There's a weekend color real estate brochure called View that comes in some newspaper subscriptions, and View is desperately trying to peddle the palaces, mansions and compounds of the rich and famous in Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Malibu, Calabasas and the like.

I doubt they want any press about the fact that Coldwell Banker Previews International is trying very unsuccessfully to sell the famed Brentwood Ranch in Mandeville Canyon, a massive, gorgeous 112-acre hunk of land for raising horses and throwing huge parties.

The Robert Byrd-designed estate has been up for sale for months, and unllike other homes featured on Forbes' list of “America's Most Expensive Homes,” it has remained stubbornly priced at $65 million.

What's the point of pretending they'll get that kind of dough in a recession?  

To quote Forbes:

There's been a lot of denial among luxury homeowners. In 2006, it

was thought that the luxury market wouldn't suffer the same fate as the

broader market. A year later, high-end home buyers were thought to have

endless, deep pockets, further insulating the top-tier from the

cratering economy. As the nation's markets in 2008 went from bad to

worse, some in the industry claimed that the dearth of trophy

properties outstripped supply.

This year, reality set in. No one is buying $100 million homes. Few are buying $30 million homes.

And one other local example of this phenom is the famed Pickfair, the original Mary Pickford estate. Utterly ruined in a bad taste re-do by Pia Zadora and her King Midas husband long ago (they turned into something that looks more like a resort hotel) this manse has been so impossible to pawn off on anyone that a foundation says its is forming to buy the thing.

Maybe some incredibly rich folks from the horsey set will buy the Mandeville Canyon albatross.

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