Here's the skinny on the city's narrowest town house: It just sold for a fat US$ 3.25 million. The historic, three-story home at 75 1/2 Bedford St. - near Sixth Avenue and Houston Street - weighs in at an underfed 92 square meters. A tape measure would only stretch to a cinched-in 2.54 meters wide in the widest rooms - narrow enough for the lankiest Knick to nearly touch two side walls at once. It's where Edna St. Vincent Millay penned her Pulitzer Prize-winning "Ballad of the Harp-Weaver," in 1923-24. It's Millay who famously coined the phrase, "My candle burns at both ends," suggesting that the poet would have had to orient any such candle longitudinally while working long hours at the address. Other celebrities who have traipsed - carefully - through the gaunt flat are actor Cary Grant, and, before him, John Barrymore. Anthropologist Margaret Meade also lived there, as did popular children's-book writer Ann McGovern, author of "Stone Soup." After moving out, McGovern wrote "Mr. Skinner's Skinny House," a picture book about a man who moves into the thinnest house in the city and then struggles to find a roommate. "For seven years, I lived in the narrowest house in New York. It was only eight and a half feet wide!" McGovern said in a Q-and-A on her Web site, annmcgovern.com. "It's known as the Edna St. Vincent Millay House." "Once I saw a man who was standing in front of the house with arms outstretched," she said. "'Hey,' he said. 'I'm as big as a house,' and he was." Living in her "doll house," as she called it, McGovern said she'd begun noodling about the sorts of characters who could never live in a house so narrow, including an actor who plays Pinocchio - one of the characters in "Mr. Skinner's Skinny House". The latest buyer is George Gund, according to city property records. Although thin, the home's worth has expanded over the years. It was purchased in 1994 for US$ 270 thousnad by architectural preservationist Christopher Dubs. He sold the home in 2000 to Steven Balsamo for a cool US$1.6 million. Then, three years ago, the home sold for US$2.175 million through Corcoran broker Alex Nicholas. That buyer never moved in, instead sinking more money into the place by renovating it top to bottom - the kitchen trapdoor, leading to the basement "recreation room," has been retained. Built in 1873, the three-bedroom home also features floor-to-ceiling French doors opening to a tree-shaded. The inside is more light and airy than its width would suggest thanks to a third-floor skylight and oversized windows. The gussying up allowed it to rent for a healthy US$ 14 thousand a month. It then went back on the market at an overly optimistic US$ 4.3 million. By last year, the asking price had whittled away to US$ 3.495. The thinnest house in the world built between two tower blocks in Warsaw, Poland. The house measures 1.2 meters at its widest point and 71 centimeters at its narrowest. The building has been designed by Jakub Szczesny.

The central Fresno house that famed Armenian-American author William Saroyan lived in for the last 17 years of his life is in foreclosure and headed to auction in May. The simple stucco tract home at 2729 W. Griffith Way, just west of Cooper Middle School, has had three different owners since Saroyan's death in 1981 and has fallen into foreclosure twice, according to Fresno County public property records. Neighbor Ernie Baca said the house has been used as a rental for years and attracted squatters. Today, the home, which bears a plaque honoring the Oscar and Pulitzer Prize winning author, is empty with some windows boarded up and foreclosure notices hanging on the screen door. Documents show Saroyan's home was purchased by the current owners in 2006. Baca says since then the place has slowly deteriorated. He says a new tenant moved in every year and now squatters are taking over. For a place on the city of Fresno's historic registry, there was hope better care would be taken. The small, 114 square meters house was built in 1964. It has three bedrooms and one bathroom. When Saroyan owned it and the house just west of it, fruit trees and weeds grew around the property. Saroyan would pay Baca US$ 30 to water the trees and the weeds when he was away, Baca said with a chuckle. The house was rough like Saroyan who was scruffy with a long mustache, he said. The Saroyan house is on the local register of historic resources. The plaque, which lists 10 pieces of Saroyan's work written while living in the house, was installed in 1989. NBS Default Services, LLC, of Long Beach is handling the foreclosure. The house is scheduled to be auctioned off at 10 a.m. May 5 at the Fresno County Courthouse.

A two-story luxury condo in Manhattan has just become the most expensive apartment ever sold in New York City. A duplex penthouse spanning the top two floors of the One57 condominium tower was sold for $100.5 million, setting a record for the most expensive residential deal ever completed in Manhattan. The apartment, which spans all of the 89th and 90th floors of the 306-meter tower, with almost 1020 square meters, include 6 bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a steam room, a library, and an indoor movie theater. All apartments of this tower have soaring ceilings, rosewood flooring and custom Italian marble baths. Residents of the building also have access to a gaggle of uber luxe amenities, including a gym, a pool and Jacuzzi, a steam room, a library and a screening room. The trophy tower, which is nearly sold out, has attracted local and foreign buyers. Sales at One57 began in 2011 and reached US$ 1 billion in the first six months, including the last record deal. Another duplex at the building, spanning the 75th and 76th floors, is under contract to be sold for more than $90 million to an investment group that includes Bill Ackman. Earlier we reported, that the prime minister of Qatar was ready to plunk down nearly US$ 100 million for the city's most expensive penthouse - an ultra-luxe, two-story pad atop the under-construction One57 condominium. Now, the duplex penthouse owner name wasn't published. And though $100 million may seem like a lot, New York's priciest penthouse will most likely prove to be a savvy investment as more expensive homes continues to go on sale. Already, a tower on 520 Park Avenue has a penthouse on the market for $130 million, and prices are only expected to climb. Previous price record belonged to the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who bought an apartment in New York for US$ 88 million for his student daughter.