The New York Times periodically picks a price and then does a "What You Get for ... $xxx,xxx" piece in its Real Estate section, comparing homes in three cities. I've never seen a "What You Get for ... $35,000,000," article so here it is, at least in one city: This estate in Montauk (no direct link, so go here, and enter Web ID H34007) is set on 35.5 acres between the Atlantic Ocean, a freshwater pond and fields and meadows, with 400 feet of ocean frontage. The house is 7,000 square feet and has a tiled roof, plus there's 50% more living space than the house itself, thanks to the 3,500 square feet of mahogany decking. Built in 1994, there are three levels, comprising five bedrooms, five baths, living and dining rooms with 16-foot ceilings and walls of glass that overlook the ocean and grounds. For cooking (or, more likely, where your staff will be doing the cooking), there's a chef's kitchen. Also: a breakfast room, an office, a screening room with a state-of-the-art JBL system, and a garage. A path leads through private gates to the beach.

Most expensive homes have extra built-in features that are meant to make the environment more comfortable, but not the $2 million Bioscleave House on Long Island. Husband and wife architectural design team Arakawa and Madeline Gins have made sure the "Lifespan Extending Villa" they created is specifically as uncomfortable and unsettling as possible. At the core of their campaign to defeat mortality is the idea that "comfort is the precursor to death." They believe that they have created an environment that keeps people constantly tentative, which in turns helps them stay young and cheat death.

So what makes it so uncomfortable? The floors are severely uneven and bumpy (you have to sign a waiver before you can enter and there are poles to grab onto in various places in case you lose your balance), all the light switches and electric sockets are placed at weird angles, and it's painted in an array of crazy colors (some walls include as many as 40 different shades).

Interestingly enough the couple doesn't seem interested in living in it themselves, as it's currently sitting empty waiting for occupants. That thing cost $2 million and now they aren't even going to live in it. What, they don't want to defy death after all?

Can't say I blame them. I hope to be nice and comfy in my old age, death precursor or not.

Via Engadget

The Nautilus House is a cartoon-like combination of bright vibrant colors and a gigantic shell-shaped design. It's a real house, located in Mexico City and occupied by a young couple and their two small children. Not only does the Nautilus House look like a giant work of art, but because it's built from a mix of chicken wire and concrete (among other things) and takes cues from a Nautilus shell (hence the name) it's also an earthquake-proof and maintenance-free structure. And that's always handy.

The inside decor is all about smooth rounded surfaces, rich colors, and greenery all over the place. And although the home is surrounded by Mexico City on 3 sides, the West side has most of the windows and faces out to a beautiful view of the mountains.

I really like it, but for anything other than a vacation home it might get old -- living in this house must make a person feel like they're in a tropical version of Whoville.

Via DVICE

Louis Kahn only designed 3 major architectural homes in his career and one of them, the Escherick House (named after the woman for whom it was built, Margaret Escherick) is up for auction. Its address is in Philadelphia and according to some it's his best residential creation and has "mature style" and a "warm and human quality" to the interior (and I tend to agree).

So the house will be sold, but unlike most houses its price will not only reflect the local regular real estate market but also the art market. Valued at $2 million only about half of that is unbiased structural and land values -- the rest is all artistic and historical sentiment.

Very few celebrities have only one home -- owning multiple residences in locations around the world is key to keeping any sense of normalcy and routine in their lives. But although first homes are usually in cities like New York and LA to be close to work, where do celebrities like George Clooney, Johnny Depp, and Oprah choose to buy vacation homes? Where do they go when it's entirely up to them and they want to relax?

Well for Clooney it's a waterfront villa in Lake Como, Italy, for Depp it's a 50 acre farmhouse in France, and Oprah prefers her ocean-front ranch in Santa Monica. Where would you live? Check out this list of celebrity summer homes and see who's taste is closest to your own.

