Photos: America’s Most Expensive Homes

The prices of the Most Expensive houses in the U.S. have gone down due to the economic recession. If a house is priced over $100 million, will you still buy it?

Forbes released the 2009 America’s Most Expensive Homes. The list includes mansions, urban townhouses, monumental ski lodges and country estates.

Here they are, the Top 10, in photos.

1. $125 million — Fleur de Lys (Beverly Hills, California) — Suzanne Saperstein’s gem is aptly called the Fleur de Lys. Modeled after Louis XIV’s palace at Versailles, the 45,000-square-foot home took five years to build following Saperstein’s accumulation of five acres in Holmby Hills during the 1990s. Should strolling the grounds bore you, there is a 50-seat screening room and a library filled with first-edition books. Auto collectors will salivate over the nine-car garage.

2. $100 million — Tranquility (Lake Tahoe, Nevada) — This 210-acre property is owned by Joel Horowitz, co-founder of Tommy Hilfiger. The 20,000-square-foot main house is modeled after a Northern European mountain home and has a 3,500-bottle wine cellar. An indoor swimming pool and atrium, as well as a 19-seat movie theater, ensure constant entertainment, even if you’re snowed in.

3. $85 million — Bel Air Palace (Bel Air, California) — On 2.2 acres in the Bel Air neighborhood, this 48,000-square-foot palace has 10 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms.

4. $75 million — Dunnellen Hall (Greenwich, Connecticut) — On 40 acres of rolling hills, with lawns and meadows broken up by tree lines that provide privacy, this Jacobean manor has 21,897 square feet, 14 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms.

5. $75 million — Hummingbird Nest Ranch (Simi Valley, California) — North of Malibu and Van Nuys, this Spanish-style ranch sits on 123 acres of land, has a 17,000-square-foot main house, six guest houses, 10 staff houses, and a 37-stall equestrian facility.

6. $75 million — Limestone mansion on East 61st Street (Upper East Side New York, N.Y.) — The six-story home has 21,000 square feet of space. High, arched ceilings, winding staircases and stone floors mark the entry way. Other features include an interior courtyard, library, garden level, wine cellar, roof terrace, home gym, sauna, six bedrooms, three staff rooms and ten bathrooms.

7. $68 million — BootJack Ranch (Pagosa Springs, Colorado) — The main house is 13,800 square feet and has four bedrooms and four bathrooms. Outlying guest cabins and lodges can host up to 50 people and bring the total interior space up to 77,000 square feet. In addition, there’s a 12,000-square-foot spa and aquatic center.

8. $65 million — Robert Byrd-designed ranch (Brentwood, California) — It includes 112 acres of green ranch land including an equestrian stable. The property features seven buildings all together, which have more than 22,000 square feet of space, but the main house has 11,700 square feet of space with 17 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms.

9. $60 million — Pickfair (Beverly Hills, California) — With 17 bedrooms, and 16 bathrooms, this Beverly Hills estate has been an unofficial landmark since it was built in 1919 by silent-film stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford.

10. $60 million — New York Apartment (Upper East Side, New York, N.Y.) — A 10,000 square-foot apartment on New York’s Upper East Side, this property has five bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a roof deck and terrace as well as 11-foot ceilings throughout. The living room, however, has 26-foot ceilings, and that room leads to a skylight conservatory with a similar spatial configuration.

Source: forbes.com

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Tags: Buildings