Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• Rihanna is close to signing an $18,000-a-month lease for a penthouse at 92 Greene Street. Originally listed at $22,000 a month, the 2,300-square-foot pad comes with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a sitting room, and a 500-square-foot terrace. [NYP, PDE]
• If our tour of disgraced lawyer Marc Dreier's One Beacon Court pad a couple of months ago happend to tickle your fancy, be advised it goes up for auction on July 21 at 1pm. [Maltz Auctions via Curbed]
• A full-floor apartment at the former Stanhope Hotel at 995 Fifth Avenue has sold for $17 million, down a stunning 45 percent from the original asking price of $31 million. [Real Deal] More

It's been three months since we compiled a list of the 20 most expensive apartments for sale in Manhattan. So what's happened to them since then? Not surprisingly, most of them remain on the market, and several have been discounted substantially since they were first put up for sale. (Just one of the 20 sold successfully, an apartment at 176 Perry that went for 30 percent less than its initial asking price.) The grim market conditions haven't stopped several others from putting their exorbitant homes on the market. Since we put the list together, a 78th-floor penthouse at the Time Warner Center hit the market for $65 million and a $47.5 million listing at 15 CPW surfaced. But if you're interested in seeing what happened to the original 20—and get a glimpse for what's happening to the high-end real estate market as a whole—the results are below.More

Yesterday we shared with you New York City's most expensive apartment rentals, just in case you haven't been killed in the market these past few weeks (or maybe you won the Powerball a few weeks ago?) and have been looking to upgrade to a fantastic apartment without making a long-term commitment. Today we've rounded up the 20 most expensive apartments for sale in the city. Pick up an overpriced co-op on Park Avenue for $30 million and you'll sleep better at night knowing you played a key role in boosting the city's ailing economy! (At the very least, you'll know you paid for a few years of private school for some lucky real estate broker.) One note: This list only includes "official" listings, which means apartments that are only rumored to be for sale (such as Richard Ullman's $75 million penthouse at 15 CPW or Courtney Sale Ross' duplex at 740 Park) aren't represented. But there's plenty of overpriced property to choose from regardless! More

The stock market is down nearly 500 points this afternoon, we're in the middle of a deep recession, and tens of thousands of New Yorkers have lost their jobs. But if by some crazy chance you've managed to avoid the pain and suffering and you're looking for, say, a five-bedroom penthouse in Midtown, it's never been a better time to swoop down and make an offer. The prices of dozens of luxe apartments have been slashed in recent weeks. And while the rental market hasn't been crushed just yet, prices are very, very negotiable. That $60,000-a-month rental? You might just be able to offer up $30K a month and walk away with a deal. After the jump, the 20 most expensive apartment rentals in Manhattan, including Donald Trump's insanely overpriced $200,000-a-month penthouse at 502 Park, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's equally ridiculous $47,500-a-month West Village spread. More

♦  Disgraced telecom analyst Jack Grubman and his wife LuAnn have put their neo-Federal-style townhouse at 12 East 81st Street on the market for $32 million, five times what they paid for the five-bedroom manse back in 1999. [NYO, Sotheby's]
♦  Thomas Brock, the CEO of Stone Harbor Investment Partners (and the head of Salomon Brothers Asset Management back in the '90s), paid $10 million for a four-bedroom apartment at 995 Fifth Avenue, the same building where Claude Wasserstein picked up a spread last month. [Cityfile]
♦  Superbad director Greg Mottola and his wife Sarah Allentuch paid $2.6 mil. for a two-bedroom, third-floor apartment at One York in Tribeca. [NYO]
♦  Now that he's said goodbye to the Green Bay Packers and joined the Jets, quarterback Brett Favre has sold his former home in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin for $475,000. [Real Estalker]

»  Claude Wasserstein (left), who has been separated from financier Bruce Wasserstein since last year, has purchased the 7,000-square-foot duplex penthouse at 995 Fifth Avenue, which was listed at $47.5 million. Her new neighbors in the building will include socialite Daphne Guinness and Philosophy cosmetics founder Cristina Carlino. [Update: The purchase price was $34 million according to TRD.]  [NYT]
»  Barbara Corcoran paid $1.46 million for a 4,000-square-foot townhouse at 408 Stuyvesant Avenue in Brooklyn. The home had originally been on the market for $2.1 million in late 2006. [Real Deal]
»  The Long Island home once owned by Alistair Cooke, the BBC journalist who died in 2004, has been put on the market at $5.2 mil. The four-bedroom house sits on 1.4 acres overlooking Peconic Bay. [Newsday]