What Kind of House Will $100 Million Buy?
A growing population of billionaires is driving real estate prices sky-high.
June 01, 2007 Special to ABCNEWS.com — -- Call it quaint, but there was a time when a $75 million house made news. In 2005, that's what happened when the Three Ponds Estate in Bridgehampton N.Y., landed at the top of our list of most expensive homes in the U.S.
No more. That number is practically pocket change compared with what the market currently bears.
This year, the country's priciest properties include a $135 million Aspen, Colo., ranch and a $125 million Versailles-inspired estate in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Why such price acceleration in the top-flight market? The simple answer: a good mega-mansion is hard to find.
"Try to find eight or 10 acres in the middle of the Hollywood Hills," says Mauricio Umansky, a broker at Hilton & Hyland. "God's not making any more land. [Trophy properties] are a true microeconomy with much less supply than demand."
In addition, the financial muscle of flush buyers allows for quite a bit of upward price flexibility. Twenty percent of a household's wealth consists of home equity, according to the National Association of Realtors. Following that logic, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal -- worth $32 billion -- could easily afford $6.4 billion in housing.
"The net worth of the buyers and the sellers is such that they can do whatever they want," says Joshua Saslove of Joshua & Co., an Aspen-based affiliate of Christie's Great Estates. "The rules of the regular real estate market don't apply."
Sellers who find themselves able to piece together huge pieces of land in desirable locations can expect large listings.
The latest addition to the $100 million-plus club is Suzanne Saperstein's Los Angeles jewel aptly named the Fleur de Lys. Listed at $125 million and built in the style of Louis XIV's palace at Versailles, the 45,000-square-foot home took five years to construct following the accumulation of five acres in Beverly Hills during the 1990s by Saperstein and her now ex-husband, billionaire David Saperstein.
In Florida, beachfront land drives the highest-end market.
