A report from the Wall Street Journal on California. “Over a decade ago, Jeff Greene earned a fortune betting against risky mortgages in the last housing market crash. These days, the billionaire is finding himself less lucky in a different real-estate investment—an enormous Los Angeles mansion that he is having trouble selling amid an oversupply of such homes.”

“Mr. Greene said he is planning to once again relist the Beverly Hills home for $129 million, down from its original $195 million asking price when he first listed it in 2014. ‘This house has been a terrible deal for me,’ he said. ‘We’re into this thing for probably $80 million or $90 million at least. We’ll be lucky if we get our money back after years of carrying costs.’”

“Mr. Greene is hardly the only one having trouble selling a big Los Angeles property. Builders of some of the city’s grandest and most ambitiously priced estates have been significantly lowering their price tags in recent months as they contend with high mansion inventory and recession jitters.”

“On the whole, sales of Los Angeles homes priced at $10 million or more have taken a tumble over the past year, said Michael Nourmand of Nourmand & Associates, a luxury brokerage. His firm’s data shows that, in the first three quarters of the year, sales at that price point were down about 16% from the year prior.”

“A few years ago, sellers were pricing far too ambitiously in a bid for attention, Mr. Nourmand said. Now, such properties are sitting on the market. ‘It’s understood that, at the very high end, the price is more of a suggestion than a firm price,’ he said. ‘But days on market are a seller’s enemy.’”

“Mr. Greene and his family have only spent about two weeks there in the past year, he said, noting that he considers the whole project a mistake. ‘I totally regret it, wish I never did it,’ he said, noting that he first saw the property in the newspaper. ‘I thought it was a deal. I’m thinking ‘Wow, this will be cool. Let’s try living in a giant big mansion.’ I don’t even like sleeping in the place. It’s too big.’”

“Mr. Greene noted that the overdevelopment of luxury homes extends across the country to New York, where he is building a high-rise condo project. It’s never been so important to have ‘staying power,’ he said. ‘If somebody has to sell today and they have high end real estate, they’re probably in panic mode and they should be in panic mode,’ he said.”

From Scarsdale 10583 in New York. “How is the real estate market shaping up for 2019? We asked Angela Retelny from Compass Real Estate to give us her analysis of 2019. There was an 8.2% decrease in the median selling price which dropped from $1,525,000 to $1,400,000 in 2019 while the average selling price was down 12.7% from $1,847,329 in the first three quarters of 2018 to $1,611,921.”

“Retelny said, ‘The bottom line is that more transactions took place as buyers took advantage of lower prices and enjoyed great values while many sellers who were ready to move on met the market at the new levels. Some sellers who have been on the market for a while are ready to move on and prepared to make deals at prices they were not entertaining earlier in the year.’”

The Boston Herald in Massachusetts. “Boston is fast becoming New York, one shiny glass luxury building at a time. The South End has been taking on a northern NYC borough feel for years, with high-end condos and stores dotting Harrison Avenue like so many Monopoly hotels.”

“The new kid on the literal block is Related Beal who, as the Herald’s Sean Philip Cotter reported, filed a letter of intent with the Boston Planning & Development Agency on Monday to build on the 5.5-acre parcel it paid $218 million for in May from Gillette. The new residential building would be a stone’s throw from 315 at A and 318 Congress — two very snazzy, modern, amenity-enhanced luxe apartment buildings. What’s the incentive to spend all that money on construction, and not recoup it with competitive rents?”

“Southie officials are rightly worried — where there’s development, there’s usually ritzy rents. ‘We don’t need any more luxury condo units — that’s for sure,’ said at-large City Councilor Michael Flaherty, who’s from Southie.”