From the South Florida Web site: A multimillion-dollar mansion
sale last week brought the extent of the housing crash home to the very
highest end of the South Florida market. Prices, expectations and
declining property values all played a role in the 40 percent discount
reached in the sale of the Palm Beach Island home of William and Sarah
Farish, politically connected prominent Kentucky horse breeders, who
last week accepted $8.38 million for their mansion at the southern end
of the island. Some realtors gulped when they did the math on the sale.
James Orthwein Jr., a trustee of the James B. Orthwein Jr. Revocable
Trust and a scion of the St. Louis Busch family, paid $5.57 million
less than the asking price of $13.95 million. The comments reveal as
much about the alternate reality of the luxury property market as the
sale itself. [more]