Prompted by:[ol][li]This report: [on the “Salary Value Index” - Where New London, CT; Huntsville, AL; Harrisburg, PA & Rock Island, IL had high value ratios whilst LA, SanFran & NYC ranked as the most expensive.[/li][li][url=http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=314522]Housing prices: Who the hell is buying all these houses anyway?](]In yesterday’s USA Today[/url) - A self-explanitory Great Debates thread by want2know from last month, and[/li][li]A news blurb on the ride-in today about a new house in California that’s listed for $65 Million and only 85% finished. (Sorry I can’t seen to find a link)[/ol]All 3 of which touch on the subject of Luxury Homes. Which got me wondering, how much are these estates, mini-kingdoms, compounds, what have yous going for in my neck of the woods.[/li]
A quick search at Coldwell Banker’s Luxury Property Previews International gave me the answer I was looking for. Using a 50 mile radius from my zip code and automatically sorting the results highest price first, I came across this chestnut:
Ooops! That should read: This report: In yesterday’s USA Today on the “Salary Value Index” - Where New London, CT; Huntsville, AL; Harrisburg, PA & Rock Island, IL had high value ratios whilst LA, SanFran & NYC ranked as the most expensive.
NY, DC, and SF dopers should have fun responses. I would be really interested to see what it’s like outside the US. Non-US Dopers, convert 7.5 million US dollars to your local currency and tell us what you can buy for that much scratch!
Not part of the game, but I also came across this while I was looking: 21.38 acres just a bit north of downtown Dallas for $33 million. No houses, just the land, $1.5 million/acre. http://www.ebby.com/details/10286302.html
If that’s too much for you, you can rent in midtown on Broadway- 4 bedrooms and one bath for forty thousand American dollars per month. A HOUSE in Indiana costs that much.
Well, for an extra 2 million, you can get a similar place in Glouchester, MA that actually has an ocean view. And 12,600 sq. feet which is certainly enough room to hold those sexy parties.
Doesn’t say anything about the acreage, though, which leads me to expect that you’re not getting a vast expanse of land for that 9.5 mil.
And here we see class raise its pervasive head: Someone buying a 7.5 million dollar home probably isn’t going to be spending any time in the kitchen. They’ll pay someone to do that.
There are several listed in Hillsborough County (where I live) for between 7.5 and 8.9 million. Of those this seems to be the most “estate like”. There are currently 342 properties listed over $1,000,000.00, but some of those are just land parcels.
Now in Pinellas, where I work, if you want waterfront, you can pick up this little beauty for a mere 14.5 million. Pinellas has 601 properties listed for a million or more, and I doubt much of that is land parcels as there are essentially none left here.
Now Sarasota county, just to the south (which is mentioned in the USA Today article), is also a bit pricey. This four level 22,000 square foot mansion on Longboat Key is listed at a very reasonable 15.2 million. If you don’t like although stairs you can pick up this sprawling 10 bedroom, 9 bath estate for a bargain 14.9 million.
What i don’t understand about luxury properties:
(1) humongous kitchens:most of these people order out-they don’t cook! Yet they have TWO of everything: two dishwashers, two 6-burner restaurant-size stoves, two enormous sinks. You could cook for an army…but most ofthe time, the stuff just gathers dust!
(2) scads of bathrooms-one for every bedroom, plus several extra on each floor…who uses them all?
The one thing I DO like:home theatres! (I’d love to have one of those!)
Houseguests, on both accounts (the guests wouldn’t actually use the kitchen, but if you had a lot of people over the kitchen staff would be cooking ‘for an army’).
When I have that money I’ll probably hire a personal chef of some sort, even if it’s on a parttime basis. And a lot of wealthy spouses are looking for things to do, so they probably practice whatever they just saw on Emeril or Good Eats.
Another reason for all of these things is entertaining, which people with money do more often and on a more involved scale than most of us common folk.
If you bought this house in Rumson, NJ for 9.5 million, you would live right across the street from a very well known New Jersey rock star - not Bon Jovi - that other guy.
$7.5 million will get you this little cottage in LA, but really, darlings, how could you live with so little space? Only one guest cottage, after all.
Perhaps this little gem is more your style. Twenty bathrooms, and your own bowling alley! All for a mere $53 million.
Something a little less ostentatious, you say? Try this more reasonable abode. Only twelve bathrooms, but it does have its own theater. A steal at only $18 million.
I know someone who lives in a house with three kitchens: the “family” kitchen, the “entertaining” kitchen, and the “outside” kitchen. They do actually use them all, but I suspect it’s a matter of pride that keeps them rotating through the kitchens. Me? I barely use the one kitchen I have.
Well, it’s still fairly cheap in my neck of the woods. You can get this home for a mere $4.2 million, but I think you’re also paying for the neighborhood.
There was a Street of Dreams showcase in the Windemere area about two years ago. The houses were MUCH nicer (than the one I linked to), and I drove past one that looked like an Italian palazzo. Gorgeous, but it wasn’t in the showcase so we didn’t get to go in.
My peeve is that if you’re going to spend that much money on a house, it better be sitting on at least 10 acres. So many of these homes are on relatively small lots.
squeegee, it’s terribly deceptive of you to post links to those houses and claim that someone could buy them for the asking price of $1 million. You know as well as I do that, for your offer even to be considered, you’d best be offering $1.3m, perhaps $1.5m, with no contingencies.
