US News

HOUSE-BROKE HAMPTONS

Wall Street woes have wreaked havoc on Hamptons real estate, drying up demand and forcing the rich and famous to swallow millions of dollars in order to get bites on their exclusive estates.

Financier John Veronis knocked off nearly $20 million to unload his oceanfront property in Southampton Village. He finally sold the nine-bedroom mansion for $27 million on Jan. 2 – after initially listing it for $45 million in late 2007. The couple reportedly bought the home for $3.7 million in 1992.

Others have had less luck unloading their swanky digs, even after slashing prices.

Hedge-fund manager John Paulson has yet to find a buyer on his seven-bedroom cottage-style Southampton home on Ox Pasture Road.

The price tag, originally $19.5 million in April, was marked down to $13.9 million in November. Paulson purchased the estate for $12.75 million in 2006.

Foreclosure has forced Christie Brinkley’s cad ex-husband, Peter Cook, to put property on the auction block.

An eight-bedroom Bridgehampton house he designed and owns a small share of will go on the block next month, with bids starting at $11.8 million. There were two years of no takers at the $27 million asking price.

The softening market comes in the wake of a widening mortgage crisis, a painful recession and the collapse of investment firms like Lehman Brothers – whose executives once plunked down big bonuses on vacation estates.

Sales of homes in Long Island’s South Fork slid nearly 50 percent in 2008 compared to sales a year earlier, from 1,962 to 996, according to East End real estate firm Town & Country.

Prices plummeted too, with Corcoran estimating the total value of 2008 sales in Southampton and East Hampton down 46 percent, from $3.7 billion in 2007 to about $2 billion last year.

“That was a little eye-popping,” said Judi Desiderio, president of Town & Country.

Former US Attorney Robert Rust knocked $20 million off his sprawling 55-acre North Haven property, which offers breathtaking views of Shelter Island.

It’s now priced at $60 million after languishing on the market since January 2007. Rust inherited the property from an aunt, who reportedly bought it a half-century ago for $200,000.

Dennis Suskind, retired founding partner at Goldman Sachs, has shaved $10 million from his original asking price of $27 million for his nine-bedroom Bridgehampton estate. The 11.5-acre property went on the market in October 2007.

But brokers agree that there are bargains to be had.

“I would say that there is some isolated fire sales going on,” said Michael Daly, principal broker of True North Realty Associates, a buyers’ brokerage.

jfanelli@nypost.com