One of Ireland’s top investors who gobbled up trophy properties in Manhattan, London and Eastern Europe during the market’s go-go years now owes hundreds of millions of dollars and is holding a global fire sale of his assets.

Derek Quinlan’s first New York City property to get dumped: an Upper East Side townhouse. A buyer has signed a contract to purchase the five-story townhouse at 20 E. 64th St., which had an asking price of $29.5 million, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Quinlan paid $26.2 million for the property in 2005.

That sale and numerous others around the world mark the latest chapter in the rise and fall of one of the most recognizable players in Ireland’s “Celtic Tiger” economy, which boomed in the years leading up to the global recession. The former tax inspector from Dublin, Mr. Quinlan founded his own firm investing money for high-net-worth individuals in 1989. His initial purchase was an ice-cream parlor in a Dublin suburb.

As head of a private-equity firm, he borrowed heavily to make splashy acquisitions at home and abroad. For example, his group paid $1.4 billion for the Savoy Group, which controlled Claridge’s and other posh London hotels, and later bought the Madrid headquarters building of Banco Santander. He managed a fund that once had assets under management of around $15 billion.

Mr. Quinlan also bought a waterfront villa on the Cote D’Azur that had its own discotheque and was located next to homes owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Roman Abramovich, a Russian-born billionaire who owns the U.K.’s Chelsea Football club.

In New York he had his eyes on townhouses. In addition to 20 E. 64th St.—a 25-foot-wide property with its own elevator which he rented out for $90,000 a month—his firm bought another East 64th Street townhouse around the same time for $18.7 million that was once the headquarters of the New York Observer.

Many of his loans had recourse provisions that enabled lenders to go after his personal savings in the case of a default, said a person familiar with the matter. When his investments floundered during the market bust, he owed hundreds of millions in debt.

Mr. Quinlan resigned from his private-equity firm, which was renamed Avestus Capital Partners, in 2009 and moved to Switzerland. He couldn’t be reached for comment.

To pay back his creditors, Mr. Quinlan has put up for sale several of his marquee holdings, including stakes in the Banco Santander building and the Citibank tower in London. In that city, he has already sold a house in the Mayfair neighborhood, a DKNY building and the Asprey building on Bond Street.

In New York, he first listed 20 East 64th St. with Prudential Douglas Elliman in 2009, then with Leslie J. Garfield. It is now in contract, according to people familiar with the matter. The sale price and buyer’s identity aren’t known.

The other townhouse, 54 East 64th St., was listed for $25 million through Sotheby’s International Realty but was recently taken off the market.

Despite setting up a New York office and meeting with lenders and potential investors in the city, Mr. Quinlan never got very far in the U.S., buying Chicago property, a Georgia golf resort and some land in Southern California before the market turned.

Mr. Quinlan’s personal debts to the National Asset Management Agency, an Irish government agency created to buy up risky loans from Irish banks, are around €230 million ($340 million), according to London’s Sunday Times. He has paid off about €140 million from property sales in the past year.

After he failed to agree on a debt repayment plan with the National Asset Management Agency, the agency took control of some of his property and debts outstanding.

Report by CRAIG KARMIN – Wall Street Journal

Despite soaring gas prices and other tough economic news, there may be a silver lining: housing. That’s right, if you can afford it — it’s could actually be a great time to buy a new home.

CBS News Business and Economics Correspondent Rebecca Jarvis explained mortgage rates are headed lower again.

She said, “What you saw in most of 2010 is mortgage rates closer to four percent on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. Now, they’re closer to five, but they’re coming down a bit, 4.87 percent is the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. But a lot of analysts think they could be going up again.”

But how about home prices?

“Home prices are a big concern for many economists because we’re beginning to see the signs of a double dip,” she said. “In 2006, they hit their peak. By 2009, they see the trough. Here in 2011, they’ve turned away again. They’re heading lower again and that can be a significant concern because if we see prices continue to head lower, then of course, the housing market continues to head lower.”

Jarvis noted the median home price in the U.S. is $158,800. She said many states across the country are experiencing a double dip in mortgage rates.

She explained, “Where we are seeing the most significant downward pressure is interesting because it’s really throughout the country from the Midwest, where you have Chicago and Detroit that are heading lower to the east where you have New York, Charlotte, also heading lower. And then in the West, nothing is really immune here. You have Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle, also lower.”

Wragge said, “Vegas, Phoenix and Florida, especially have been hit. I mean, they were place we’ve really known got hit.”

“They were hit in the beginning and they’re getting hit again,” Jarvis said.

But how do you buy a new home today? What’s changed?

Wragge observed, “You just can’t walk in and get a loan from a bank. You have to have serious money if you want to get in.”

Jarvis said, “You need big money up front. Back in 2007, could you get a loan for two percent down. Nowadays, you need 27 percent down payment, so you have to pay for almost a quarter of the house up front — or even more than a quarter of the house.”

She added, “And you have it think long-term. This isn’t a short-term buy and flip. This is a long term hold.”

Report by Rebecca Jarvis – CBS News

According to a global survey, New York is ranked the No. 1 city for foreign real estate investors in 2011, reports Crain’s New York.

The Big Apple beat out London and Washington to become the favorite with investors for the upcoming year (moving up from the third place spot in 2010), according to the annual survey of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate.

What does this mean? At least a few people have hope for the 2011 economic landscape.

“As the fear of a double-dip recession has faded, investors are becoming more enthusiastic about the prospects for the U.S. economy and are taking aim at real estate investment opportunities,” AFIRE Executive Director James Fetgatter told the Washington Business Journal.

The Journal also reports that a whopping 72% of AFIRE members surveyed plan to invest more in the U.S. this year.

Globally, Washington reportedly came in second place, followed by London in third. The top five favorite cities in the U.S. were New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Report by Nicole Carter – NY DAILY NEWS

Fifth Avenue is situated in the centre of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The Avenue starts at Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village and runs in a northerly direction through the heart of Midtown along the eastern side of Central Park. It then becomes part of the boundary of the Upper East Side and ends at the Harlem River at 142nd. Street.

The Avenue has many spectacular and famous landmarks and is lined with luxury retail stores. It has some of the most expensive real estate in the United States.

A 800 square foot one bedroom condo can cost a million dollars upward, go get!

Find out more about real estate in New York.