Mansion markdowns

Goldman Sachs hotshot Jon Winkelried apparently never got the memo about the real estate downturn.

The co-president of the Wall Street powerhouse put his Nantucket waterfront estate on the market last month for a whopping $55 million. That’s real money even on Nantucket, where the current record for a property sale, while less than half that, is still an eye-popping $26.5 million.

But Winkelried’s chances of notching a real estate record are now looking slimmer by the day, with the nation’s hard times taking a toll on previously immune mansion sales.

Barron’s, in a recent cover story on the fading market for mega homes, notes that mansion prices have already tumbled 20 percent since their peak last year. And the real estate execs who show these palaces predict another 10-to-15 percent drop before this very high-end of the market hits bottom.

The story includes all sorts of tales of woe that will certainly bring a tear to the eye of your average homeowner muddling through the worst real estate market since the Great Depression.

There’s oh-so-sad story of the late Brooke Astor’s 14-room duplex on Park Avenue in New York. It’s been marked down to an unsightly $34 million. I guess the original price, $46 million, didn’t find any takers.

Hedge fund manager John Paulson has also been forced to face real estate reality as well, knocking down the price of his seven-bedroom Southampton getaway from nearly $20 million to $13.9 million.

Something is telling me that our friend at Goldman Sachs may soon follow suit when it comes to the $55 million price-tag on his own little Nantucket escape.