For sale: Most expensive home in the U.S.
A 1939 estate in Dallas is being offered at $135 million. The home, designed by one of the top architects of its time, was meticulously expanded and restored by the current owners.
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Everything’s bigger in Texas, and the Lone Star State has taken the title as the locale with the most expensive home for the sale in the United States.
The Crespi/Hicks estate in Dallas is on the market for $135 million. For that price, you get a big home: 28,996 square feet on 25 acres within eight minutes of downtown. Plus, there is a 7,200-square-foot pool house and a 6,300-square-foot guest house.
The home is owned by Tom and Cinda Hicks, who spent five to 10 years and close to $100 million expanding and remodeling, according to Candy Evans of Candy’s Dirt. But now that their six children are grown, they have decided it’s time to downsize. Hicks, an investment banker, is the former owner of the Dallas Stars hockey team and the Texas Rangers baseball team.
The home was built in 1939 for Pio Crespi, an Italian count who came to the United States to establish the cotton trade between the United States and Europe. He and his wife, Florence, were, as the Dallas Morning News’ Pop Culture blog put it, "jet-setters before there were jets." The two fell in love when both were married to other people, and Florence’s husband sued Pio in 1929 for “alienation of affection.” The spurned husband won, but only $10,000, not the $1 million that he had sought.
After the trial, the couple married and built the grand home they called Villa Fiorenza – though they built it only half as large as initially envisioned, in deference to the Depression. They lived there until their deaths, Pio in 1969 and Florence in 1999, at age 100.
The architect was Maurice Fatio, who also designed homes for E.F. Hutton and the Vanderbilts and was considered one of the top architects of his time in New York and Palm Beach, Fla. The Crespis brought in artisans and unique materials from Europe, building a European-style home with timeless proportions and unique materials. It was also the first home built in Dallas with central air conditioning and central heating.
The Hickses bought the house after Florence Crespi died, and Cinda Hicks hired New York architect Peter Marino to update and expand the home, staying true to Fatio’s style.
Unlike many megamansions, the home is widely praised in architectural circles. It’s considered one of the most architecturally significant homes in Dallas and perhaps in the United States.
Much of the information on it is written by Douglas Newby, who is the listing agent and also writes the Dallas Architecture Blog. He has a number of posts about the home, a video and lots of photos, including some of the original construction.
Photo: © Douglas Newby
If you need some insight into liberal progressive logic just scroll back through these pages and read every comment posted by "Kevin". You may even get a laugh out of it. The guy is seriously butt hurt
The idea is if someone is skilled in a profession that they should have to share everything. If someone else is going to give me something, why should I try for myself? The problem comes in when the government can't afford to support the amount of people it is trying to support. Then they cut back on actually important things and call it a CRISIS. I love the repetition of saying everyone should paying their "fair share". If you want fair, pay the same taxes that the wealthy pay.
Don't worry KEVIN, the government will amass plenty of INCOME from them via PROPERTY TAXES and INCOME TAX of these people. Probably enough to build low income housing elsewhere. If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at the government for not spending this money appropriately according to your belief. Then spend some time meditating and thinking about how no one gives a crap about you and you're not entitled to anything in this world. If you want something you have to take the action to make it happen.
Many people with wealth give up 75% of their money between taxes and CHARITY. How much do you give back? Or do you just take? Are you a leach? Are you a hypocrit?
Location: Charlottesville, Va.
2009 list price: $100 million
The digs: A 45-room neo-Georgian home touting a wine grotto and a helipad on the property.
Former owner: Patricia Kluge
New owner: Donald Trump
Legal woes: Bank of America foreclosed on ex-billionaire divorcee Patricia Kluge after she defaulted on a loan of more than $23 million. The lender took ownership of the sprawling estate in an auction on the courthouse steps. After 18 months of bank ownership, Trump stepped in and got it for $6.5 million in September 2012. Trump Organization already owns the surrounding lands and winery.
135,000,000 is way overpriced for this property. That comes out to about 3,500 per square foot. Where I live, you could build an extremely and I mean extremely nice home and estate for less than 350 per square foot. So this is priced, by my guess, at a factor of 10 times above its actual value. Kids your looking at a 13 milliion dollar home. This is all hype. The part about the owners spending 100 million on updating is either a blatant lie or they are people who have no real conception of costs. Which could be the case, given the husband is an investment banker. You won't see another story on this one. It will either sit on the market for 25 years or sell at such a discount it won't be mentioning.
By the way for all you socialists (both left and right wing), The monthly payment on a 13 million dollar home could be as low as $55,000 with taxes and insurance. Of course on 135 million that balloons to $ 550,000 a month. (18,000 a day). For 18 K a day it better come with a view!
Misplaced comment elsewhere.
@ndforspeed: You seem to claim that capitalism creates wealth for everybody who works, and socialism creates poverty. In fact, capitalism has created disproportionate wealth for the people at the top, and the middle class has been destroyed. Capitalism creates wealth on the backs of the middle class and the poor who are paid slave wages by American corporations. If you want to know what socialism does, take a look at the Wikipedia article which ranks the nations of the world by standard of living. The countries of Europe with a post-war history of democratic socialism have standards of living above that of the United States. And don't throw up the red herrings of Greece and Ireland. The economic crises in these countries are being resolved by the powerhouse economies of Europe......economies that were built on democratic socialism. Capitalism is a wonderful system for a very few at the top. The rest of us are slaves. Socialism creates wealth for the workers....period!
I just never thought about the fact that there would be different classes of real estate agents. Boy the rich really do live differently.
As I've never sold a home, do real estate agents turn down the seller if your not good enough?
I'm simply appalled at the favorable comments on here about that obscene estate and the people who would live there. I know there are Republicans who have that kind of money, but I'm amazed that there are so many people on here who would defend them. This kind of wealth is obscene, and it should be taxed at confiscatory rates if the Republican fat cats won't voluntarily give it away to meet social needs. There is hunger and homelessness in this country! So what right thinking person would live in a place like this? The Republicans tell us that these evil greedy people are "job creators." Yea right! These people would hire illegal immigrants to mow the lawn and tend the gardens, and then pay them slave wages. The wealthy Republicans are quite simply evil people.
About Teresa Mears
Teresa Mears is a veteran journalist who has been interested in houses since her father took her to tax auctions to carry the cash at age 10. A former editor of The Miami Herald's Home & Design section, she lives in South Florida where, in addition to writing about real estate, she publishes Miami on the Cheap to help her neighbors adjust to the loss of 60% of their property value.
msn real estate is social
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