Luxury gadgets, clothing and food are all well and good, but let’s face it—history is written by the land barons. Real estate put the feud in feudalism, made legends of early explorers and put Donald Trump on primetime television. So where is the most valuable land in the world?

The world’s most expensive real estate market, according to a recent survey by the Global Property Guide, is Monte Carlo. Named “Mount Charles” after Prince Charles III of Monaco, Monte Carlo is a northern district in the city-state of Monaco and is home to the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the renowned Hôtel de Paris and the greater portion of the Curcuit de Monaco, where Formula One drivers race in the Monaco Grand Prix.

Real estate in this land of luxury cost an average of $47,578 per square meter, according to the Global Property Guide’s 2009 report.

Monte Carlo was followed by Moscow, Russia at less than half that price—$20,853 per square meter—and London, England at $20,756 per square meter. New York City placed 6th on the list at $14,898 per square meter.

Global Property Guide’s full top ten list is as follows:

1. Monte Carlo, Monaco – $47,578
2. Moscow, Russia – $20,853
3. London, England – $20,756
4. Tokyo, Japan – $17,998
5. Hong Kong – $16,125
6. New York, USA – $14,898
7. Paris, France – $12,122
8. Singapore – $9,701
9. Rome, Italy – $9,166
10. Mumbai, India – $9,163

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.

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.

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).

And what a profile it has! This enormous hotel is lined with more gold than the cache at Fort Knox. The remainder of this expensive hotel’s façade is made of imported marble. In fact, the only part of the hotel we can safely assume isn’t made of one precious material or another is its mile-long private beach.

The hotel also boasts a nearly 200 foot high atrium, a highly advanced conference center and its own waterfall. The least expensive rooms in the world’s most expensive hotel are the Palace suites, which are each equipped with three bedrooms, a dining room and living room and go for over $700 a night.

In point of fact, the government of Abu Dhabi doesn’t refer to Emirates Palace as a hotel at all. To them, it’s a national landmark. Its name says all you need to know. In every sense of the word, it’s a palace.

Donald Trump’s Palm Beach mansion – $100 million

The Donald takes pride in having sold this beautiful 68,000-square-foot mansion at a time when the real estate market is doing poorly. Trump purchased the mansion—and the seven acres of beachfront it sits on—in 2004 for less than half of what he sold it for.

Lakshmi Mittal’s Kensington Palace Gardens mansion – $103 million

Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal was widely reported to have purchased this property on one of London’s most exclusive streets for £70 million ($126 million at the time). As it happened, the Indian tychoon paid only £57,145,967 for the mansion—still enough to put the mansion on the list of the most expensive houses ever sold.

Victorian Villa, West London – $159 million

Purchased in February of 2008 by a Ukrainian businesswoman, this five-story Victorian villa was used as a girls’ school until it was purchased by developers in 2006. The luxurious residential dwelling has over ten bedrooms and an underground swimming pool. It also includes a gym, a sauna, a theatre and a panic room to be used in case of emergency. It was sold for £80 million (almost $159 million US), displacing the Kensington Palace Gardens home of Lakshmi Mittal as the most expensive house ever sold. With Mikhail Prokhorov supposedly reneging on a deal to purchase La Leopolda, below, it has retained that title.

La Leopolda, France – $750 million

Originally built for the mistress of King Leopold of Belgium, this mansion overlooking the French Riviera has been said to be owned by several prominent people over the years, including Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Fiat Group’s Gianni Agnelli. Sketchy reports of a “mysterious Russian billionaire” said that he had purchased the villa it from the widow of a Lebanese banker who was killed in an arsonist’s fire in 2003. Now it seems that the billionaire intends on backing out of the deal, possibly due to the financial crisis.

Résidence Supérieur – $280,000 annually

Consultant-turned-“Lifestyle Designer” Richard Nilsson’s Résidence Supérieur Black Card membership allows its holder to access to a host of services—including private jets, butlers, fleets of luxury cars, Michelin-class chefs and more—based in the Résidence Supérieur resorts. Each of their properties are owned or designed by Résidence Supérieur to ensure that members get only the best of the best.

Villa Oxygene, the original Résidence Supérieur property in Super Cannes, was designed by one of France’s most distinguished architects and includes four luxury bedrooms, a garden house and, of course, a decently large swimming pool. Other Résidence Supérieur properties include Necker Island—one of the British Virgin Islands—and The Lodge in the Verbier ski resort in the Swiss Alps.

