Even the 1% Are Selling Their Mansions At Auctions

After languishing on the market for years and steadily getting price-chopped, mansions and estates are hitting the auction block. Candace Jackson explains this has always been a last-resort move, and an unusual one for the wealthy.

1 minute read

November 18, 2011, 12:00 AM PST

By Tim Halbur


Brittany Spears' former home? Listed at $10.8 million, went to auction with a starting bid of $4.5 million.

"As the housing slump drags on, the carrying costs of waiting out the market have become onerous, even for the wealthiest," Candace Jackson explains in the Wall St. Journal:

"A seller who put a home on the market in 2009 hoping that a turnaround was on the horizon may now be realizing that it could take several years or more for the market to rebound."

Friday, November 18, 2011 in The Wall St. Journal

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