For a time, 3331 N Street NW was D.C.’s third most expensive house, at a square $10 million. Until yesterday, that is, when after more than four months on the market it took a 20 percent price cut, down to $7.9 million. Only three million more than its 2012 assessed value! Just another illustration that in the real estate stratosphere, list prices mean pretty much nothing at all.

Any reason for the big drop? “Nope, just interested in selling the house,” says listing agent Michael Rankin.

The owner, Garry Crowder (who appears to have put the property in his wife’s name), usually knows how to make a buck—-a hedge fund pioneer, he sold two companies to a multi-national investment bank. By comparison, the profit from having bought the Georgetown house for $6.99 million in 2007 will be pretty slim.