From $63M for five bedrooms to $32M for a house on half an acre: Palm Beach property sales in 2023 cast yet MORE doubt on the Trump judge's 'absurd' decision that the 58-bedroom, 17-acre Mar-a-Lago estate is worth just $18M

Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's sweeping coastal estate in Palm Beach, Florida, has 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms and sits on 17 acres of land. A judge at the former president's ongoing tax fraud trial has said the property is worth around $18 million.

Less than a mile away, one of Trump's neighbors on the sun-soaked strip dubbed 'billionaire's row' recently sold their comparatively modest home at 845 S County Road. The mansion has five bedrooms, nine bathrooms and sits on a two-acre lot.

The property changed hands on May 22 for $63,431,750 - more than triple Mar-a-Lago's supposed price tag.

It's one of dozens of transactions in Palm Beach this year of properties far smaller than Mar-a-Lago fetching sums far greater than the judge's valuation of Trump's club. 

Others include a five-bedroom, seven-bathroom property on a half-acre lot which sold in January for $45 million and a five-bedroom, six-bathroom home on 0.4 acres which fetched $41.3 million in May.

Realtors who work in Palm Beach's multi-billion dollar property market say the 2023 sales records reviewed by DailyMail.com prove Mar-a-Lago has been 'insanely undervalued' - a move which threatens to undermine the broader case against Trump.

Mar-a-Lago's valuation is a central element of the fraud case filed in New York against Trump and his companies. The case led by New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges he vastly overvalued his assets in financial statements that were used to secure bank loans.

In one statement, Trump claimed Mar-a-Lago is worth $739 million.

James' case has used the valuation by the Palm Beach county tax appraiser, which said Mar-a-Lago is worth between $18 million and $27 million, to argue that Trump hugely inflated the price of the resort.

The appraiser's valuation is based on Mar-a-Lago's income as a private club, which has a $200,000 initiation fee and $20,000-a-year fees, rather than its market value as a property.

The presiding judge, Arthur Engoron, agreed with that assessor's amount - which is used to determine how much property tax is paid - and said it meant Trump had overvalued Mar-a-Lago by as much as 2,300 percent.

'That Mar a Lago would be worth $18 million is so absurd. It's beyond comprehension. How they can say that's realistic. It's just laughable,' said Rob Thomson, a prominent Palm Beach realtor whose total sales volume exceeds $3.5 billion.

Thompson said it would fetch 'hundreds of millions of dollars'. 

Mar-a-Lago is difficult to value accurately because there are no other properties like it in Palm Beach.

Built for Marjorie Merriweather Post and completed in 1927, it occupies a lot far larger than any other properties, has National Historic Landmark Status and was built before planning laws were introduced that mean a similar development in the area would be impossible today.

Crucially, deed restrictions also mean it must also maintain its club use, so it would be incredibly difficult for a buyer to turn the entire property into a private residence. 

But realtors say that restriction is nowhere near enough to bring the valuation down to the tax assessor's range. A new owner could maintain a private residence there, just like Trump does, while still operating the club.

Thomson told DailyMail.com any sale would trigger a billionaires' bidding war.

'Mega billionaires would absolutely fight over Mar-a-Lago if it went up for sale,' he said.

At Trump's trial, fellow Palm Beach real estate mogul Lawrence Moens testified that Mar-a-Lago could be worth in excess of $1 billion.

From the witness stand, he told Judge Engoron that 'kings, emperors, heads of state' and billionaires 'from Elon Musk to Bill Gates' would line up to purchase the property in the highly unlikely event Trump decided to sell.

Last year, Moens brokered the sale of Ivana Trump's former Palm Beach home at 102 Jungle Road, one mile north of Mar-a-Lago, for $72.9 million. The mansion, which has nine bedrooms and ten bathrooms, was bought by Trump's late ex-wife in 1992 and she sold it in 2014 for $16.6 million.

Moens also recently oversaw the sale of a five-bedroom, six-bathroom property at 930 S Ocean Beach, according to listings. That home changed hands on May 30, 2023 for $41,382,500.

Listings for properties currently for sale in Palm Beach also lay bare the huge discrepancy between Judge Engoron's ruling and the real estate market in the area.

Thomson's firm, Waterfront Properties, is currently selling a six-bedroom, seven-bathroom home at 500 Regents Park Road, which is a stone's throw from Mar-a-Lago, for $40 million.

Trump's lawyers rested his defense in the fraud trial on Tuesday and also asked Engoron to cut the trial short and issue a verdict clearing Trump, his company and top executives of wrongdoing.

Engoron immediately rejected the request - the second by Trump's team - and reiterated his feeling that state lawyers had met their legal burden for seeing the three-month trial through to its conclusion.

New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges Trump duped banks, insurers and others by inflating his wealth on financial statements used in securing loans and make deals. Engoron has already ruled on James' top claim that he committed fraud.

Engoron previously rejected the defense's request for a mistrial, denying its claims that he was politically biased and had irreparably harmed Trump's right to a fair trial through 'astonishing departures from ordinary standards of impartiality.'

The state's case involved six weeks of testimony from about two-dozen witnesses, including Trump, his eldest sons Eric and Donald Jr., daughter Ivanka, outside accountants and Trump Organization executives.

Closing arguments are scheduled to begin on January 11 and a ruling by the judge is expected a few weeks later.