A New Low Price For Le Reve, Georgia's Most Lavish Foreclosed Mansion

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Mar 4th 2011 at 6:02PM

Last month we mentioned that Le Reve, the once $50 million estate for sale in Forsyth County, Georgia was in foreclosure. It has now had yet another price cut down to a new low of $16.75 million. Real estate agent Troy Stowe put it bluntly in a piece on WSOC-TV, saying "now, our new strategy is, the house needs to go." The new listing trumpets the fact that the home has been reduced by $32 million as well as indicating that the home is now bank owned.

La Reve was the home of Hubert and Norma Humphrey who designed their lavish seven-bedroom home with a private bowling alley, its own golf course, a massage room and a huge movie theater that is a replica of Atlanta's Fox Theatre. There is also a train room that is a replica of the old Central Georgia Railroad from Atlanta to Macon to Savannah that Hubert Humphrey worked on for 17 years as a train conductor. This incredible edifice has 82 rooms, two elevators and 62 televisions. The grounds include a heated swimming pool, pool house, spa, private playground, stables, tennis court, formal gardens and a guest house. The home, which is approximately 47,000 square feet on 72 acres was listed at a stunning $45 million in 2008 just two years after it was completed for a price of nearly $50 million total.

Gallery: Le Reve

Tags: foreclosure, georgia real estate, le reve

Filed under: Estates

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Yon Mar 4th 2011 8:20PM

Le Reve means "The dream" in French. It is now a nightmare.

alfredschrader Mar 5th 2011 5:17AM

"I can't seem to sleep for my nap dear" "Why not hunny?" " I keep getting these bowling alley sounds hammering through my head".

I'm a top furniture designer & I can make a $100,000 chair, but I could never sit on it. Why ? I'm might wear it out or damage it. Having a million dollar 21 seat theatre is the same thing. What if you spill your Coke ? I can't afford a house like that but if I could & I made the mistake of buying it, I would live in the staff's house, not the museum part of it....Alfie-

SNUFFY Mar 4th 2011 8:59PM

Quit whinning! Damn-my wife just got a job at burger king and any day now my good friend Danny is going to hire me for a big hourly rate. We would be intrested in this property.

auntie Mar 4th 2011 9:42PM

wow....bitter much??? if you cant say anything prodictive, why not forget how to type...geeze

ken Mar 4th 2011 9:25PM

time to start counting my pennies in the penny jar i just might have enough yahooo!

imva Mar 4th 2011 10:36PM

And he worked for 17 years as a train conductor??? Looks like a hotel in the making to me.

B. Taylor Mar 4th 2011 10:50PM

16.5 million? Chump change! Wonder what the monthly 'lectric bill would be?

cruising7388 Mar 4th 2011 11:04PM

I wouldn't pay $16.75 for a house in the backward state of Georgia.

vdld Mar 5th 2011 2:39AM

Even if they were giving this house away for free, very few people could afford to take it. The property tax alone would be in the neighborhood of $20,000 a month, add to that the electricity bill of around $3000 a month and then the water bill (gotta keep the lawn watered or the grass will die) of $5000 a month, the landscaping bill (gotta keep mowing the lawn, weeding, trimming, etc.) of $2,000 a month, and last but certainly not least, the cleaning bill (no one could keep 47000 sq ft clean by themselves) of around $3000 a month, add in some ongoing maintenence and repairs that are inevitably going to pop up and you're looking at $400,000 a year -- and that's if you got the house for free!!

dave Mar 5th 2011 6:53AM

knock it down and make a dollar store out of it!!

hattie54 Mar 5th 2011 8:47AM

At first,I thought that mansion was in Europe.I would love my own bowling alley.I miss bowling.:)

ekseem Mar 5th 2011 8:56AM

train conductor? some contract, sign me up....what a monument to greed and bad taste!

dtruckdrivinfool Mar 5th 2011 9:17AM

Must not be the Hubert Humphrey I'm thinking of, he died 40 years ago of cancer.

rdrvr1752 Mar 5th 2011 9:31AM

Be consistent and correct in your usage of French. The article uses the correct article (le) for a masculine noun "reve" in the heading. The gallery uses the feminine "la" coupled with the masculine noun.

Perry Mar 5th 2011 9:53PM

At least I'm not the only anal person to notice that (no insult intended).

kluj1 Mar 5th 2011 10:55AM

let the bank keep it

tharriger Mar 5th 2011 11:19AM

Heck, Bill and Hilary Clinton charged Chinese dignitaries $10K per night to stay in the White House "Lincoln Room".

Maybe Hilary could get her travel agency (the one that she owned and forced on the White House staff) to start booking this place out to the Chinese for week-long vacations.

Hilary has already had the Whitewater scandal, Travelgate, and Filegate.
This could be her Georgiagate.

Or better yet, Al Gore could buy it and call it one of his "green" projects because of the extensive lawns, landscaping, and golf course that he would waste precious water on to keep green.
He could claim that all the grass and shrubbery offset the global-warming effects of the heat radiating off that massive roof during daylight, and the millions of kilowatts of electricity that he uses to heat and cool his other mansions.