By far the thickest part of our Sunday newspaper is the real estate section. While I am currently not in the market for a new home, each Sunday I always find myself paging through the giant stack of ads… wishing, hoping, dreaming… just plain wondering who it is that is able to afford these monstrous mansions listed in the millions of dollars. And mind you, I live in a relatively small midwestern city. I’m not talking about purchasing property in New York or San Francisco. So, a few million will get you a substantially large parcel of land with a home that is dripping with pricey marble fixtures, a fountain in the driveway and a four car attached garage.
I thought that was a lot, until I did some research and found that home I saw listed in our paper, and it’s $4 million dollar price tag is chump change compared to the grand dwellings for sale in Aspen, Colorado (a home there is currently listed at $135 million) and Lake Tahoe, Nevada (one home there was recently put on the market for $100 million). Relators consider the properties in the “Super Bowl of real estate.”
The reason these homes are making headlines is that their listings represent a monetary milestone in American real estate. According to real estate experts, it’s the first time U.S. homes have broken into nine figures. So what does one get for $135 million (besides sticker shock)?
With the Aspen property (owned by Saudi Prince Bandar), the word gigantic is an understatement. The main residence is over 56,000 square feet (about 1,000 square feet bigger than the White House) and is set on a 95-acre site (roughly twice the size of Boston Common). It even has its own car wash and gas pumps.
As for the Lake Tahoe property (currently owned by Tommy Hilfiger Corporation co-founder Joel Horowitz), it comes with 38,000 square feet of livable space on 210 acres, which includes a private trout-stocked lake and two par-three golf courses. Interior features include a grand staircase replicating one built on the doomed ocean liner Titanic.
When I found these listings on the Internet I immediately thought of that Home and Garden Television (HGTV) series “My House Is Worth What?” where experts tour homes and tell the owners what renovations are worthwhile or just how much equity is available. I thought about the show because I wondered how these realtors came to the conclusion that the aforementioned properties were worth $100 million and up. Whereas, I realize just because you ask for it doesn’t mean you’re going to get it, I would still venture to guess that there is a small market of legitimate buyers for these mansions. But, according to the respective agents, I would be wrong. Both homes have already entertained a number of buyers—mainly business people from the U.S. and millionaires from overseas.
I am neither… so I guess it’s back to flipping through the newspaper. And I thought $4 million was a lot!