The ridiculous world of real estate for the ultra-rich…

Every now and then I check in on Forbes real etate web site for luxury homes, just for fun. This week they had some great articles on the homes in America at or above the $50 Million mark – click on this link for the whole story. There is something about reading about these homes that is akin to dreaming about what one might do if you won the Lotto. Of course, to afford these homes you’d have to win the Power Ball Lotto and hit it when it was big. You couldn’t afford one of these homes if you just hit some puny state lotto for a few Million bucks. Picker!

They don’t give much detail in these stories about these $50 Million+ mansions, which is OK, because then your imagination can have all the more fun. Suffice to say that a home described as 20-30,000 St feet, with maybe 4-8 stories and maybe acres and acres of land and great views, doesn’t have to go into minute detail about the bedrooms and baths or mention whether or not there is granite in the kitchen. This is a whole different class of living folks.

I’ve been through some of great old mansions here in the Detroit area, many of them associated with the automotive barons of the early 20th Century. There is a whole different way of looking at life when one has things such as rooms dedicated to wrapping Christmas presents and a ball room for dances and servants quarters. I the old days it was people like Henry Ford and the Dodges and other local millionaires that lived that lifestyle. Now it’s the Bill Gates and Larry Elisons and Donald Trumps and other Billionaires (but not Warren Buffet) who have the wherewithal to build or own these palatial estates and mansions. Russian billionaires are buying up some of the gaudiest of the big showcase estate now.

I get to go into million dollar homes locally quite often and they are really nice, but they are nothing when you compare them with the homes that the really, really, really rich can afford (did I miss a really there somewhere). I’ve actually seen playhouses that were built for the children of these people that are bigger that the first house that I ever owned and most had (have) guesthouses that might put many modern McMansions to shame.

So go read the Forbes articles – there are several there – and let your imagination run wild. It’s fun, it’s safe and it doesn’t cost anything. My gift you you on this nice spring weekend.