The last one I posted can be yours for *just* 37.5M. 12,688 sq ft on 2.37 acres, on the Pacific. The weekend before last we spent the weekend in Carmel, so the destination was top of mind. Such a wonderful little village.

Wow, the quality of photography in the last image is something else. Does not look like a listing pic at all.

Chateau la Vie, in VA, just outside of DC, for 28.8 mio, but I'd expect it to be negotiable since it's been on the market since 2014 (when it was built.)

Not as impressive as ye olde library

awful, most of them, really.

Mama goes to show you money doesn't necessarily buy you good taste.

nhbaskets - Lol, I was not in the limo. But while walking on the roadside was almost run down by the limo. I never saw the actual limo ladies.

i toured with my DD & a longtime friend (we met back when our kids were in school) and her DIL. She lives down there & invited spouses and kids to spend the touring time at her house then hosted a nice lunch.

I loved this year's crop of houses but was especially taken with the Arts & Crafts style house. That butler's pantry with the mustard yellow subway tile & the rounded granite splashes! I thought that was bold and beautiful. The windows and fixtures and all the custom woodwork...

How funny to think we may have crossed paths!

Oh, what a difference location makes. The median home value in my county is $114,000. I searched for the most expensive homes. These are the two most expensive homes in the county that don't also include a lot of acreage (100 acres+) or aren't entire buildings of condos or have other amenities like horse paddocks, arenas, and other large outbuildings.

$900,000 on the beach

1601 Sea Grass Ln, Westport, WA 98569 is For Sale - Zillow · More Info

1601 Sea Grass Ln, Westport, WA 98569 is For Sale - Zillow · More Info

It's OK, don't like the cooktop placement but LOVE the windows and view. $900,000

This next one is $650,000, near the beach. I like this one a lot but, ooohhhhh, the awful OTR-micro.

233 Meriweather, Pacific Beach, WA 98571 is For Sale - Zillow · More Info

If these are two of the highest end homes and indicative of the types of kitchens they have, I think my finished kitchen is going to compare quite well in spite of the fact I'm re-purposing cabinets and buying others used, lol. Especially since the median value in my town itself is only $73,300.

I am from the SF Bay Area, and I can't fathom that houses exist today that cost only $73,300. That is, like, 1950's prices! Around here, tiny houses in HORRIBLE locations are going for $850,000.

My husband and I (mostly I) have been considering moving to Portland because beautiful houses like this http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6585-SW-Parkhill-Dr-Portland-OR-97239/53926530_zpid/ cost the same as our one-bedroom condo.

If I saw a house listed for $73,300, I'd think it was a typo.

Our housing market is back to about 1990 value wise. Our job market sucks, too. And has since the 80's when both the timber and commercial fishing industries tanked. So our wages are also a lot lower. It's all relative, right?

Portland is a really great city but there has been a huge upswing in housing prices the last few years. I just happened to hear on the radio today that Portland's population is booming due to a large influx of young college grads from other parts of the country driving up housing prices. So if you want to move there, better do it soon before prices escalate further.

That's a fantastic house! If you move there, I am inviting myself for coffee. I'll bring the Voodoo Donuts (very popular Portland bakery) and then we can go to Portland's Saturday Market. :)

Jillus- if you didn't mind being in the poor part of town you could purchase this dated 1926 2 bed 1 bath 1000 sq ft home for 30,000.

For me, I can't imagine people paying so much for so little like they do in California or NYC.

Builders are constantly on the lookout for where they can "save" money; it's in their DNA. This dis-serves buyers especially with "intangibles" like an uncoupling membrane between the floor tile and the substrate. It adds $4.00 per square foot to his costs and can't be seen, but reduces the chances of tile cracking exponentially.

Why should he pay a kitchen designer? He's got all the modern appliances and finishes. His wife always had a knack for it anyway.

For me, I can't imagine people paying so much for so little like they do in California or NYC.

True that, Texas Gem. And I can't imagine the incomes needed to make those payments.

As noted above "High-end" is relative to where you are. In our small beach town, mid-way between L.A. and San Diego, people will pay upwards of $2 mil for a 50-80 year old house on a 30'x100' lot just to tear it down to build their dream home, and these are not even the ocean view or waterfront properties, those can be $4 mil and up for a teardown!

