Not too long ago, million dollar homes were considered to be la crème de la crème in the single-family home market. Not any more. In some parts of the country, $1M is merely the cost of doing business.
Currently, 4.3% of all housing stock in the country is valued at $1M or more, quadruple the amount of million dollar homes just 15 years ago. Since 2012, the number of million dollar homes in San Francisco has grown 300% and now describes 66% of that single-family home market. In Oakland, the number of million dollar homes has increased 500% and now describes 23.8% of that market. Nation-wide, the number of $1M homes has increased +17%.
The luxury market growing fastest is the one for $5M+ single-family homes. The number of these super luxury homes (now over 7,000) has increased +19.8% this past year. $5M homes are 3% of all listings in San Francisco and 2% of all listings on Long Island (the Hamptons).
What’s the difference between +$5M homes and $1M homes? Typically, super luxury homes have two more bedrooms, 4 more bathrooms and three times the amount of square footage than a mere luxury home. On average, super luxury homes have four times the acreage as regular luxury homes and all of them are in prime locations.
In New York, 87.8% of super luxury homes have “breathtaking views. In New York and Malibu, 30% of super luxury homes are penthouses and in Malibu, $5M homes are 60 times more likely to have oceanfront access and 15.6 times more likely to have ocean frontage.
In Los Angeles, sprawling “villas” or “estates” are 15.9 times more likely to be set among “park-like grounds” or landscaped gardens. In Dallas, super luxury homes are 4.5 times larger (10,801 square feet) than luxury $1M homes (2,349 square feet). In Ventura County, +$5M homes typically have 4.67 acres of land while +$1M homes have 0.16 acres.
Super luxury homes often have unique, one-of-a-kind amenities, features and designs that have been created or found by well-known international architects and designers. Lavish amenities often include bulletproof glass and helipads (as in Beyoncé and Jay Z’s new home in Beverly Hills), swim-up bars, 24-karat gold features, state-of-the-art recording studios, and indoor golf simulation rooms. It goes without saying that most all of these homes, 64.5% of them, have chef kitchens inside and out, pools, spas, exercise rooms, tennis courts, home theaters and fully autonomous guest houses/cottages.
Not surprisingly, owners and guests of+$5M super luxury homes do not leave their properties to be entertained. Why bother? Whatever anyone could possibly want or do is available at home sweet home.
