Billionaire real estate developer Jeff Greene might enter the Democratic Senate primary race in Florida, a source told the Washington Post. Greene, who made was made wealthy in large part because of his bets against the subprime mortgage market, had reportedly been mulling a run as an independent, but since Gov. Charlie Crist now seems to be leaning toward that route, Greene is instead considering a challenge to Rep. Kendrick Meek, who is running as a Democrat. Greene’s net worth of $1.5 billion makes him one of the world’s 400 richest people and therefore, a formidable opponent to any politician. [Washington Post, 1st item] 

While a tough 2009 made people reset their expectations, Pamela Liebman, the Corcoran Group’s president and CEO, told the Palm Beach Daily News she thinks the number of transactions nationwide will likely rise this year, though the dollar volume will not. Palm Beach, in particular, has been slow to recover. “It still feels the drag of the overall housing glut in Florida,” Liebman said. Her near-term outlook for Palm Beach and Delray Beach, however, is upbeat. Corcoran, which was the listing broker for the 2009 record $24 million sale of La Bellucia mansion and is also marketing Bernard Madoff’s five-bedroom Palm Beach home, has worked on getting buyers and sellers on the same page. “I think for a long time in all of our markets, whether it was Palm Beach or the Hamptons or New York City, there was a lot of talk about people wanting luxury and ‘the biggest’ and ‘the best’ — the biggest apartment, the best views, the most oceanfront,” Liebman, 47, said. “People are buying properties again for themselves to enjoy, not to make a statement about their life and how much money they have.” Leibman, who said she stays in her Miami home at least twice a month, said that international buyers — many from South America and Russia — are in the market, as are Europeans “but not as strong as they were.”
[Palm Beach Daily News]

One of Palm Beach’s leading market watchers believes the tony island’s luxury real estate market is on the rebound this year.

Leslie Roberts Evans, a Palm Beach attorney who tracks and reports sales of single-family homes and condominiums in his quarterly Evans Report Analysis, said interest in Palm Beach properties is rebounding. Based on a spate of high-profile December sales, including the sale of the year — a $24 million deal for the landmarked Addison Mizner home La Bellucia, at 1200 S. Ocean Drive — Evans likes the outlook for 2010.

“There’s still apprehension, but people are looking forward and realizing that Palm Beach has some very good deals,” he said. “Houses in Palm Beach are a type of commodity. There’s only a limited number, and, if there is inflation, home prices in Palm Beach will rise, whereas a CD or some other investments may not have that protection.” [more]

Jeff Greene, who recently purchased the La Bellucia mansion in Palm Beach County’s largest sale of 2009, was made a billionaire largely with the success of his bet against the subprime mortgage market. But the swaggering figure the Wall Street Journal dubbed the “Meltdown Mogul” doesn’t come off as such, the Miami Herald wrote in a profile of the South Floridian investor this week. Green said his own father’s story — one of a small New England businessman who worked in vain to fight trends of cheaper labor migrating jobs to the South — impressed on him how fates can change. He said his own belief that the real estate market had become unmoored was the reason his wealth is now at an estimated $1.3 billion. His bet on the opposite side of market calls by the largest institutions of Wall Street, which were snapping up mortgage bonds, including billions in subprime adjustable-rate loans, worked well for Greene. [Miami Herald]

The big deals came back to Palm Beach’s mansion market when La Bellucia, a storied house in the ultra-rich island’s property pantheon, sold for $24 million. Sources told the Palm Beach Daily News that the sale was the county’s largest on record in 2009. The nine-bedroom house, located at 1200 S. Ocean Boulevard and designed by Palm Beach’s best known architect, Addison Minzer, was purchased by Los Angeles real estate developer and billionaire Jeffrey Greene. First Allied Jacksonville, a Rochester, N.Y.-based holding company owned by Palm Beach resident Malcolm Glazer, a billionaire sports team owner, sold the 12,000-square foot estate, which encompasses 3.8 acres. Paulette Koch and Dana Koch, Corcoran Group associates and partners, listed the trophy property for $27.5 million. [Palm Beach Daily News]