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ForbesSamantha SharfAug. 10, 2017
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Just this week two homes with eye-popping price tags hit the market.
On Wednesday, clothing designer Albert Elkouby relisted his now complete French Chateau-style mansion for $80 million. The home was still under construction when it last came to market in 2015 for $72 million.
That price hike, however, went relatively unnoticed. That's because just two days earlier Chartwell came on the market, a 25,000-square-foot estate in Los Angeles' Bel Air neighborhood whose sellers are asking a stupefying $350 million for it.
It is now the second most expensive home for sale in Los Angeles and in the United States. Listed with an army of brokers from three different real estate agencies, Chartwell was the long-time estate of billionaire Jerry Perenchio, the former chief of Univision who died in May.
Every year around this time we scour the country for the most expensive homes money can buy. The result is a shopping list for billionaires, and a voyeuristic chance for the rest of us to consider what--if anything--is worth such vast sums. These late additions bring the number of homes in the United States whose sellers are seeking $75 million or more to 32, up from the 26 FORBES identified last year. On the 2017 list, 17 homes are priced at $100 million or more (detailed here), 12 are in Los Angeles and six have taken price cuts (more on the fates of 2016's most expensive homes here).
To compile the list we search sites like Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com that aggregate public listing and contact high-end agents for intel on homes that may not officially be on the market, but are available to purchase nonetheless.
One of five such homes is developer Nile Niami's speculative-opus "The One," which beats out nearby Chartwell for the top spot on the list. Niami is seeking $500 million--or $5,000 for each one of it's 100,000 planned square feet. Not yet complete, The One is not officially listed for sale, but Los Angeles agents have been marketing it since at least 2015.