Can't complain though, as a builder in this area for the past 35 years, it's kept me busy ;)

So what I don't understand is the huge price difference, even if one accounts for the fact that lot prices and wages are higher in certain parts of the country. The cost for materials and fixtures are still pretty much the same. For instance, when I'm watching Fixer Upper (Waco, TX), the estimated cost for installing hardwood floor or painting the outside of a house is not that much less than in my area, but the house prices are about 8-10 times (and it's not that the lot price is a million more.)

I'd guess it's population density which not only means more jobs and higher paying jobs but also more demand for the property itself. I'm sure weather conditions are a factor as well. We have lots in our area with beach views that are also only a short 5-10 minute walk from the beach that you can buy for $20-25k. I bet you won't find that in California or Florida or other areas with much greater population density and warmer, drier weather. And the water on our beaches never really gets warm enough to swim in. Wading, yes. Swimming, no. Surfers wear wetsuits year round.

For a little eastern WA flair :) Spokane, WA, ~$1 mil to $6 mil:

same house

Another house (2010)

1986 tudor:

This one has trees in it (2006):

Not sure what this is? (2007):

Okay funkycamper, now tell them the truth about summers on the Washington coast. You know, because of the fog, it's sunny 20 miles inland but never on the beach :)

Oh, NEVER! Never ever. And folks who post pictures of it sunny, warm and beautiful here are just photo-shopping their photos. And probably have goosebumps in spite of wearing bathing suits. It's all lies. Lies I tell ya! ;)

"The cost for materials and fixtures are still pretty much the same."

That's not necessarily the case, nosoccermom. We pay more for structural wood products than they do in the Midwest. We can't get the lower grade of wood that they do; it's simply not available here. Maybe because we produce so much lumber here, we're wood snobs? I dunno the reason why.

I'm in the PDX area. (That house is a delight, Jillius! But I can bet you that it's not even close to being on a flat lot, not given its location. And it's also a good bet that you'll get lots of highway noise. That's right above Terwilliger Curves, a particularly treacherous stretch of I-5. But the leafy views! Oh, my, I could put up with a lot for those leafy views.)

LOL, funkycamper!

Labor costs drive up remodel costs - in our area (DC/Baltimore/NoVA), Labor is at least as much as materials, if not more. In addition, those shows on TV are often years old and I don't think they have the prices that you or I would pay.

What I mean is that the cost for labor and structural items (like appliances, tiles, windows, etc.) are higher but not 10 times while the houses are. For instance, in my area, 1000sqft hardwood installed will be, say 10K. It's not that much lower in Waco, TX. Ditto granite. I paid 7K for a new roof. It's not like it's 2K in Texas.

This is what 3-6 million gets you in Destin, Fl. I would post pictures of high end kitchens in my town, but I doubt you'd want to see early 2000's builder grade kitchens in $300k houses. ;) We're fancy up here away from the Gulf!!!

This one has room for gymnastics between the perimeters and island.

I have no idea what's going on here.

So 3-6 million here gets you.. Weird shaped islands.

True, nosoccermom, but I have a feeling that the types of appliances, tiles and windows that people choose for their homes is a LOT different in areas where the median price is $73k than where it's $500k,

I think you also have to factor in the cost of regulations. I'm doing a flood remodel and by the time I'm done, I'm estimating $40K in additional costs that regulations threw on me. The requirement of a structural engineer is quite popular.

We're literally down to pricing IKEA cabinets as the bulk of our budget got eaten away by the code requirements.

I only have some nice new appliances because I scored deals on Craigslist like $230 for a brand new $1700 warming drawer or $200 FP drawer DW at the very start of the remodel.

I watched Fixer Upper and I don't see issues like: Oh you touched your vent register. Well now you have to test entire house and various upgrades required. Ding $4500 later, I cursed the vent register. Ooh, you repiped so now you have to rip out your 2 yrs old water heater and install a drain pan at the cost of $890 in labor. It didn't matter that it passed code then. You touched the ends of the copper pipe in the wall that leads to the water heater so it's treated as new.