Best of all, cardholders need only give six hours notice to access any of these properties. It may be one of the world’s most expensive club memberships but, hey, can you really put a price on “Extreme Luxury?”

Richman’s International Millionaire’s Club Charter Corporate Platinum Membership – around $507,000 per year

The Hong Kong-based RS Management Limited has stepped up to the plate with the appropriately named Richman’s IMC. While Richman’s IMC offers an Individual Silver membership for a mere $250,000, its Charter Corporate Platinum Membership is priced at $15.2 million for 30 years. Membership in this ultra-exclusive club affords access to a host of luxury services—from Richman’s mega yachts and yachthotels to VIP membership at Richman’s partner country clubs, golf clubs, gentlemen’s clubs, resort hotels, etc. Members can even own and race horses at the Royal Nanjing Jockey Club in Nanjing, China.

Members also have the peace of mind that comes with a confidential concierge and problem resolution service, personal bodyguards, 24-hour international emergency medical service and a $1 million credit line.

Oh, and they also have access to “personal companions.”

(via PR-Inside)

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? You get something that may just be the world’s most expensive kennel.

Designed by architect Andy Ramus, the lavish doghouse will be attached to the owners’ exclusive Gloucestershire estate. At about a quarter of the home’s size, the kennel will be spacious enough to accommodate more than just the pair of Great Danes who are destined to live there. Unfortunately for them, a retinal scan will prevent them from having friends over. It’s sad to think that the dogs will only have each other as company when they sleep on their sheepskin-lined, temperature controlled beds, relax in their 18-inch spa, listen to their $230,000 sound system, retrieve food and cold, filtered water from self-cleaning bowls filled by automatics dispensers or vegetate in front of their 52-inch plasma television.

It’s true what they say—it’s lonely at the top.

So how much is this puppy palace going to cost its owners? The luxury kennel is being built for £250,000—that’s over $384,000!

The Paradise Cove mobile home park started as an RV camp, but was expanded to the current 271-unit park in the early 70s. The park includes a guard house, a small clubhouse, an RV storage area, a playground for children and, of course, both tennis and basketball courts. Paradise Cove is also home of the Paradise Cove Beach Café, a restaurant that boasts its own beach and cove.

Paradise Cove pier

The Point Dume Club, named for the bluff on which it resides, is a guarded and gated community with 297 units, a pool and both tennis and basketball courts. It was built in 1970, with streets carefully laid out to give residents some of the best views in California.

A mobile home in Paradise Cove can be purchased for up to almost $1.4 million while one in Point Dume was reportedly sold for $2.2 million. Luckily for the buyers, owners of mobile homes in the world’s most expensive trailer parks don’t pay property taxes.

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 most expensive stadium in the world.

Completed in March 2007, the most expensive stadium was built on the site of the original Wembley stadium, which was also known as the “Home of Football.” Construction on the stadium began in 2003.

It was built by Multiplex from designs by HOK Sport and Foster and Partners. It seats 90,000 people, making it the structure with the third highest capacity in London.
Of course, the most remarkable feature of the new Wembley Stadium is the Wembley Arch, which spans 1040 feet. That arch, in fact, is the longest single span roof structure in the world.

Funded by a number of organizations—Sport England, Wembley National Stadium Limited, The Football Association, The Department for Culture Media and Sport and The London Development Agency—the world’s most expensive stadium cost over $1.5 billion to build. Afterwards, it was handed over to The Football Association and has hosted not only football but also musicians like George Michael, Madonna, Metallica, Muse and the Foo Fighters.

Related Information

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5. Avenue Montaigne, Paris – $5,046 per square foot.

Site of the French capital’s most exclusive shops, Avenue Montaigne is one third of the “Golden Triangle,” along with Avenue Champs-Elysees and Avenue Georges V (Paris’ former most expensive street).

4. Kensington Palace Gardens, London – $7,196 per square foot.

Parallel to the royal family’s Kensington Palace, this street is capped at either end by an embassy—one Russian and one Israeli—which is perfect for any security conscious billionaire. Lakshmi Mittal, a steel magnate, is apparently one such billionaire. He owns two houses in Kensington Palace Gardens, one of them being the most expensive house ever sold when he purchased it at £57 million (US $111 million) in 2004.

