Tales from the Trail

Muddy manse

Corbett B. Daly

Dec 17, 2009 15:37 EST

Selling your house? Worried about having to lower the price to get it to move?

How about a $1.275 million price reduction? That’s how much former Fannie Mae CEO Daniel H. Mudd had to cut the asking price on his 11,500 square foot, six bedroom, six full bath (plus three half baths) mansion to find a buyer.  Originally listed for $8.9 million on September 11, the transaction closed on December 11 for $7.625 million.

Don’t worry too much for Mr. Mudd, though. He paid $5.15 million for the place in June 2000, leaving him with a 48 percent return on his investment, excluding any renovation costs. And even though he was booted from Fannie Mae when the government took over the housing giant in September 2008 and reportedly wasn’t paid his multi-million dollar severance package, he’s landed on his feet. New York’s Fortress Investment Group named him CEO in August.

Wondering what you could have bought from the son of the former NBC News anchor Roger Mudd? Here’s the listing agent’s description:

Bushes buy a house in tony Dallas neighborhood

Jeremy Pelofsky

Dec 4, 2008 13:51 EST

WASHINGTON – Moving day is less than seven weeks away for President George W. and Laura Bush and they have finally settled on a house in the upscale Dallas, Texas neighborhood of Preston Hollow.

The neighborhood is about a 2-hour, 20-minute drive from their 1,600-acre (648-hectare) ranch in Crawford, Texas (according to Google Maps) which they also plan to keep.

“The President and Mrs. Bush do not have occupancy of the home, and therefore, no additional details will be provided,” said Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for the first lady. She declined to say whether the Bushes plan to take advantage of a drop in mortgage rates to buy the new digs.

The Dallas Morning News reported that the president’s personal accountant, as a trustee, had bought a home — valued at almost $2.08 million despite not officially being on the market — in the area on Oct. 3. He declined to tell the newspaper for whom he had bought the house (which has four bedrooms, 8,501 square feet (790 sq metres) of living space including servants’ quarters). 

The newspaper also said that a local blog reported that the house next door  — on the market for $1.6 million — was placed under contract last week but the buyer was not yet known.

And as much as Bush loves the Crawford ranch where he has built bike trails, he will likely be spending a good bit of time in Dallas to oversee his library, museum and an institute on freedom on the campus of Southern Methodist University.

Mrs. Bush on Wednesday was asked by reporters about what she was buying the president for Christmas and she replied that with the sour economy the money likely would be spent on the new home.