, he ultimately decided not to sell the house so that his family could make use of it, which he told The New York Post was a "very tough decision."

It regularly draws celebrity renters, including Jay Z and Beyonce, who reportedly paid $400,000 to stay in the house for a month in 2012.

Gary DePersia at Corcoran has the rental listing.

Julie Zeveloff and Callie Bost contributed to an earlier version of this story.

SEE ALSO: Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel and model Miranda Kerr just bought a $12 million house together

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The Sandcastle sits on 11.5 acres on swanky Halsey Lane in Bridgehampton, New York.

It has about 31,000 square feet of living space.

Here's the formal living room, complete with an intricate ceiling design and fluffy pillows.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein finally sold his Sagaponack, New York, estate, according to The Wall Street Journal.

First listed all the way back in 2007 for $14 million, the mansion has undergone a series of listings and price changes, the highest of which was $17 million in the summer of 2015.

The most recent listing was for $13 million, though it's not clear what the final selling price was.

In 2012, the CEO bought another house in Bridgehampton worth $32.5 million, which is reportedly the reason he elected to let go of this one.

Blankfein bought the property in 1995 and commissioned architect Larry Randolf and builders Men at Work to complete the mansion in 2001. The property has seven bedrooms, five full baths, a heated pool, and tennis courts, according to the listing.

Susan Breitenbach of the Corcoran Group handled the listing as of the sale.

Lucinda Shen contributed to an earlier version of this post.

SEE ALSO: Inside the enormous Hamptons mansion where celebrities like Beyonce and Jay Z regularly stay for $1 million a month

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Welcome to Lloyd Blankfein's summer home in Sagaponack, New York. Architects capped off the romantic estate with a barn-style roof.

The front doors open into a simple foyer. Light streams in from floor-to-ceiling windows on nearly every wall.

Take a seat in the summery, beige-and-cream-colored living room.

Where will American homebuyers turn in 2016?

According to real estate website Redfin, which releases an annual list of the hottest neighborhoods nationwide, buyers will be prioritizing affordability, charm, and access to public transportation in 2016. The emphasis on affordability explains why the San Francisco Bay Area — where the median sale price of homes is now over $1 million — didn't crack the top 10 for the first time.

"Another trend that has emerged in this year's hottest neighborhoods is that buyers are looking for homes and neighborhoods with character,"Redfin reports.

Here, we've highlighted the 10 neighborhoods projected to take off in 2016, which Redfin ranked by looking at the most recent growth in page views and favorites per home on their site.

We also included the median number of days a home is on the market in that neighborhood, the median sale price for 2015, and insights from local Redfin real-estate agents:

SEE ALSO: These will be the up-and-coming neighborhoods in 30 major US cities in 2016

10. Roosevelt, Seattle

Roosevelt, which has been heating up in recent years, rounded out the top 10, thanks in part to its prime location. "Roosevelt touches the interstate, so people have easy access to downtown Seattle or can easily escape for the weekend,"says local agent Dorothee Graham.

Plus, there are a bunch of easily accessible parks, including Cowen Park, Ravenna Park, and Green Lake.

Median days on the market: 7

Median sale price: $623,500

See more Roosevelt real-estate trends.

9. Powderhorn Park, Minneapolis

While Powderhorn Park cracked the top 10 nationwide, it has stiff competition in Minneapolis and ranked the second-hottest neighborhood in this up-and-coming Minnesota city. The median sale price is on of the lowest on this list: $180,000.

Plus, residents enjoy plenty of green space, thanks to Powderhorn Park and Lake situated in the center of the neighborhood.   

Median days on the market: 32

Median sale price: $180,000

See more Powderhorn Park real-estate trends.

8. Hampden, Baltimore

Hampden offers home prices that are hard to beat. "Houses are relatively affordable and have a historical touch and lots of potential to upgrade into a dream home,"says local agent Chris Calabretta.

The food scene is also top notch, with an abundance of locally owned restaurants, he notes.

Median days on the market: 32

Median sale price: $198,000

See more Hampden real-estate trends.

Real estate woes are all too common, especially in sought-after cities like New York.

Enter TripleMint, a real estate startup hoping to ease the pain of renting and buying in New York City. TripleMint brings the power of 21st-century search and a customer experience focus to the convoluted universe of old-school agencies, listings, and fees. 

It's a sleek end-to-end property solution, drawing in (and predicting) the full database of available properties. TripleMint then connects potential clients with one of their 30 agents, who are incentivized not by sales — which is the traditional agency approach — but instead by customer experience and satisfaction feedback. The startup will even help out with moving deals.