3. Fifth Avenue, New York City – $7,500 per square foot.

Fifth Avenue in 1918

The third most expensive street in the world runs from Washington Square to Harlem and divides Manhattan’s East/West streets. It is representative of New York’s upper crust, having been rated as the most expensive shopping street in the world. In 2005, press baron Rupert Murdoch purchased one of the Plaza Apartments attached to Plaza Hotel for $44 million.

2. Severn Road, Hong Kong – $11,200 per square foot.

Hong Kong’s most expensive street lies on the top of Hong Kong Island in the city’s most affluent district, The Peak. A $38 million apartment purchased by a Chinese businessman earned this street its place on the list. The street is named after a British colonial administrator, Claud Severn, who spent 1911-1925 as Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong.

1. Avenue Princess Grace, Monaco – $17,750 per square foot.

The world’s most expensive residential street was named after former Monacan princess and iconic black and white film actress Grace Kelly. Residents of Avenue Princess Grace can expect to meet Middle Eastern elites, Russian billionaires and members of the Monacan royal family. The price was set by a $41 million, four bedroom home.

The four penthouse apartments atop One Hyde Park, London’s newest and most luxurious address, sold well before the arrival of the new year. The building, developed by Candy & Candy and funded by Qatar’s foreign minister, will include eighty apartments designed by architect Richard Rogers. It will also feature communal spas, squash courts and even a private wine-tasting facility. The building will cost £1.5 billion (around $3 billion USD) to develop and Candy & Candy plan to have it finished sometime in 2010.

A computer-generated image of the world’s most expensive apartment.

One of the four penthouse apartments was sold for over £100 million (over $200 million at the time), making it the most expensive apartment in the world. Each of the four penthouses will have a number of security features, including bulletproof glass, panic rooms and access to an underground passage leading to a nearby hotel.

Other apartments in the building are going for an average of over £20 million (around $40,000,000).

Located on the same private street in Hampstead where stars Lulu and Ringo Starr have owned homes, the house was designed by architect William Bertram, who was coaxed out of retirement for the job. Unfortunately for him, Mansour Namaki, for whom the house was designed, decided to move to Regent’s Park instead.

Hampstead

The house itself is 17,000 square feet and includes such luxuries as an indoor swimming pool decorated in gold, a cinema, a hair salon, a gym and even its own nightclub. Lest you worry about the Levievs and their guests aching from walking through such a massive house (and we know you do worry), the house includes a six-person elevator. Security is also not an issue, as the house is protected by a $100,000 armor-plated door, 25 infra-red cameras and a 24-hour security barrier between the outside world and the road on which the house is located.

What was the crucial factor in Mr. Leviev’s decision to throw down £35 million on the most expensive newly-built house in Britain? It’s within walking distance of a synagogue. In fact, there are three nearby synagogues, the Garden Suburb Synagogue in Norrice Lea being the closest.

So what does a $500 visit to Shadow Creek include? For starters, you’ll be transported by limo to and from the course. At the course, you’ll find your personal caddie ready to guide you through the world’s most expensive golf course. The holes themselves include steep hills, sharp turns, high ridges and, of course, Shadow Creek itself. The 18th hole is designed to include nearly all of the elements of the previous seventeen in a par five, truly making it the ultimate golf experience.

And, hey, maybe you’ll win back your $500 at one of those casinos that Vegas is so famous for having.

Hotel Cala di Volpe in Costa Smeralda, Italy – Presidential Suite
$27,277/night

Costa Smeralda—the “Emerald Coast”—in northern Sardinia, is home to many draws for the obscenely wealthy, not the least of which is this fabulous suite. The duplex suite has three bedrooms and as many bathrooms, an outdoor saltwater pool and a private gazebo and solarium.

Grand Resort Lagonissi in Athens, Greece – The Royal Villa
$34,088/night

Another three-bedroom suite, the Royal Villa has two pools—an indoor pool and a heated outdoor pool. The nearby marina and beach cement the fact that this suite is a swimmer’s paradise. Visitors will also have access to a private chef to accompany the fully equipped kitchen, a butler and even a pianist.

