Palm Beach, Florida

Generally the property market in Florida is suffering from the credit crunch but when it comes to the top end of the market there is no problem selling.

One of most expensive, and most discussed, properties in Florida has sold for a whopping $81.5 million, the full asking price.

The modest, in American terms, five-acre waterfront Palm Beach estate was sold by Sidney Kimmel, founder of Jones Apparel and producer of such films as The Kite Runner.

The buyer is reported to be former Goldman Sachs partner John Thornton, who owns a house in London's Belgravia district, as well as an $18 million estate in New Jersey.

Some industry observers scoffed when Kimmel put the property on the market last month, skeptical that anyone would pay that type of money, considering the deteriorating market in Florida.

After all, earlier this year Donald Trump dropped $25 million off the $125 million asking price for his understated Palm Beach estate, the one with gold bathroom fixtures.

But Kimmel's property, designed by New York architect Thierry W. Despont, reportedly attracted a wide variety of interest, including celebrities, sports figures and team owners, wealthy Europeans, a Saudi prince, hedge fund experts, Fortune 500 CEOs and other captains of industry.

The contemporary 30,000-square-foot limestone villa includes wine cellar, massive retractable glass wall panels, a Murano glass-tiled pool, a 27-zone air conditioning system and about 300-feet of oceanfront.

Neighbors include rockstar Rod Stewart, Netscape founder Jim Clark and Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer.

If nothing else, the quick sale should 'scare the living daylights' out of all the folks fretting and fussing about the widening gap between the merely rich and the ridiculously rich.

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