Libet Johnson, heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and the sister of Jets owner Woody Johnson, has been exposed as the buyer of this year’s priciest residential sale to date, the Vanderbilt Mansion at 16 East 69th Street, for which she has just handed over upwards of $48 million. That price is also the highest paid for a Manhattan townhouse since the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008. According to the Post, Johnson is a close friend of seller and fellow heiress Sloan Lindemann Barnett and her husband, beauty.com founder Roger Barnett, which explains why the couple was able to sell the mansion without a broker. [more]

An Upper East Side townhouse has just gone into contract to an anonymous buyer for upwards of $47 million, which would make for the priciest single-family home sale in New York City since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. According to the Wall Street Journal, the five-story, 33-foot-wide townhouse at 16 East 69th Street, once owned by the Vanderbilts, wasn’t officially listed. And after three years of quietly showing the mansion to prospective buyers, the owners — author and cell phone heiress Sloan Lindemann Barnett and her husband, Beauty.com founder Roger Barnett — have found one, sans broker, meaning that no one will be taking home a commission on what will surely be one of the city’s biggest deals of the year. [more]

Nikki Field of Sotheby’s International Realty at a listing for $7.5 million at 455 Central Park West

From the November issue: In the fall of 2008, real estate broker Michael Garr was approached by a former client who had bought a large apartment in a tony building the previous spring. The client, who worked in finance, needed to downsize to a less expensive place after the Lehman fallout. But there was a catch: Garr had to keep the plan a secret, because the client hadn’t yet told his wife he was facing financial difficulty. “He didn’t want to upset her and the kids,” said Garr, the founder of Garr and Co., which was acquired this year by the residential brokerage Core. “He wasn’t going to consult her until he had some options.” High-end brokers have always prided themselves on being discreet. But like Garr, many are finding that secrecy has become more important than ever. “Whisper listings” — properties that are for sale, but not officially on the market — are becoming more common, as sellers seek to avoid the perception that they are unloading properties because of financial distress. Also known as “quiet listings,” they are often among the most expensive properties in the city.

From the October issue: The ranks of Manhattan’s super-high-end listings may have shrunk over
the past year, but the city still boasts a number of properties with
sales prices north of $30 million. It’s no surprise that few of these mega-listings have traded in the
last year, with the global financial crisis paralyzing potential
buyers. But now, very high-end listings are beginning to generate
interest again, albeit at smaller price tags. (Case in point: Madonna’s
new $32.5 million Upper East Side townhouse, originally listed for $42
million in October of 2008). This month, The Real Deal looked at five of the city’s
priciest listings — some new, others market fixtures — along with
other noteworthy properties generating buzz this fall.