Anka Drops Anchor

Singer and songwriter Paul Anka recently paid $1 million for a condo at the Park Towers condominium in Las Vegas, public records show. The contemporary of Elvis Presley and composer of "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" and the theme from "The Tonight Show" in its Johnny Carson days bought a two-bedroom, 2½-bath, 2,100-square-foot apartment in the 17-story luxury building. Earlier this summer, Mr. Anka and his ex-wife, Anne, sold their home in a gated community near Beverly Hills for $5.9 million. Mr. Anka declined to comment. Park Towers, located at Howard Hughes Center and started in the late 1990s, was one of the first two luxury residential high-rise condominiums to go up in Vegas (the other, also a late '90s development, is Turnberry Place). Casino mogul Steve Wynn and real-estate developer Irving Molasky developed Park Towers, a two-tower building with concierge service and its own spa. Other residents of Park Towers include Tim Poster, the Internet mogul turned Golden Nugget casino owner, and the co-owner of the Golden Nugget, Tom Breitling (the two star in Fox's new reality show "The Casino"). Lately Las Vegas has seen a boom in high-rise construction. Eleven new condos are preselling units, says agent Cindy DellaValle of Vertical Properties Group and, based on her own estimates, she expects new projects to nearly double in the next two years.

Whoopi in Vermont

Actress Whoopi Goldberg paid $950,000 for a 745-acre retreat near Brattleboro, Vt., a few months ago, public records show. The property, which had been listed at $985,000, includes a Colonial-style clapboard house. The sellers were Jennifer Ramstetter, a college biology professor, and her husband, Brian McNeice, a farmer. The partially fenced land comes with a barn, pond, stream, river, a shed, mountain views and wooded trails. Berkley & Veller Greenwood Country Realtors listed and sold the property.

Palm Beach's Hot Summer

This is supposed to be the slow season for Palm Beach real estate, but the home of Lawrence Ladove -- former president of LaDove, a Miami Lakes, Fla., personal-care products company now run by his daughter, Sheree -- was listed at $15 million in mid-July, and went into contract a week later.

Home View/Refinancing

The uptick in interest rates, as many predicted, has drastically slowed consumer interest in refinancing. In its latest long-range forecast, the Mortgage Bankers Association predicts that refinancings will drop 54%, to $191 billion, in the third quarter of 2004 from the second quarter. The trade association also expects that refinancings will only reach $127 billion in the fourth quarter of this year, a 34% decline.

Meanwhile, a recent survey of 881 respondents around the country by Domania.com, found that while nearly 30% have refinanced multiple times since they've been homeowners, only 13% say they're still planning on refinancing.

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