The Biggest Real Estate Flops of 2009

Emerald Caye

Location: Turks and Caicos

Price: $48.5 million

As shaky as the luxury housing's foundation is, it's firm bedrock compared to the drowning private island market. This 30,000-square-foot property on 2.32 acres of island accessible only by a remote-controlled swing bridge was on the market for $75 million last year, but cut its price 35%. As tough as it must have been to discount a three-story library, 6,000 bottle wine cellar, home theater, fitness room, two swimming pools, tennis and volleyball courts, two boat slips and two guesthouses, that's just the way things have been for private island sellers this year.

Nick Hexum of reggae-rock band 311 put his 5.5-acre island in the Florida Keys on the market for $10 million in 2006, but cut the price to $3.85 million this year. The still unsold 1,235-acre Nafsika Island in Greece's Ionian Sea was offered by the Onassis family for more than $21 million before its price was cut in half.