Temecula, one of the lesser known wine regions in California will soon be home to a new luxury development. Ridgeview Estate at the Groves is a $102 million dollar development of 41 two-acre custom home sites located in the hills overlooking Temecula. The gated community will include finished individual view lots. Temecula, which is in Southwestern Riverside country, has been experiencing a boom in tourism with resorts and increased attention focused on local wineries. Temecula lacks the lavish gorgeousness of Northern California's wine country but the estates will still probably be quick sellers. The first phase of lots will be released in October.

Related: It seems like Temecula is having some of the same problems with wine-rowdy tourists that plague Napa and New York wineries.

In this sweltering summer heat a dip in the pool is delightful. If you don't have access to one right now, take a pass through this gallery of luxury pools. I was pleased to see that some of them are in houses we've seen before as estates of the day such as the lavish Champ D'Or in Texas and a magnificent pool in Belle Terre, New York as well as pools that were new to me in home as far-ranging as Vermont and Arizona. Fabulous but I do think they should add the pool at Terra Bella to the list.

The first residents of the Palm Jumeirah, the massive palm-shaped island off the coast of Dubai, have moved in and as the AP reports they seem quite content so far. The AP profiles Andrew Dukes who was the first to move into his island mansion. Dukes, formerly an executive with a London-based Internet company, paid around $1.36 million for his house over a year ago and it is now worth nearly double. The new land which was made from sand dredged up from the sea and rock from nearby mountains, will also be home to hotels, including one by Donald Trump, a monorail, and a water theme park. Buyers of the development include citizens of the United Arab Emirates and neighboring countries and speculators and residents from around the world. Part of the Palm Jumeirah also serves as a labor camp for the thousands of construction workers working on the project. The other projects by Nakheel including the ambitious "World" project are still under development.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
-- Martin Scorsese has sold his Upper East Side townhouse which had a last asking price of $6.7 million.
--NASCAR star Jeff Gordon and his model wife Ingrid Vandebosch have just signed a one-year, $26,000-a-month lease for an apartment at the Park Imperial on West 56th Street.
--Norman Lear has paid nearly $10 million for a condo at 15 Central Park West.

From Berg Properties Big TIme Listings:
--Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump have both bought Hollywood homes.Wentz paid $1,625,000 for a single-family house up in the hills and Stump paid $744,000 for a condo just south of Hollywood Boulevard.
--Actress Nicole Sullivan of "MADtv" and the "The King of Queens," has paid $1,810,000 for a five-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills. She has listed her two-bedroom house above Laurel Canyon in the Hollywood Hills for $1,295,000. The listing for this cute home in the hills, shown above, is here.
--A five-bedroom house in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills that was owned from 1999 to 2003 by Danny Bonaduce has been reduced in asking price by $300,000, to $2,599,000. The listing for the bland Mediterranean home is here.

From the Real Estalker:
--DJ AM has picked up a four-bedroom home for $1.895 million.
--Russell and Kimora Lee Simmons have put their Saddle River, NJ home on the market for $23.888 million. The Real Estalker calls it an "over-the-top vulgar display of wealth" which pretty much sums up the situation perfectly. The ten-bedroom home has swimming pools with waterfalls and caves, a movie theater with a popcorn machine and a ticket taker, a huge wine cellar, a catering kitchen and more gilt finishes that you would find anywhere except in a Trump home. Take a look around the listing here.
--Stylist and reality TV star Danny Teeson has put his three-bedroom home on the market for $1.495 million. As the Real Estalker points out, the acutely decorated interior of the home doesn't match the modest yet charming exterior. The listing is here.
--Actor John Stockwell is selling his Hancock Park home for $3.75 million. The listing for the charming shingled six-bedroom home with beautiful gardens is here.
--Sports manager Gary Gittelsohn and his wife television director Ellen Gittelsohn have listed their Mulholland Drive home in Bel Air for $5.9 million. The six-bedroom home has a very lavish feel, check out the pics here.
--The estate of actress Jane Wyatt has put her Bel Air home on the market for $5.995 million. The listing for this classic Paul Williams beauty is here.
--Designer Richard Tyler and his business partner/wife Lisa Trafficante are selling their West Village home for $15.9 million.
--Producer Jerry Weintraub has put his huge Malibu spread on the market for an astronomical $75 million. The property is over six acres of beach front property with a private bluff, barns, stbles and a seven bedroom home. The listing is here.


