Posted on 12/22/2008 10:14:55 AM PST by marshmallow
NEW YORK — Just months after he was ousted from Lehman Brothers, Joseph Gregory put his mansion in tony Bridgehampton, N.Y., on the market for $32.5-million (U.S.)
The former president of the sinking investment bank could not have picked a worse time.
The Hamptons, a summer vacation playground for New York's financial and celebrity elite, are being hit hard as Wall Street power houses such as Lehman and Bear Stearns succumb to the financial crisis.
According to a report by Douglas Elliman, real estate prices fell 11 per cent in the third quarter in the Hamptons, an exclusive section on the eastern tip of Long Island, less than 60 kilometres from New York City.
According to Mr. Gregory's real estate agent, he and his wife are selling because they spent little time there after purchasing and upgrading the posh property two years ago. But the Gregorys are not the only Wall Streeters opting out of the Hamptons as the financial markets crumble.
The financial sector has announced more than 220,000 job cuts so far this year, the most of any industry, according to a recent report by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
In November alone, there were 91,356 job cuts announced, the report showed. Citigroup plans to eliminate a whopping 52,000 jobs, while Bank of America will cut 35,000, with some of the job losses expected to be in New York.
Wall Streeters who have not lost their job face bonuses that will sharply pale in comparison to previous years. That bonus is the bulk of their compensation.
“There is a palpable fear I sense right now from people who realize they may be in over their heads with a mortgage or are anxious about selling their homes,” said Diane Saatchi, senior vice-president at Corcoran Group Real Estate....
(Excerpt) Read more at business.theglobeandmail.com ...
The big lie has been exposed.
Yep. Nothing to look forward to now but a lifetime of leisure and wealth.
Let me get my hankie....nahhhh, nevermind.
Geez, I could hardly finish reading the story through the tears. Mr. Gregory, cry me a river, build a bridge and get over it. After your $29 million BONUS last year, you are better positioned to survive these hard times than the average Joe.
boo-frickin-hoo
Butlers will have to dress down..
Oh no! Does this mean that Spalding and Buffy won’t be getting their summer homes in Palm Beach remodeled this year?
Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode of The Rich and the Clueless!!
Awwwwwwww
Poor terrified millionaires. Their doctors( prescriptions) and psychiatrists will make a fortune.
Perhaps they should use what few millions they have left to buy some good judgment ?
Story at the link also has some pretty cool pictures of the little hacienda.
“There’s no house!!!!”
People like this only give fuel to the left.
People like this ARE the left.
beat me to it...
Just a shack compared to Newport's cottages.
“..won’t be getting their summer homes in Palm Beach remodeled this year?”
Law of unintended consequences. Small business will suffer.
Not one of them heeded warnings that what they we were doing was a colossus mistake and instead mocked any voice of sanity. And now, we are to feel sorry of them?
These arrogant elitists at best need to spend the rest of their working years flipping hamburgers or in soup lines; may their children never go to college since I am sure they would only emulate the arrogant elitism of their parents.
You got that right.
We toured two Vanderbilt "cottages" last summer.
The smaller one (the "marble" cottage) was claimed by the tour program (you listen to this little i-pod player, not to a live guide, in the marble cottage) to contain 500,000 square feet of marble. I confess, I didn't actually believe that figure. I think they got it wrong. The hoity-toity are often unreliable when it comes to figures, at least in my experience.
The big mansion had hot and cold running seawater in the bathtubs, in addition to fresh water.
By the way, the tourguide in the larger cottage mentioned that a Vanderbilt decendent is, at present, a well-known media personality. Would anyone care to guess the name she revealed?
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