Hotel President Wilson in Geneva, Switzerland – Royal Penthouse suite
$35,000/night

If you’d prefer a secure suite to an extravagant one, look no further than Switzerland. The Royal Penthouse suite boasts a private elevator, bulletproof windows, armored doors, surveillance cameras and even bedside panic buttons. Of course, it’s not all about security; the suite also features a number of period pieces and stunning views of Mont Blanc and Lake Geneva.

Four Seasons Hotel in New York, USA – Ty Warner Penthouse suite
$35,350/night

With a carpet that’s so expensive that anyone who walks across it must wear special booties provided by the hotel, ample views of the nation’s largest city, a 700 square foot library and even a waterfall in its Zen room, this suite—which covers the hotel’s entire 52nd floor—is truly a luxury location. It’s named after the founder of Ty Inc., manufacturer of the popular Beanie Babies stuffed toys.

The Hotel Martinez in Cannes, France – Penthouse Suite
$37,200/night

The world’s most expensive hotel suite is located on the seventh floor of the Hotel Martinez, already a ritzy location with its Michelin-starred restaurant and prime location on the Croisette in Cannes. The suite itself consists of four bedrooms and an impressive terrace—complete with Jacuzzi—which commands an equally impressive view of the Mediterranean Sea.

Designed by Bryan Trubey of the Dallas-based architecture firm HKS Incorporated, this “stadium of the future” will boast a capacity of 80,000 spectators with the potential to accommodate up to 100,000. Building plans for the stadium contain monumental arches, a 661,000 square foot retractable roof with a hole similar to that of their current Texas Stadium, an 86-foot-high glass wall, and retractable end-zone doors. The stadium is scheduled to open its doors in Arlington, Texas in 2009.

The Dallas Cowboys’ New Stadium

“The challenge for us with this new stadium was to innovate, but at the same time never forget to acknowledge tradition,” team owner Jerry Jones said. “This new stadium embodies the spirit of the Dallas Cowboys and that starts with the familiar hole in the roof”.

Another feature worth mentioning is what will be the world’s largest center-hung video scoreboard which will be suspended 110 feet over the playing field. Reportedly, the most expensive American football stadium will cost $1 billion and will also be the largest professional sports venue in the nation, reinforcing the stereotype that everything is bigger in Texas.

The Cowboys’ stadium will eclipse the current most expensive stadium, that of the Arizona Cardinals. The University of Phoenix Stadium, formerly Cardinals Stadium, cost $455 million and is followed closely by Paul Brown Stadium, at $453 million, where the Cincinnati Bengals play.

The University of Phoenix Stadium

With all of these expensive stadiums, one might think the NFL could afford to pay their coaches as well as the most expensive college football coach.

Monaco has an average price of €24,900 per sq meter, making the principality the most expensive real estate in Europe, but profit yields are low at 2.4%. A 35 sq. meter apartment of this expensive real estate yields an average return of 2.12%, while a 195 sq. meter apartment yields an average return of 2.64%.

Real estate in Central London’s exclusive neighborhoods is also quite expensive, averaging €14,522 per sq. meter and claiming the location of the second most expensive real estate in Europe. Paris and Amsterdam were both noted as having some of Europe’s most expensive real estate.

Monaco still has them topped, by a wide margin actually. It makes sense that such a small wealthy geographical location would have the most expensive real estate in Europe. This makes Monaco extremely exclusive and its property in high demand for those able enough to afford it. Property prices in Monaco have steadily risen over 10% a year in the last decade.

Some of the most sought after property in Monaco is located in the area known as Carre D’Or (Square of Gold), located close to the world famous Place Du Casino. Most of the available properties in Monaco are expensive apartments. Other expensive real estate include penthouses overlooking the harbor and Formula 1 circuit. There are a number of villas and townhouses located on the hills that also boast extremely high property values.

Monaco has recently unveiled its plans to expand its borders by adding 25 acres of expensive real estate into the ocean through the construction a platform, using the same technology that off-shore oil rigs utilize. The new district will boast upmarket shops and reportedly about €3.7 billion ($4.9 billion) worth of luxury residences.

Patrice Cellario, Monaco’s director of planning was quoted in a recent article saying:

“We hope this extension will be a self-contained area with a complex mix of people. We’re not looking to create a residential area for the rich, though of course we want to welcome well-off foreigners to Monaco.”

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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 top twenty are centrally located around the London city limits.

