It's always entertaining to watch Wall Streeters who can't admit that they made a bad trade in real estate

Stone-clad elephant

9 Sabine Farm, originally listed for $31.5 million with 19 acres, is, as of today, down to $20 million, but that's because the owner has carved up the property, and is now offering it as an aging mansion on just 9 acres, along with two separate lots of 7.5 acres and 4 at $7.5 and $4, respectively. In other words, $31.5 million, total, still. 

I guffawed at this listing when it hit the market in March, and I'm still chuckling. The billionaire owner, Stanley Drukenmiller, is a George Soros crony, and if anyone should know a down-market, he's the guy. But rather than admit that he overpaid for the property in the first place, and compounded his error by sinking millions in renovating the old carcass, he's playing investment banker, and trying to convince himself that he can unlock the "real" value of the property by splitting it into pieces. There are several problems with this strategy: First, he over-paid for the whole; second, a 19-acre manse is not the same as a mansion with two huge new houses crammed next to it; and third, building lots up here aren't selling for a million bucks an acre.

Back in March I predicted that this property would sit on the market for years, suffering a long series of humiliating price cuts. Nothing in today's events tempts me to change that opinion.