Los Angeles Times

Once listed for $1 billion. Sold for $100,000. What just happened?

LOS ANGELES - A heated court battle, a last-second offer and a sparsely attended auction behind a fountain in Pomona - this chapter of the famed Mountain of Beverly Hills ends not with a princely sum but a sale price more like that of a sports car.

Touted as the city's finest undeveloped piece of land, the 157-acre property redefined the luxury market when it listed for a record $1 billion last year. On Tuesday, it sold for a mere $100,000 at a foreclosure auction, a fraction of the $200-million loan outstanding on the property.

A markdown like that, of course, comes with some fine print. Any other buyer would have been on the hook to repay that loan

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