Greenwich Estates Slash Prices: Unreal Estate

GREENWICH, Conn. (TheStreet) --- Welcome to Greenwich, where a $30 million house is considered priced to move and a 40-acre estate can be called "discounted" at $60 million.

Last month, the estate of property tycoon Leona Helmsley dropped the price on her 22,000-square-foot summer home, Dunnellen Hall, to $60 million from $75 million. The site originally hit the market at $125 million last year. Greenwich's living residents have had similar difficulty, with actor Mel Gibson reducing the price of his 75-acre, 15,000 square-foot estate to $29.75 million from $39.5 million in 2007.

Discounted home prices have trickled through Greenwich like the Mianus River. Sales have fallen 46% during the first nine months of this year to $623 million from $1.15 billion a year earlier, according to Shore & Country Properties. Just 245 homes have been sold, down from 406.

Dunnellen Hall has 14 bedrooms.

"We're about three-quarters of the speed of what we're usually doing," says Joe Barbieri, the Sotheby's(BID Quote) broker who represents Gibson's property. "In stronger markets, these properties weren't untouchable, but they weren't as much of a bargain."

In this area of Connecticut, about 30 miles north of Manhattan, bargain is a relative term. Leona and Harry Helmsley purchased Dunnellen Hall in 1983 for $11 million and gave it an $8 million renovation that included a million-dollar dance floor, an extra 14 acres and 18 months in federal prison for Leona for charging the upgrades to the company account.

So what do you get for the extra $40 million on Dunnellen's list price? The 70-foot marble reflecting pool with triple-tiered fountain at the top of the driveway is just a start. The 1,125-square-foot living room would be a two-bedroom apartment in most cities, but is lost among the mansion's 14 bedrooms, which include servants' quarters and three-bedroom cottages on the grounds. The indoor and outdoor pools and views of Long Island Sound are also nice touches.