South East region of England saw a six year property increase of 86.6%, for London, it was an 82.4% increase. Surprisingly, property in Wales, Yorkshire and North East are boasting six year increases of over 140%. Because the property value of the current most expensive streets is not showing a steady increase, one of these other regions may house the most expensive street within a few years.

The average price for a home in the UK is around £200,000. This of course will not get you a house on Kensington Square. The average property value there is 28 times the national average.

Eight streets in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea are in the top ten most expensive streets and area noted to be where many famous people call home.

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 center. The recreation center features a pool, Turkish and Russian baths and a sauna to keep the water bill high. For visitors, there are two 4,000-square-foot guest houses on the property.

Tranquility (Lake Tahoe, Nevada) – $100 million

What could be more tranquil than watching movies in your nineteen-seat private theatre with the knowledge that you’re not paying taxes on your lavish estate? Located on a 210-acre stretch of land, Tranquility is being sold by Tommy Hilfiger co-founder Joel Horowitz. The mansion itself is 20,000-square-feet and features a 3,500-bottle wine cellar and an indoor swimming pool and atrium.

Updown Court (Windlesham, Surrey) – $110 million

This courtly estate aims for a more sophisticated occupant with its ballrooms and grand entryways. Of course, the 103-room Updown Court also has all the basic amenities—a fifty-seat cinema, heated marble driveway, helipad and indoor spas, Jacuzzis and pools. If that isn’t enough for you, there are also 58 acres of gardens and woodlands.

Dunellen Hall (Greenwich, Connecticut) – $125 million

One of Greenwich’s great estates, Dunellen Hall was broken up in 2003 when owner Leona Helmsley put a 3,800-square-foot house on a 27-acre tract of land up for sale. The current estate features a 21,897-square-foot Jacobean manor with fourteen bedrooms and thirteen bathrooms, vaulted ceilings, marble floors, bay windows, wood paneling and limestone walls.

Fleur de Lys (Beverly Hills, California) – $125 million

This 45,000-square-foot home was modeled after the palace of King Louis XIV in Versailles. It was built over five years after Texas billionaire David Saperstein and former wife Suzanne secured five acres in the Holmby Hills section of Bel Air. It was put up for sale soon after Suzanne was awarded the estate in the couple’s divorce. The most expensive home on the market features a fifty-seat screening room, nine-car garage and library of first-edition books.

La Leopolda, France – $750 million

Originally built for the mistress of King Leopold of Belgium, this mansion overlooking the French Riviera has been said to be owned by several prominent people over the years, including Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Fiat Group’s Gianni Agnelli. Sketchy reports of a “mysterious Russian billionaire” said that he had purchased the villa it from the widow of a Lebanese banker who was killed in an arsonist’s fire in 2003. Now it seems that the billionaire intends on backing out of the deal, possibly due to the financial crisis.

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 been designed by firms Perkins + Will and Hirsch Bedner Associates.

Lending the building a mythic resonance, the tower is named Antilia, after the mythological phantom island, and is designed based on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. Antilia’s design also conforms to Vaastu, an Indian tradition similar to Feng Shui. Furthermore, the building makes use of different architectural elements and materials for every floor—making sure that each one is uniquely appealing.

The 27-storey building will be about 568 feet tall—meaning that, on average, each storey will be over 20 feet tall. The first six floors will be reserved for parking the Ambanis’ cars while the seventh floor will be used to maintain those cars. The eighth floor will be used for entertainment and includes a 50-seat cinema with a gardened rooftop and balconies. The ninth floor will be reserved for emergencies should the Ambanis, their guests and/or staff require rescue. The tenth and eleventh floors will contain a health club, swimming pool and other athletic facilities. Above that will be two-storey guest apartments and, finally, the four floors on which the Ambani family will live. The remaining three floors will be used for maintenance and a control room for Antilia’s three helipads.

At a projected cost of $2 billion, Antillia is the world’s first billion-dollar home.

That’s quite a bit more than The Pinnacle, Yellowstone Club founder Tim Blixseth’s planned Montana mansion and our former “Most Expensive Home.” The 10-bedroom abode would’ve cost $155 million, but construction never began and Blixseth has recently sold the 160-acre land parcel on which it would’ve been built.

From the Forbes article on the most expensive home sales of 2006

Approximately five miles from Manhattan, real estate investor Richard Kurtz’s new holding is a 10,000-square-foot English-style country house built in the 1930s by the Henry Clay Frick family. The 63-acre estate hosts two guest cottages, three greenhouses, a pool and tennis courts. At a whopping $58 million it is the largest sale of the year, significantly beating 2005’s high of $45 million.

