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| Lifestyles
of the Rich and Shameless |
| Just a decade ago, a walk-in closet signified a luxury home. Not anymore. The emerging new standard: the walk-in refrigerator. Royal LePage, an Ontario-based real estate company with a deep interest in top-tier properties, is reporting that “professional kitchens akin to what one may find in a five-star restaurant have taken over luxury homes.” Also hot at the high-end: a room set aside totally for gift-wrapping. Realtors first spotted this innovation in the Los Angeles manse of TV mogul Aaron Spelling. Observes luxury realtor Mike Donia: “These are people who desire to have it all and aren't afraid to flaunt it. At the end of the day, many of them know each other and it's just getting harder to top the next guy.” December 17, 2007 |
 On Avon Mountain, just west of Hartford, Connecticut, the largest single-family home in New England history is nearing completion. Telecom exec Arnold Chase’s new abode will soon stretch nearly 51,000 square feet, about 20 times the size of a typical American home. The manse will feature a two-tier movie theater, a soda fountain, and 13 bathrooms. Meanwhile, Ultimate Homes magazine reports that the cheapest of the 1,000 most expensive American homes currently on sale costs $10 million. Two years ago, the cheapest home on the publication's top 1,000 list cost $7.9 million. Says Ultimate Homes publisher Rick Goodwin: “This market is still very strong. The rich are doing very well.” October 22, 2007 |
| For the typical American family. maintaining the typical American home — all 2,349 square feet of it — can be quite a chore. For wealthy families, living in mansions of 5,000 square feet and up, that chore can be next to impossible. Fortunately, notes Celeb Staff magazine, those families can afford help — and plenty of it. Medium-sized mansions, homes between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet, cost their owners about $650,000 per year to maintain, the magazine estimates. That sum will usually be sufficient to cover nannies, housekeepers, a personal assistant, and a household manager. Mansions that span over 30,000 square feet will run up annual maintenance bills of at least $3 million. The upkeep of one such mansion, says Celeb Staff, requires 10 butlers, 12 laundresses, 20 security personnel, and 30 housekeepers. September 24, 2007 |
| One of every four renting households in the United States, new Census data released last week reveal, find themselves having to spend over half their household income on rent. Meanwhile, in California’s Silicon Valley, wealth is concentrating so freely and fast that three luxury car enthusiasts, “are building,” the Mercury News reports, “condominiums exclusively for cars.” The soon-to-be-completed car condos will start at $250,000 and run up to $2.8 million, for a unit that spans 10,000 square feet. The typical American two-car garage occupies about 400 square feet. Notes Ralph Borelli, one of the entrepreneurs behind the new San Jose car condo complex: “A lot of wealth has been created with the high-tech industry and a lot of people are passionate about cars. These people can afford to get into their passion in a big way.” September 17, 2007 |
| The $100 million barrier — on the sales price for a residential property in the United States — has finally come tumbling down! Investment banker Ron Baron last month shelled out $103 million for a 40-acre parcel in the Hamptons, the deep-pocket summer getaway on Long Island’s East End. The top previous price-tag for a U.S. residential property: the $70 million homebuilding CEO Dwight Schar paid for a Palm Beach estate in 2004. The Baron sale didn’t surprise local realtor Diane Saatchi: “People have made an incredible amount of money on Wall Street over the last few years. For them, spending millions on a summer home to be near their friends isn't a big deal.” June 4, 2007 |
| Basements are going big-time, mainly, notes the UK’s Daily Telegraph, because the rich “have nowhere to go but down.” In London, ultra-affluents who’ve already had their lofts worked over are now adding mini-cinemas and swimming pools to their cellars. The London Basement Company, the hottest name in down-under remodeling, typically charges about $1.6 million per project. Who can afford a million-dollar basement? This past winter, in London’s financial district, over 3,000 executives, bankers, and traders took home bonuses of at least $2 million. Meanwhile, says a new study, firefighters and nurses can afford to buy a first home in only 30 percent of Britain’s towns, down from 64 percent five years ago. May 7, 2007 |
 “So many billionaires,” goes the elegant advertising for the new CHI Tower Miami condo, “so few homes in the sky.” The 38 homes in the condo tower, once complete, will each take up a full floor in a 42-story Florida high-rise just north of Bal Harbour. The developers are aiming at buyers looking for fourth or fifth homes where they can crash for a month or so every winter. Each condo will come with a “mineral-water pool” and a master suite that features a “midnight kitchen.” Among the early buyers: Anna Anisimova, a Russian “20-something socialite” who shelled out $5 million for one of the three-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath units. Anisimova already owns a $15 million condo at the Time Warner Center in New York. March 26, 2007 |
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