Top-Priced U.S. Property Reduced by $50 Million

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The owners of a 50-acre Greenwich, Connecticut estate that hit the market in May with the record-setting price of $190 million have slashed the price to a more pedestrian $140 million. 

Known as Copper Beech Farm, the estate was touted as the most expensive home ever formally listed in the United States. But the $50 million price cut moves it below a 1,750-acre ranch in Wyoming listed at $175 million, according to Curbed.

Copper Beach Farm could also be called one of the "most-heavily-mortgaged homes in America," as it carries more than $120 million in debt, according to The New York Times.

Since acquiring the property in 1982, timber mogul John Rudey and his family took out various mortgages on the house, at one point reaching a total debt of $203 million, the paper reported.

The 50.6-acre estate features a 13,519-square-foot, 12-bedroom, seven-bath mansion, two undeveloped islands and 4,000 feet of private shoreline, according to the listing. The Victorian mansion was built in 1898 and was once owned by Harriet Lauder Greenway, the daughter of George Lauder who helped found U.S. Steel.

The Colonial estate also features a 75-foot pool, two greenhouses, a grass tennis court and a 1,800-foot-long driveway.

The Greenwich estate is still considered the most expensive private mansion on the market in the U.S. The next most expensive mansion is a Dallas home listed for $135 million, Curbed reports. 

But prices are a moving target at the ultra-high end of the market. Copper Beach Farm is the latest example of properties that have entered with lucrative price tags only to see dramatic price drops. 

Unique and luxurious properties can be difficult to value accurately as there are rarely comparable sales, experts say. But it seems the Greenwich estate's listing agent knew that from the beginning. 

"It's one of these things where you cannot look and say 'It's worth X,' because there's nothing like it," David Ogilvy, of David Ogilvy & Associates, told The Wall Street Journal. The last 50-acre waterfront estate in Greenwich was sold in 1954 and then subdivided. 

Other high-priced properties have endured similar price cuts. The famed South Beach mansion once owned by Versace sold at auction last week for $41.5 million after originally hitting the market priced at $125 million. Leona Helmsley's Dunnellen Hall also entered the market priced at $125 million in 2007 and sold three years later for the much lower $35 million.