From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Milton Glaser, the grandfather of New York graphic design, has sold his third-floor duplex at 27 West 67th Street for $4.1 million. He bought a three-bedroom Chelsea condo for a reported $2.875 million.
--Director/producer Hal Prince and his daughter Daisy Chaplin Prince have sold their five-story townhouse at 124 East 64th Street for $8.8 million. The two reportedly bought another Manhattan place together last year, paying just under $3 million.
--Roger Goodell, the new commissioner of the National Football League, and wife Jane Skinner, a Fox News daytime anchor have sold their seven-room co-op at 180 East End Avenue late last month for $2.725 million.
--The 20,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts townhouse that belonged to porn magnate Bob Guccione has entered its 13th month on the market and is listed at $59 million but still hasn't gone to contract.

From the Real Estate Journal's Private Properties:
--Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade and his wife, Siohvaughn, are looking to sell their Miami-area home for $8.9 million, more than double what they paid for it in 2005. This home is our estate of the day later today.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Avril Lavigne and her husband, Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley, have bought a Bel-Air home for about $9.5 million. It was previously reported that her Beverly Hills Post Office home is for sale.
--Tyler Perry has put his Malibu beachfront home on the market at $5.35 million. The listing for the three-level contemporary on Pacific Coast Highway is here.
-The Lake Arrowhead retreat of Walter Francis O'Malley, the onetime L.A. Dodgers owner, has been sold for close to $1.7 million.
--Blake Masters, creator of Showtime's new series "Brotherhood," and his wife, Melissa, a talent agent at the Paul Kohner Agency, have purchased the Beachwood Canyon home of Laurie McCarthy, executive producer of the NBC series "Windfall" for slightly more than $1.5 million.
--NBA star Mike Miller of the Memphis Grizzlies has put the home he bought at Lake Sherwood in December for $6.56 million. He never moved in and has put the house back on the market at close to $8 million.

After a global search spanning six continents, Forbes has put together their list of the World's Most Expensive Homes for 2007. $100 million will get you more in - for example - South Africa than it will in New York, but the international ultra-luxury market is growing so fast, say real estate agents who deal with clients in the market for such homes, that the price gap is diminishing and soon all of these houses could be closer to the high-end of the pricing spectrum and a list like this one might look very different in 5 years. For now, top priced homes (in USD) include:

• Updown Court in Windlesham, Surrey ($138 million) is a 103-room home on 58 acres of lush grounds, with an indoor squash court, bowling alley, 50-seat cinema, helipads and a heated marble driveway.
• Hala Ranch in Aspen, Colo. ( $135 million, pictured) has 95-acres and a 56,000-sq. ft. mansion, with multiple outbuildings and guest houses, stables, a tennis court and an indoor swimming pool.
• Waterfront Estate in Istanbul, Turkey ($100 million) is on only .75 acres of land, but has 30,000 square feet of ultra-luxe space divided into 64 rooms, most of which look out onto the water.

Check out the full list for further details and the rest of the top priced homes.