From the Marketwatch article on the most expensive home sold in 2006

The price was substantially lower than 2005’s biggest sale, the record-setting $70 million sale of financier Ron Perelman’s Palm Beach, Fla., oceanfront estate, according to the institute.

That said, sales of homes priced at $5 million and greater were on the rise in 2006, the group reported. And at least 10 buyers throughout the country were willing to shell out $28 million or more for high-end residences last year.

Who knows what high-end expensive real estate will be put on the market and sold. When the ultra-rich find the property that they want often money is of not a factor. We could see a home sale of more than 100 million but the most expensive home sale could decline again this year.

2006 ECA International Cost of Living Survey
Harare, Zimbabwe ranks as the world’s most expensive city for expatriates due largely to the country’s soaring inflation.

2006 UBS Prices and Earnings Report
Oslo, London, Copenhagen, Zurich and Tokyo are the world’s most expensive cities in relation to a standardized basket of 122 goods and services.
London is named the most expensive city for living costs (including rent).

2006 Mercer Human Resource Consulting 2006 Survey
Moscow, Russia named world’s most expensive city.

2006 Economist Intelligence Unit’s
Olso, Norway named world’s most expensive city for worldwide cost of living.

2005 Mercer Human Resource Consulting Survery
Toyko, Japan named the city that is the most expensive in the world.

2005 Economist Intelligence Unit
Tokyo is still the most expensive city in the world for expatriates.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition releases a report called Out of Reach anually, where it compares housing costs vs. wage levels in communities across the entire United States. The number the report uses, Housing Wage represents the hourly wage that a household must earn (working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year) in order to afford the Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at 30% of income.

Hawaii is most expensive state in the nation for renters, according to the recent 2006 report at a Housing Wage of $23.53. The next 3 most expensive states for renters were: California $22.86, Massachusetts $22.65 and New Jersey $21.21. Outranking even Hawaii was the District of Columbia at a Housing Wage of $24.73, but obviously DC it is not a state.

From the Press Release:

The cost of affordable rental housing climbed again in 2006, out pacing the wages of those who need it most. The national two-bedroom Housing Wage climbed to $16.31 for 2006, up from $15.78 last year. This is the hourly wage a full time worker must earn in order to afford a two-bedroom home at his or her community’s Fair Market Rent (FMR).
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Minimum wage earners are unable to afford even a one-bedroom home anywhere in the country, and 88% of renters in cities live in areas where the FMR for a two-bedroom rental is not affordable even with two minimum wage jobs.

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Most Expensive Gas Price in the U.S.

For the second year in a row, Palo Alto has been named the most expensive college town in the United States by the real estate firm Coldwell Banker, which compared the prices. Palo Alto was at the top of the list with an average price of $1.6 million for a 2,200-square-foot home. The second annual found that more than one-third of the markets that are home to the 119 Division I-A schools feature 2,200 square foot homes priced at or below the national median existing-home price of $225,000.

The top five most expensive college towns are all in California. Los Angeles was second, at $1.5 million and counted twice because it is home to UCLA and the University of Southern California. San Jose was fourth at $1.4 million and Berkeley fifth at almost $1.3 million.

“It is no surprise to us that Palo Alto would come out on top,” said Avram Goldman, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in the Bay Area. “Palo Alto is a great place to live, largely because of its outstanding quality of life, great schools, wonderful restaurants and numerous activities surrounding Stanford, not the least of which is great sports.”

Related Information

• America’s Most Popular College
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New York’s Fifth Avenue has retained the number one position as the world’s most expensive shopping street, according to Main Streets Across the World 2006, an annual report by the real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield. An average 1,000 sq ft (93 sq m) location on Fifth Avenue, at the most expensive stretch near the intersection with 57th Street, now costs around 1.35 million USD per year.

The trendy Abercrombie & Fitch flagship at 56th Street and Nokia’s flagship on East 57th Street, which follows Apple Computer’s success at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, as consumers continue to pursue advances in technology and communication, are among this year’s most high-profile openings on Fifth Avenue.

