Things have been a little quiet on the Dubai front lately, but that doesn’t mean they’ve given up on expensive creations. The recently completed Dubai Fountain, for instance, is the most expensive fountain in the world.

The construction of the fountain by WET Design, the same company that designed the only slightly less impressive Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas, was announced in June, 2008, and the announcement was followed by a contest to name the fountain. The fifteen entrants who suggested “Dubai Fountain” split a prize of 100,000 dirham (US $27,226).

The Fountain itself is set in Burj Dubai Lake in the Downtown Burj Dubai development project which also includes the supertall skyscraper Burj Dubai and the Dubai Mall. Dubai Fountain is over 900 feet long and can spray jets up to 500 feet high. The fountain can spray as much as 22,000 gallons of water in the air at any given time, which can be visually enhanced by 6,600 WET superlights and 25 color projectors. The fountain can be set to music, including the Swahili song Baba Yetu from the popular video game Civilization IV and top Arab dance song Shik Shak Shok.

The Dubai Fountain cost $217 million to build.

Russian billionaire Telman Ismailov opened a hotel this month that is being widely proclaimed as the most expensive hotel in Europe. As it’s situated along the Mediterranean Sea in transcontinental state of Turkey, there seems to be some confusion surrounding the hotel’s continental status.

That didn’t stop a gaggle of A-list celebrities—including Sharon Stone, Mariah Carey and Richard Gere—from attending Mardan Palace in Antalya’s grand opening. The £1billion-plus (over US $1.6 billion) hotel was inaugurated with a bang as Tom Jones opened for Carey, Paris Hilton made an obligatory appearance and one prominent actress stumbled over the name of neighboring country Azerbaijan.

Housed in this veritable temple of decadence, you’ll find a spa with real snow in one of its rooms, gold-plated mirrors on the floors of the bathrooms, 23,000 square meters of Italian marble, remote controlled toilets and the centerpiece—a pool and sunken aquarium that must be crossed by gondola.

As to the question of geography, the coastal province of Antalya is actually located on the Asian side of the Turkish Straits, the conventional border between Europe and Asia.

Suites at this most luxurious hotel can cost over $18,000 per night—certainly enough to keep the riff-raff out.

BusinessWeek has put together a list of fifty of “The Most Expensive Suburbs to Live in Now” for 2009. The list features the most expensive suburb in each state rated by median home price, median property tax and cost of living, each compared to the state average. Of course, “compared to the state average” doesn’t fly with the luxe standard of living that you’re used to reading about here, so we’ve picked out the ten suburbs with the most expensive median home prices.

Note that these aren’t necessarily the top ten most expensive suburbs in the US; only one suburb is listed in any given state.

Wellesley, Massachusetts – $899,000

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Located about half an hour west of Boston, the old-money town of Wellesley is the home of Babson College and, of course, Wellesley College. Wellesley High School also claimed 70th best public high school in the US in 2007.

Highland Park, Texas – $937,500

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Five miles north of Texas, Highland Park is the home of the Dallas Country Club and is the 41st wealthiest city in the US—19th if you only count cities with populations of 1,000 or more.

Millburn, New Jersey – $960,000

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Despite the bad rap that Jersey usually gets, this opulent suburb of NYC is only considered the 53rd best place to live in the state by New Jersey Magazine. It’s known for The Mall at Short Hills, a high-end mall across from the town’s Hilton Hotel, and its proximity to the South Mountain Reservation.

Great Falls, Virginia – $1,028,000

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North of Washington, DC, Great Falls is the home of the 800-acre Great Falls Park which overlooks the Great Falls of the Potomac. I think I’m beginning to see a pattern here.

Winnetka, Illinois – $1,060,000

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This Chicago suburb is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. It’s notable as the home of both the Hadley School for the Blind, a long distance learning center for the vision impaired, and the family from those dreadful Home Alone movies.

Darien, Connecticut – $1,145,000

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Home of one of the top ten libraries in the US, Darien is just short of an hour away from New York City. CNN rated it one of the top ten best places to live in America in 2005.

Scarsdale, New York – $1,230,000

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Speaking of New York, this suburb has been home to Yoko Ono, wife of John Lennon, West Wing writer and creator Aaron Sorkin and gangster/Las Vegas resort developer Bugsy Siegal.

Paradise Valley, Arizona – $1,650,000

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Paradise Valley, a suburb of Phoenix, is famous for being the namesake, if not the home, of several organizations, including Paradise Valley Community College, Paradise Valley Mall and Paradise Valley Golf Course.

Travilah, Maryland – $1,295,000

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Travilah is an unincorporated area Northwest of Washington, DC. Surprisingly, its claim to fame is its really expensive mansions. Go figure.

Atherton, California – $3,800,000

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I’m sure you’re all shocked that the most expensive suburb is in California. This wealthy community’s notable residents include Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt, former EBay CEO Meg Whitman and retired football player Jerry Rice.

What could be more useful than a USB stick made of gold?

Actually, don’t answer that.

White Lake’s golden USB flash drive is, at least, sure to make an impression. Custom made with either fourteen- or eighteen-karat gold and maybe even some diamonds thrown into the mix, the most expensive USB drive is guaranteed to suit your individual personality—and by “personality” I mean “the gaping hole in your wallet.”

You can own this expensive flash drive for around $2,800 without diamonds or $3,500 with them. In fact, White Lake is so sure that you’ll want this revolutionary device that they don’t even bother to mention its storage capacity.

Luckily, White Lake’s offering has been trumped by a newer and more original flash drive—the Mnemosyne. This 16GB flash drive defies the standard USB stick format, instead taking the form of a puzzle cube. The drive was hand-crafted from solid aluminum and buffed to a mirror finish by the fine people at Italian/Japanese design firm Toshi Satoji Design. The 3” cube is aptly named after the Greek titan and personification of memory.

