From the South Florida Web site: The transformation of the Palm
Beach home of Bernie Madoff is complete, from trophy mansion to a
target of picture-snapping tourists and troops of teenagers
toilet-papering his house in retribution for the loss of their trust
funds. The biggest public slam to Madoff just came from a court-hired
appraiser who reported the house had dropped in value from $9.4 million
in 2008 to $7.45 million in 2009. Palm Beach County, known for its
lowball values, had appraised the home at $7.45 million in 2007,
according to property records. Some real estate experts have pointed to
the Madoff house as an indicator of the posh playground’s overall drop
in residential values. Since the height of the market during the summer
of 2006, values have dropped 20 percent. But across the bridge in West
Palm Beach, the city on the intracoastal waterway, once designed as
servants’ quarters to the winter retreat for the wealthy, values have
dropped 50 percent or more. In Palm Beach island, where the ugly or
uncivilized is often hidden, The Real Deal was able to uncover
only one foreclosure, a $10 million manse owned by Tom Petters, a
Minnesota businessman who was indicted in December on 20 counts arising
from a $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme. Most homes on the island have no
mortgages, according to area bankers and real estate experts, making
foreclosures rare. [more]