The Peaks Resort & Golden Door Spa in Telluride, Colorado is going condo, making it the first well-established in the area to convert to individual ownership for those interested in the "luxury mountain lifestyle." The plan calls for $60 million in renovations, converting the 174 guestrooms into studio, one and two bedroom condos with new flooring, furniture, fixtures and amenities like flat-screen TVs, gas fireplaces, spa-like bathrooms and, for most rooms, outdoor decks. The facility will include easy ski access, a full spa and fitness center, a children's recreation center and conference/gathering rooms. Construction will be completed by December 2007, and the units, fully-furnished, will be priced at $500,000 and up.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Leonard Bernstein's apartment in the Dakota is on the market again for $25.5 million. The listing is here.
--The apartment belonging to late author Rona Jaffe has sold for $1.72 million.
--Judd Hirsch has bought a two-bedroom apartment on the East Side for $925,000.
--A townhouse once rented by Will Smith is on the market for $12.5 million. The listing for this gorgeous home is here.
--The seller of Susan Soros' Philippe Starck-designed duplex, David Mimran, is paying $65,000 a month in rent at Trump Park Avenue.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Robert F. Fairchild, a Burgundy expert, has paid $2.95 million for a high-floor apartment on West 56th Street condo.
--Recently on-trial Washington, D.C., developer Norman Jemal has closed on a six and-a-half-room apartment at Trump Palace for $3.25 million. The apartment is for his parents.
--The Silk Building, which has been home to Keith Richards and Britney Spears, is now home to a member of a Japanese fashion dynasty. Adam Taki, part of a dynasty that founded the textile and retail group Takihyo back in 1751 and more recently owned the Anne Klein label, has bought a 1,831-square-foot duplex for $2.1 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties
--Johnny Damon and his wife, Michelle, have agreed to sell their Boston-area home for more than $5 million. The Damons paid $4.75 million for the six-bedroom house in late 2004. Former Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez recently cut the asking price for his Brookline house for the second time and former Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra has yet to find a buyer for his two-bedroom Boston-waterfront condo.
--San Francisco Giants outfielder Moisés Alou and his wife, Austria, have put their San Francisco home on the market for $1.949 million. The home was rebuilt in 2005 and is our estate of the day later today.
--Democratic activist and businesswoman Bren Simon, wife of shopping-mall magnate and Indiana Pacers co-owner Melvin Simon, is looking to sell a mansion in Los Angeles's Bel-Air neighborhood for $17.5 million, a whopping $4.5 million more than she paid for it last year. The listing for the 18,000-square-foot home which was modeled after the Petit Trianon at Versailles, is here.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Producer Brian Grazer and his wife, novelist Gigi Levangie Grazer listed their 8,800-square-foot Pacific Palisades home of nine years at $27.5 million. It was unlisted last week. The listing still seems to be up here.
--More Manhattan Beach sports real estate. L.A. Clippers forward Yaroslav Korolev is the latest athlete who has lived in this five-bedroom, Mediterranean-style home in Manhattan Beach.
--Kenneth Brown, the decorator who is host of HGTV's "reDesign," has sold his loft in West Hollywood for slightly more than $1 million.
--Five years ago, former KTLA and KCBS anchor Terry Anzur put her Pasadena home on the market for $600,000 and went to Florida. She's now returning and has put her West Palm Beach home on the market. The listing for the four bedroom home is here.

We like to look into posh homes whenever possible, but some homes aren't really accessible to the public. For example, the homes of dictators and rulers that are made luxurious by way of ill-gotten gains, as opposed to shopping at Bergdorf's. Dictator Style: Lifestyles of the World's Most Colorful Despots is a book that goes where we can't and takes the reader into the bedrooms, bathrooms and every other room of the rich and disreputable, most of which have now been destroyed. Subjects include Lenin, Hitler, Hussein and Noriega.

Author Peter York, described as a "style-guru" who believes that our homes are where we truly express ourselves, analyzes and comments with smart, snide writing that make the book as interesting as the images, many which are surprisingly vibrant, if tasteless, though the subjects had dark lives.

Toronto is ever the hot real estate market with new condos and residences coming online left and right. The newest one to hit the lot is One St. Thomas. This fantastic building is designed by the great Robert A.M. Stern in an Art Deco style that is very glamorous and functional. Many units enjoy terraces due to the ziggurat-style tapering of the upper floors. Residents will enjoy luxury amenities such as an indoor swimming pool with men's and women's locker and steam rooms, a paneled private dining room for large dinner parties, and a concierge, security, valet, and doorman to make your life all the more luxurious. The residences themselves feature fixtures by Waterworks, hardwood and marble flooring, and lovely fireplaces. This 29-story structure is in the heart of the most upscale area of Toronto, with shops like Hermes and Vuitton just around the corner.