The world’s most expensive USB flash drive can be purchased from Japanese-language seller Solid Alliance for the hefty price of 1 million yen (US $10,685).

The Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi may or may not be a profitable enterprise, but it’s certainly an impressive one. Costing over three billion dollars to build, the Emirates Palace is the most expensive hotel ever built. The hotel is, reportedly, intended to raise Abu Dhabi’s profile among international travelers.
And what a profile it [...]

The true measure of an expensive home isn’t how much it cost to build or how much you’re selling it for. After all, who cares how expensive a home is if no one is buying? All of the following homes have passed the test of the real estate market with flying colors. They truly are [...]

Being filthy rich probably isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Imagine how much trouble it is planning which beach to lounge at, which ultra-luxury vehicle you’re going to drive that day and any other ways you may need to display your wealth that day, lest those around you forget their place.
Résidence Supérieur [...]

We all know that some dog owners are a bit too attached to attached to their canine companions—bringing them to family gatherings, restaurants or even that unexpected visit to your place. So what happens when a person like that also happens to be a surgeon who can afford to drop nearly $400,000 on a whim? [...]

If you think “most expensive trailer park” sounds laughable at best, then you need to check out these luxury trail—uhm, mobile home parks in Malibu. Located in the same areas as the multi-million dollar homes of celebrities, these two parks both include homes that sell for over $1 million.
The Paradise Cove mobile home park started [...]

When future archaeologists study the remains of the 21st century, our stadiums may be some of the most some of the most visited historical sites. Like the Colosseum of Rome, these structures aren’t just places of human struggles for the entertainment of the masses; they’re also works of art. Currently, London’s Wembley Stadium is the [...]

Despite everything you’ve heard about the housing market, the residents of these swanky streets aren’t sweating it. That’s because they live on the most expensive residential streets in the world. A recent survey by Wealth-Bulletin places the following five streets at the top of the list.
5. Avenue Montaigne, Paris – $5,046 per square foot.
Site of [...]

London has long been one of the exclusive real estate capitals of the world. In fact, the world’s most expensive house was just recently sold there. Houses aren’t the only expensive properties in London, though. The city also boasts the world’s most expensive apartment—and construction on it hasn’t even been finished!
The four penthouse apartments atop [...]

Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, ranked 278th richest person in the world in 2006, is relocating to London with his wife Olga and two of their children. Why do we care? Well, the Northwest London house into which Mr. Leviev is moving just happens to be Britain’s most expensive new home.
Located on the same private street [...]

Want to spend a day at the most expensive golf course in the world? You’ll have to go to Las Vegas to do so. Designed by Tom Fazio, one of only two such designers to win the Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, Vegas’ Shadow Creek is open only [...]

The most important element of a vacation, aside from the destination, is the hotel where you spend your downtime. If you’re going to take a true luxury vacation, of course, it won’t do to have anything less than one of the most expensive hotel suites in the world.
Hotel Cala di Volpe in Costa Smeralda, [...]

The constantly growing popularity of the National Football League has resulted in numerous awe-inspiring and expensive stadiums across the US. Competition to build the biggest and most expensive football stadium in the country couldn’t be higher. At the moment, the Dallas Cowboys organization plans on constructing the most expensive stadium in NFL history.
Designed by Bryan [...]

Global Property Guide, a real estate research firm, recently issued a report ranking the most expensive flats in Europe. Currently, property value is on the rise throughout much of Europe, and real estate in locations such as the Baltic region are seeing an increase in value. Rental yields (profit yields) in several European cities [...]

by Hunter Davis
A property research website called Mouseprice.com recently compiled its data concerning the most expensive streets in the United Kingdom after researching average property values. The top 5 most expensive streets in the United Kingdom are Kensington Square, Chelsea Square, Portnall Rise, Ravenscroft Road, and Park Avenue South. The majority of streets in the [...]

Selling a Most Expensive home can take awhile and, especially in this day and age, may end up disappointing the seller. With that in mind, we present these—most expensive homes on the market.
Eurasia Estate (Moscow, Russia) – $100 million

Located 15 miles from Moscow’s city center, Eurasia consists of an 11,700-square-foot mansion with a 91,000-square-foot recreation [...]

Asia’s richest man is in the process of constructing the most expensive home ever built—a 27-storey skyscraper.
Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries and the world’s fifth richest man, acquired the land for his expensive project in 2002 and expects to have his new home completed in January of 2009. The building has [...]

The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing recently reported about the most expensive home sold in the United States during 2006, and the most expensive home turns out to be an English-style estate in Alpine, NJ which sold for $58 million US dollars.

From the Forbes article on the most expensive home sales of 2006
Approximately five miles [...]

One has to wonder what the most expensive city in the world is, but how can one measure such a unquantifiable thing such as the cost of a city? Over the past couple years a number of companies and surveys have attempted to identify the world’s most expensive cities and depending upon when the [...]

Most people who rent do so either for convenience or because they do not have the capital to invest in their own personal property to live in. Real estate prices in certain parts of the country have forced many who live and work there to rent apartments and lease homes. It is no [...]

The annual Coldwell Banker College Home Price Comparison Index (HPCI) compares home prices of typical 2,200-square-feet homes. Applying the data from the HPCI to the home towns of 119 Division 1-A college football programs, yields the most expensive college town in the US.
For the second year in a row, Palo [...]

Expensive retail stores on shopping streets are often the major thoroughfares of a city and are looked upon as a symbol of wealth. The prices for retail space in some of the most expensive streets in the world can often soar to ridiculous levels. In such a competition of exorbitant prices, one has [...]