The last time there were this many unsold $100M+ homes on the market, the economy imploded

“The era of aspirational pricing is over, and I’m not sure it ever really worked,” Mr. Miller said. “These prices get headlines, but the properties just don’t sell.”

ya think?

5 Likes

75,000 sq ft home is not a “home”.

BTW: The McMansion thing is making a comeback, a recent listing in San Diego for a 25 K sq ft home is sitting untouched, even after a $4 million reduction…

4 Likes

Honestly, that was the least surprising part of the whole thing. I’ve never been able to look at a bidet since without picturing her, though.

12 Likes

I’m in. Mind if I run the organic farm?

9 Likes

Because at that price point there’s actually a basis in reality. At the $50m+, it’s all about what you can scam someone into paying, not unlike a $100m painting. It’s only worth that if someone buys it. And there’s no reason at all that it’s not worth half that price, since the cost of the land + improvements is probably 1/10 the asking. The price volatility of these properties is FAR higher than a $2.5m, which in NYC is pretty commonplace, nearly middle class.

Footnote: I subscribe to the single “m” school for million, financial tradition is stupid.

Once you put a number/digit next to “M”, you shouldn’t be thinking in terms of traditional Roman numeral rules anymore, where M means a thousand. Also, any Roman numerals next to each other implies addition not multiplication. Therefore, to read “$50MM” as “$50,000,000” makes even less sense. After all, the year 2015 is MMXV or 1000 + 1000 + 10 + 5, not 1000 x 1000 x 10 x 5.

7 Likes

That is a question which I wonder for many years now. Living in Europe where most people are not really bad-off. (Some (growing…) exceptions apart). But it seems that people only see what they don’t have, not what they have.
Don’t see the healtcare, base of living money, possibility to schooling, and housing, etc. Not everyone, luckily enough, but men seems to be unable to count there blessings. Although not always easy, nobody (again the exceptions) starves, or get broken on health issues, or need to stay on the streets because of no income.

So I think we are incredible wealthy over here. But I ‘know’ lots and lots people who do not agree with me.

14 Likes

Oh, do you mind a partner in crime? Bakery also?

6 Likes

Given that her contribution to society likely consisted entirely of spending her husband’s money, at least she took her job seriously. /s

A month after @doctorow moves in, it’ll be a nostalgic recreation of the Haunted Mansion the way it was supposed to be :grinning:

12 Likes

And as if this “vacant housing” thing wasn’t bad enough, we ALSO have an alarmingly high homeless population for a developed country. If only there was some way to solve both problems at once.

23 Likes

Feed the homeless to the rich so they don’t have to sell their mansions? You monster!

18 Likes

Seconded. What we have here is a too-tiny-to-be-statistically-valid sample of super-rich people not being in the mood to move. IMO, that makes it as valid a correlation as noting a dearth of blind left-handed dentists without tonsils and how THAT preceded the previous bust.

2 Likes

Am I a very bad person if I really laughed hard at that one?

3 Likes

Haven’t a significant portion of these been on (and off) the market since the 2009 crash?

1 Like

Your last phrase also makes sense the way I first read it:

“…with its promise of opium outcomes for everyone!”

1 Like

I read it as “optimism outcomes” at first, which made a lot less sense than yours.

1 Like

mcmansions are way smaller than that-- 3000-4000 sq feet is the usual figure.

1 Like

They’re building McMansions here in Winnipeg. But something you’ll notice about them:

  • They’re proudly “open concept” - meaning fewer internal walls, meaning lower construction costs.

  • Big class walls to let the light in. Meaning much lower material and construction costs for the external walls too. Increased heating and cooling costs are the future owners’ problem.

1 Like

Well maybe instead of builders piling on super luxury homes with the rapidly slimming hope of sky high profits, they ought to concentrate on building modest and energy efficient affordable homes for the 90% of us that are in a position to buy a reasonably priced home and could not find an energy sipping home anywhere.

5 Likes

news for you - windows cost more than walls

5 Likes

Thanks for that summary, seems like you know these things well. I hear similar shenanagins are happening with student loans now, and that they’re poised to be the basis of the next big downturn (recession, etc.). What say you?

2 Likes