The New York Times has a fascinating profile of Nick Martin, who owns property in Tupper Lake and taught for awhile at Paul Smiths College.<\/p>\n
Martin inherited more than $10 million from his father, but the recession and the housing collapse triggered his family’s financial fall from grace.<\/p>\n
Now scraping out a living in Kansas, Martin’s new existence is “a far cry from the life that Mr. Martin and his family enjoyed until recently at their Adirondacks waterfront camp at Tupper Lake, N.Y.”<\/p>\n
Their garage held three stylish cars, including a yellow Aston Martin; they owned three horses, one that cost $173,000; and Mr. Martin treated his wife, Kate, to a birthday weekend at the Waldorf-Astoria, with dinner at the \u201c21\u201d Club and a $7,000 mink coat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
After pouring $5.3 million into the Tupper Lake property, Martin planned to move there full time with his family.<\/p>\n
Then came the financial crisis. The markets plunged, as did the value of the Martins\u2019 trust. By fall 2008, with much of the family\u2019s net worth tied up in housing, Mr. Martin faced a series of margin calls.<\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
The family ultimately put the Adirondacks property on the market for $4.9 million, then quickly slashed the price by half. Last month, the Martins got an offer for just half of the latest $2.5 million asking price.<\/p>\n
They have stopped making payments on their $1.1 million mortgage and their $53,000 in annual property taxes in the Adirondacks…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It’s a painful story and has painful implications for Adirondack communities, which have relied on high-flying property-tax appraisals, and the construction jobs of a second-home boom, to drive their economies.<\/p>\n