No buyers for New Jersey's most expensive house

New York

WHEN real estate developer Richard Kurtz put his 30,000-square-foot, 12-bedroom, 19-bath home on the market for US$68 million in 2010, it was the most expensive property in New Jersey. Seven years later, the house, which sits on about 2.5 hectares in Alpine, a suburb nearly 13 kilometres from New York City, remains both unsold and at the top of the market. The only change is its price: It will soon be relisted for a mere US$48 million.

"I'm not giving it away," Mr Kurtz said in a phone interview. "There's a lot of house, with a lot of value, and a very smart buyer will recognise that." He's in no rush to sell it, he said. "I could sit with it for another four or five years," he continued. "But I'd prefer not to." If it remains in his possession for an additional four or five years - an unenviable situation, given that he has never lived in it and said it costs him about US$400,000 a year to maintain - it will probably be for reasons similar to why it's been sitting on the market for years in the first place.