Top 5 Most Expensive Shopping Streets

1. 5th Avenue, New York, USA
2. Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
3. Avenue des Champs Elysées, Paris, France
4. New Bond Street, London, UK
5. Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

Source: Cushman & Wakefield

Main Streets Across the World 2006 tracks retail rents in the world’s 233 most expensive shopping locations across 47 countries around the world. The report’s global league table is drawn up by taking the most expensive shopping street in each of the countries monitored. On a regional basis, Asia Pacific has seen the highest rental increases in local currency terms; rents are up 20 per cent in the year to June 2006.

The expensive phone number 666 6666 reportedly sold for 10m Qatari riyals or £1.5m, or around $2,750,000 US. In the West some consider 6 the imperfect number, but this is apparently not the consensus in Qatar.

The Register reports that the Chinese number 8888 8888 was previously the most expensive phone number, selling for £270,000 to Sichuan Airlines.

Now, on to the 5 most expensive zip codes in the US.

5. 90210 (Beverly Hills, CA) – Median Home Price: $3.36 million
The titular zip code of one of the most successful franchises on television, 90210’s place on the list is no surprise. Along with Los Angeles neighborhoods Bel Air and Holmby Hills, Beverly Hills is part of Southern California’s Platinum Triangle of wealthy areas.

4. 91008 (Duarte, CA) – Median Home Price: $3.44 million
Pronounced “Dwor-tee” by its locals, Duarte has been home to jazz musician Glen Miller, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Carlos Fisher and thoroughbred jockey Garrett K. Gomez.

3. 10014 (New York, NY) – Median Home Price: $3.52 million
New York’s 10014 zip code is the home of Greenwich Village. Formerly the capital of the bohemian movement, the Village has now been gentrified. Despite that fact, it still played an important role in the gay liberation movement.

2. 94027 (Atherton, CA) – Median Home Price: $3.84 million
America’s most expensive suburb’s notable residents include Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt, former EBay CEO Meg Whitman and retired football player Jerry Rice.

1. 07620 (Alpine, NJ) – Median Home Price: $4.13 million
The 15th Best Place To Live in New Jersey, according to New Jersey Monthly, Alpine has been home to a number of musicians, from Stevie Wonder to Britney Spears, as well as comedian and actor Eddie Murphy and Saturday Night Live’s Joe Piscopo.

The position of Oslo as the most expensive highlights a much wider increase in the relative cost of living across Europe. Reykjavik saw the largest proportional rise in the cost of living, gaining 19 percentage points on New York and moving above Osaka into third place. Eight of the ten most expensive cities in the survey are now based in Europe, although only Paris (France, 4th) hails from the euro zone.

In the 2005 annual cost-of-living survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Tokyo Japan, was listed as the most expensive city in the world. The survey, which covers 144 cities in six continents, uses New York City as base city, giving it 100 points. Tokyo scored 134.7 as the most expensive city to live in.

Tokyo remains the world’s most expensive city, followed by Osaka, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer Human Resource Consulting. London moves down one position in the rankings to take third place, followed by Moscow which also drops a place this year.
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New York remains the most expensive city in North America, at 13th position in the rankings (score 100). Other costly cities include Los Angeles ranked 44 (86.7), San Francisco in 50th place (84.9) and Chicago in 52nd position (84.6).
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Sydney is still the most expensive city in Australia at 20th place with a score of 95.2. – source

Donald Trump takes the top spot with an expensive Palm Beach mansion listed for sale at $125 million. A Palm Beach Florida home named Maison de l’Amitie priced at $125 million dollars and owned by Donald Trump tops the list of the 1000 most expensive homes currently on the market as of January 30, 2006 in the U.S., according to the just-released Unique Homes magazine’s special issue, Ultimate Homes, 2006.

New York leads the Ultimate Homes list of most expensive homes for sale with the most properties — 333. California follows with a total of 183 properties, and Florida is a close third with 174. Thirty eight states have expensive homes for sale that made the list.

The most expensive estate is at 513 N. County Road, and is perhaps the most expensive home for sale in the the world. The 75,00 square ft house on 7.65 acres is a short hop from Mar-a-Lago, a name most residents of Florida’s Gold Coast associate with real estate mogul Donald Trump. This most expensive Palm Beach real estate is in a location known as “Billionaire’s Row.”

Trump bought the “House of Friendship” for $41.35 million at a bankruptcy auction over a year ago. The unusually large amount of oceanfront space certainly caught his eye.