"TripleMint's platform really powers the whole transaction for buyer, seller, and renter by offering value directly to the consumer," CEO and co-founder David Walker told Business Insider. 

We recently sat down with Walker and TripleMint's head of sales, Tyler Whitman, to get the inside scoop on how to make the right choices around buying and renting in this competitive market.

SEE ALSO: The 21 most expensive houses for sale in the Hamptons

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1. Where do I start?

The first step is to know what you're looking for: are you a buyer or a renter? If you're new to a city, not sure how long you'll be there, or wondering what you really want out of your living space, renting is a great starting point, Whitman said. 

"Renting gives you the opportunity to test spaces out," Whitman said. Determine your must-haves, whether that's a safe neighborhood, upscale amenities, or low living expenses. If you're renting, you also won't have to worry about maintenance or other more serious, unexpected expenditures.

Buying, on the other hand, has two major perks: first, the potential upside on investment in a hot market is huge.

"If you timed your property right and made the right investments, it can be like the city paid you to live here, instead of vice versa," Whitman said.

For buyers, also determine if this is a primary residence, or if you intend to use it as a source of income. If you're looking to rent it out, that will narrow your search further, as many buildings — like co-ops — won't allow for that setup.  

2. When should I start looking?

For rentals, most properties start cropping up about 30 days before move-in, and they move very, very fast. In Manhattan, inventory is limited and competition is fierce. Vacancy rates can be as low as 1%, Walker said. In fact, it's not even worth it to start looking too far in advance.

"The average shelf life — especially in the summer market — can be less than 24 hours, easily," Whitman said. "Sometimes apartments are listed that morning and rented by lunch."

If you're ready to buy, you'll have a bit more breathing room. Whitman said you want to sit down with an agent about 6 months before your lease ends or you're going to be ready to move in. It takes about 90 days between the time you go into contract and the time you close, and the search itself can go on anywhere from 30 to 60 days.

3. How do I start looking for available properties?

You could go to listing sites: Zillow, Trulia, or even good old Craigslist. You could connect with a particular agent right from the start, who will come up with suggestions for you based on the criteria you present.

Or, said Walker, you could consider starting on a platform like TripleMint. 

"There's a huge issue in real estate that consumers don't even know exists, and that's that most property search sites are actually advertising sites for real estate agencies," he said. TripleMint, by contrast, is a direct feed of the internal broker database, drawing in all available properties and using predictive algorithms to also present properties that are coming to market in the near future. That search through the database is completely free.

TripleMint then connects you with one of their agents, who uses the tracking data from your site searches to get you straight to the properties you like, without having to start again from scratch.

A Washington, DC, mansion belonging to Moeen Qureshi — former interim Prime Minister of Pakistan and a former vice president of the World Bank — is back on the market.

The home, which Qureshi originally purchased as two separate properties and combined into one, has been on and off the market at various listing prices for years. This time, it's listing for $8 million.

It has eight bedrooms, eight full bathrooms, and three half-baths, in addition to staff quarters that house another three bedrooms and two bathrooms. 

In addition to his work with the World Bank, Qureshi also co-founded private-equity firm EMP Global and served in various leadership roles in the International Monetary Fund over a span of 10 years. 

Stewart Coleman, Edward Poutier, Amanda Mitchell, and Douglas Blocker of Coldwell Banker have the listing. 

SEE ALSO: Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has finally sold his $13 million Hamptons home — take a look inside

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The Mediterranean-style home is situated on a half-acre lot not far from Embassy Row in Washington, DC.

The S-shaped staircase, marble floors, and chandeliers make for a dramatic entrance.

The 11,478-square-foot home was built in 1927 and renovated in 2001.

Million-dollar homes are becoming the norm in San Francisco.

According to real-estate site Trulia, 57.4% of homes in the notoriously expensive Bay Area metro now have a value of $1 million or more.

In its recent report, Trulia looked at the share of million-dollar homes in the 100 largest US metro areas and how it's grown over the past four years. It defined a million-dollar home as any home — regardless of whether it's listed for sale — with a value of $1 million or more.

San Francisco saw one of the largest increases in share of seven-figure homes, going from 19.6% in May 2012 t0 57.4% in May 2016. That's a 193% increase.

Trulia also looked at which specific San Francisco neighborhoods have seen the largest increase in share: "While the neighborhood with the largest increase over the past four years is actually in the City of San Francisco — Westwood Park — the other four of the top five are in the small suburb of San Mateo, which is sandwiched between job-rich San Jose and San Francisco,"the site wrote in its report.

You can get a better idea of the insane growth of million-dollar homes in the San Francisco area over the past four years by looking at this heat map:

SEE ALSO: 7 US cities where the number of million-dollar homes has doubled in the past 4 years

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