The many luxury homes that are mostly owned by celebrities and other high profile individuals have also been hit by the recession with several falling victim to foreclosure due to their inability to pay their mortgages. These multi-million or even multi-billion dollar homes took a long time to erect but they are also quite a liability due to their huge price tag. From maintenance costs to the mortgage, they all carry a high price that this current recession has taken a hard bite at resulting in their getting foreclosed by their lenders may they be private or banks. From Hollywood stars to former magnates in every field, they all suffer the same fate, Full Story »

Talking about luxury homes, check out the world’s first billion-dollar home. It’s more of a high-rise hotel than a house, but this home is meant for Mukesh Ambani, the fifth richest man in the world, his wife and three children. It’s a 27-story skyscraper in downtown Mumbai with a cost nearing $2 billion. When the Ambani residence is finished, after a four-year process, it will be 550 feet high with 400,000 square feet of interior space. The Ambani home, called Antilla, is set to have six stories of parking lots, a lobby with nine elevators, a ballroom, a health level with an ice room where guests can escape the Mumbai heat with man-made snow, a four-story open garden and entertaining spaces for the business guests. Lest you be fooled into thinking this is actually a hotel, the Ambanis will live in it, and only occasionally use the residence for corporate entertainment. They look and feel of the home’s interior will be distinctly Indian.

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Some Expensive Must-Have Items:

According to the Federal Reserve, the net wealth of American households hit a high at the end of last year, increasing from $46.59 trillion in the third quarter of 2004 to $48.53 trillion in the fourth quarter.

Rising real estate and stock prices helped push the country’s household net worth up 4% between the third and fourth quarters.

You can now buy a $67,000 hand-crafted bathtub; Luxury is no longer confined to the affluent. To enhance people’s lives they are willing to pay more for luxury items like expensive perfumes and designer handbags.

Sometimes it’s hard to justify spending much more on an item when something considerably less expensive offers the same functionality.

Still, the expensive watches get sold and people are proud to own them. The exclusive maker of mattresses for the British royal family will reject a container of cashmere if it is deemed to be clumpy or defective in any way, says the director for the American division.

For each bed, workers cover thousands of springs in calico cotton; the damask cases are hand-woven in Belgium. If you have to ask how much these mattresses cost you can’t afford them.

California beach front luxury homes are not affected at all by the downturn of the real estate market value in America. Although it was mentioned last time that luxury homes were a bit down, the ones near the beach hasn’t been affected at all.

People who own homes in the coastal luxury market, which some brokers say starts at about $4 million and goes up from there, typically aren’t in a position where they need to sell for whatever they can get.

The reason for this is that the people who are selling these properties are financial stable enough not to be concerned about not making the sale now. In, short, they’re rich enough not to mind, they know it will eventually be sold and have the patience, and financial resources, to wait for that one buyer.

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Getting bank loans to buy a luxury home is a usual occurrence in California, however with the loan requirements getting stricter, it’ll get even harder to get a loan these days.

California banks are requiring higher credit scores and downpayments, resulting in fewer people applying for bank loans to buy luxury homes. According to a survey by the First Republic bank, the a luxury home in the San Francisco Bay Area declined 0.8 percent from the previous three months to $3 million.

“Values of luxury homes in California have declined slightly in price after many years of strong appreciation,” Katherine August-deWilde, president of San Francisco-based First Republic Bank, said in a statement.

So, if you have enough money on hand, today would be the best day to buy a luxury home.

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Luxury home real estates in the US are coming to terms of reality. Once, these kinds of real estates were invulnerable to market ups and downs, however times have changed and so did the prices. The owners are now selling their houses via cash auction.

They’re turning to auction sales so that the homeowner won’t be denied financing. Unfortunately, the luxury homes are selling for far less than what the original owners intended.

“It comes down to market realities,” said Rick Sharga, vice president at RealtyTrac. “If you want to get out from under that house, you’re going to be at the mercy of whatever the market conditions are at the time, just like everybody else.”

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Most of the Hollywood A-listers are doing it already, it’s inevitable that the luxury home market will follow suit. What I’m talking about here is going environment-friendly.

Maintaining a luxury home can be downright expensive, but if it gets “greened” up then it won’t just be hip but also it will make you feel better about saving the environment.

With technologies that help recycle rain water, provide solar-powered heating and building techniques that better insulate homes, it is possible to get a beautiful, luxurious home that is technologically advanced and environmentally friendly.

It may cost a lot in the beginning, but it’s well worth it.

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