Hey buddy, can you spare $90 million dollars? The housing industry in the U.S. may have imploded but it doesn’t mean that the uber-luxe houses have simply gone away. They’re still there waiting for the buyer with pocket change equal to the GDP of a small African nation.
There have always been super-sized houses (they were formerly known as castles). So why do castles seem ‘normal’ and acceptable now when some of these monstrosities seem so abnormal and freakish? Until three years ago these were still the standard by which all other houses were publicly measured, and found wanting. Are monster mansions falling out of favour because even fewer people have the money anymore to aspire to this kind of ownership? Or is the popular tide of conspicuous consumption finally turning for good? I’m so middle class I have trouble imagining living in houses like these (except maybe the sprawling Colorado ranch). There would be more paid-employees in some of these houses than owner occupants. I can’t imagine the tax bills, the housework, the amount of furniture required to kit them out, or the isolation. And what if you left your things lying around a house so large that you had trouble finding them again? It would be Where’s Waldo? everyday.
So how about turning the 56,000 sq. ft. SoCal Spelling family mansion into an intentional community? It would take 150 families investing $1 million each (plus renovation costs) to make the basic sale price. Even a dozen bedrooms and bathrooms ain’t gonna cut it.
Check out this Ottawa Citizen article to see what you’re not missing out on.