Comic sells 4-acre California retreat

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres has found a buyer for her $24 million Santa Barbara County estate and recently bought a furnished house in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The property in contract is her four-acre Montecito retreat. The 49-year-old talk-show host bought the compound just 14 months ago, paying $15.75 million, and made some improvements, local brokers said. The property includes a 1926 Mediterranean-style house, two guest houses, a tennis court and a pool. The deal's sale price could not be determined. Suzanne Perkins, of Sotheby's International Realty, has the listing.

DeGeneres also recently purchased the roughly 6,000-square-foot Beverly Hills home of Max Mutchnick, a co-creator of the hit sitcom "Will & Grace." DeGeneres knows Mutchnick, 42, from her guest-starring role on his sitcom. The sale price included many home furnishings and art, a person familiar with the deal said. The television producer bought the 1.75-acre property for $5.8 million in 2004, according to records, and renovated extensively. No brokers were involved in her deal with Mutchnick.

DeGeneres is under fire for continuing to tape her syndicated daytime talk show despite the Hollywood writers' strike. She has said she was contractually obligated to keep working.

From hedge fund to 1729 house

Daniel Goldring, a partner with hedge fund Perry Capital, and his wife, Libby, have purchased a northwestern Connecticut house dating to 1729 for $6.3 million.

Known as Yale Farm, the 17-room compound had a most recent asking price of just under $6.5 million. Located in the village of Lakeville, 105 miles north of Manhattan, the 21-acre property includes a roughly 9,000-square-foot, four-bedroom home, a five-bedroom guest house of about 2,500 square feet, a grass tennis court, a pool, two apple orchards, grape arbors and other outbuildings. It's adjacent to a land preserve.

Attorney John J. Jerome and his wife, Maureen, a local developer of high-end homes, paid $1.54 million for the property in 1998, records show, and renovated extensively. The deal may be the largest home sale this year in Litchfield County, where many New Yorkers have second homes. Elyse Harney, of her own firm, had the listing. Roger Saucy, of Klemm Real Estate, represented the buyers.