Lofty Listings Include $125 Million Mansion
The U.S. housing market may be easing, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at prices at the very top of the market, which MSNBC details.
These aren’t luxury condominiums, converted condotels or 4,000-square foot suburban McMansion homes in subdivisions we’re talking about. These are the most expensive places to live in the entire country, with prices so insane that only a handful of very wealthy people could even imagine owning them.
We’ve looked at the most expensive areas, but now Forbes has completed its annual scouring of real estate listings around the U.S. and ranked the 10 most expensive properties on the market. This year, they range from a mega-mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, priced at $55 million, to a brash and brand-new hunk of Palm Beach County real estate that’s listed at — wait for it — $125 million.
In the past several weeks, we have seen plenty of indications that the market is slowing in many parts of the country. The National Association of Realtors predicts that the national median price for existing homes will rise 5.7 percent this year, in contrast to the 12.7 percent increase in 2005. Meanwhile, the average price of houses on this top ten list has jumped from $58.1 million to $71.5 million this year.
And, just this month, a record-setting home came on the market. Of course, just because you ask for it doesn’t mean you’re going to get it — even if you are Donald Trump, whose Florida estate tops the list for the first time. The French Regency-style home, which is undergoing the final stages of a massive renovation, includes 475 feet of waterfront, an 18-bedroom mansion, conservatory, guest house and pool house.
It can be yours for a mere $125 million, the highest asking price ever for a private residence in the United States, and perhaps the world.
The palace is $50 million more expensive than the next priciest home on the market. Though he shelled out practically nothing ($41.25 million) for it at bankruptcy auction, Trump says he won’t accept a penny under asking.
“It’s just a fantastic piece of property. The biggest site. The biggest oceanfront. The best location in Palm Beach. And Palm Beach is the richest community in the world,” said Trump, who recently announced his company’s foray into the Florida home loan business.
He might not want to hold his breath, as it can take months and sometimes years to sell properties at this end of the spectrum. The Florida housing market is not the only area of the nation to see such incredible listings. One of the homes on last year’s list, the grand Duke Semans mansion, is located across the street from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and has since sold for $40 million — $10 million under asking.
Three Ponds, a $75 million Bridgehampton, N.Y., estate that has lingered on the market (and this list) for years, is still up for sale. So is the $70 million triplex that tops off Manhattan’s Pierre Hotel. Other homes, such as a $60 million Lake Tahoe playground that ranked fourth on the 2005 list, have been taken off the market.
But that doesn’t seem to be deterring owners or brokers.
A new addition to the list is an oceanfront estate in Corona del Mar, a modern masterpiece designed like a nautilus shell, is priced at an ambitious $75 million and ties for the number two spot spot. A San Francisco mansion built in French limestone is listed at $65 million, twice what it sold for two years ago. Oh, and it’s only 70 percent complete.
Still, brokers say there is no shortage of interested parties. But don’t expect packed open houses. Unless you can prove you have the means to buy the house — and much more - the real estate agent won’t let you anywhere near it. Most likely, a Florida home loan provider is not going to front you $40-50 million, either.
“You need to have $800 million to see it,” says David Barrett, who represents the San Francisco house for Warwick Properties Group. “And at least once a week, we get a prospective buyer who has that.”
