Welcome to Curbed Comparisons, a column that explores what set dollar amounts buy in the ever-growing list of cities that comprises the Curbed universe. Is one man's studio another man's townhouse? Let's find out!
When one is spending $25M to buy a house, one would be right to assume that it should come with some unique features. That's where this Miami Beach penthouse comes in. Sitting high atop South Beach's Michael Graves-designed 1500 Ocean Drive, this 8,400-square-foot penthouse boasts "double walk-in wine rooms, circular glass great room with wrap around 270° views," five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and an unreal, 7,000-square-foot terrace. Of course, that's not the only unreal feature of this listing, as most of the photos are photoshopped renderings. From the brokerbabble, it's not really clear if the apartment is complete yet, so it might be prudent to determine the completion date before paying the full $25M asking price.
? New York City isn't a difficult place to find an expensive house—there are currently more than 60 listings between $20M and $30M—but it might be a tough place to sell one, if this townhouse off Fifth Avenue is any indication. Listed, on and off, for more than a year and a half without a price chop, 5 East 93rd Street is priced at $24.5M. That's almost exactly $20M more than the owner paid back in 2002, though she did complete an "award-winning" renovation in the interim. There's plenty of original detail and space, with six bedrooms and six bathrooms.
? One of the few Chicago-area homes to break the $20M price threshold, the Richard Landry-designed Le Grand Rêve estate failed to sell at auction last year and has decided to come down from its initial asking price of $32M. The 27,000-square-foot home reportedly cost upwards of $40M to build, but was asking as little as $23M at one point before settling on a $27M price for the long haul. What does all that green buy? Six bedrooms, ten bathrooms, an outdoor pool, an extravagant wine cellar, and a Tiffany dome topping a two-story rotunda.
? Marketed in a listing that reveals only the San Francisco neighborhood in which it is located, Pacific Heights, this discreet brick mansion has some eye-popping interiors, which is an asset when the sellers are so privacy oriented that there is just one exterior photo in the whole batch. Listed for $23M, the four-story mansion was originally built in the late 1920s, but renovated top to bottom in 2011. The views are one of the home's major assets, with vistas that extend over the Presidio to the "Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of Fine Arts, and the San Francisco Bay."
? Moving from Pacific Heights to Pacific Palisades, in Los Angeles, where this 1992 mansion has just been updated and upgraded with a litany of new features: a two-tiered swimming pool, a billiards room, screening room, fire pit, and pair of offices. Those upgrades come with the hefty price tag of $26M, and with an abundance of space—eight bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, and 13,500 square feet—it may just get close to that number, considering its only been on the market for a few months.
· 1500 Ocean Drive [Sotheby's International Realty]
· 5 East 93rd Street [Streeteasy]
· Winnetka, IL [Sotheby's International Realty]
· Pacific Heights [Christie's International Real Estate]
· 1471 San Remo Drive [Zillow]
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