Here in CA you can literally have an IKEA kitchen that costs $60K while an identical IKEA kitchen costs $5K in the Midwest. The only differences are the costs behind the walls and labor.

Who made those code requirements? Contractor lobbyists?

chelwa-you beat me to it posting those pictures from Spokane. They look like they're straight out of that "magazine" (read - "advertisement") "Spokane/Coeur D'Alene Living" magazine. I was always appalled at the kitchens (and the houses) that they featured in there.

Just curious-do you live in Chelan? I'd like to see some kitchens/houses from there . . .

wait till you see what you get for the $$ on Oahu. I have inserted links to the real estate page for an average house price which is near my own neighborhood, along with a 3.3 Million deal in Portlock - Portlock, Diamond Head, Lanikai, Kahala are some of the pricier neighborhoods with high end homes (and ocean view). You can use the drop downs on the real estate page to look at other neighborhoods and islands like Maui, which will also have high end homes & condos.

Hawaii (Oahu) average

3.3 Mil in Portlock (nice view but the kitchen is really dark.....)

I didn't even see a kitchen. All I saw was the view!!! If I didn't need acreage I would be in Hawaii in a heartbeat... I'm guessing there aren't a lot of small farms in Hawaii, though!!!

Well, that price of the 4.8 mio condo I posted above, seems to me like "they just made it up." There's no justification when compared to other properties, in terms of the cost of the luxury features or even location, i.e. there's no true scarcity in terms of view or space, like Manhattan with view of Central Park or a front row beach property in Orange County. I bet that the price will come down.

That first Spokane, WA house, second photo: That would be such a great room if it weren't littered with dead animals.

Reading about all the CA regulations makes me never, ever want to live there. We live in the middle of nowhere, MO and are building a new house. The only permit we had to pull was for the septic system. Everything else, do what you want. Makes my life much easier. We're building a 2000sf house with 3 car garage for right around $100K (almost entirely DIY, but still.)

The reason people live in NY, Boston, DC, LA, SF, Chicago, etc is not only for the jobs but for all the other stuff. Theater, music, museums, fairs, shopping, dining, top schools, diversity, etc. I personally take advantage of all of it. And yes, it costs us because of it.

As for prices being higher, much of it is also the cost of labor.

@funkycamper. Nope, the median house here at 830K looks like this:

House is 1800sqft, 829K

Slightly under 1500 sqft, 825K

Sold for 826K, 2200 sqft

"The reason people live in NY, Boston, DC, LA, SF, Chicago, etc is not only for the jobs but for all the other stuff. Theater, music, museums, fairs, shopping, dining, top schools, diversity, etc. I personally take advantage of all of it. And yes, it costs us because of it."

Yeah, I know. I get that, really. I enjoy visiting big cities, and there are definite drawbacks to living in the sticks. It's just a personality thing, I think, whether you prioritize personal space and freedom over the many perks of city living. Both are good in different ways.

I still say California has gone overboard with the regulations, though. I was just reading a thread here about trying to get lighting to work with the regs. Apparently you can't just use LED bulbs, but must purchase fixtures that only accept LED bulbs. So people are putting in cheap fixtures that they will toss after inspection to get around that silly bit of law. That's a dumb regulation, and adds to the cost of living without any tangible benefit.

Beachem has $40,000 (!) in additional costs due to this kind of thing. Holy crap, that's nuts.

I'm looking at high-end listings in my area, and am struck mostly by how bad realtors are at taking photos of houses. I mean, learn some basic camera skills, people! Everyone shops online now. Good photos sell. Jeez.

If anything, seeing these pictures makes me love a white, cream kitchen. At one point I had to have dark cabinets. Now, no way.

Our friends have their house on the market for 1,770K, which is about 2.5x the average for our city. Their kitchen, from right to left is 9" counter, 30" range, 9" counter, 30" sink cab, 24" DW, 30" cabinet. On the opposite wall is the fridge... 33 inch, I believe, plus doorway to dining room. Yep, that is the entire kitchen.

Okay, I wanna play. Here are some from the beach cities area of LA county. All of these places are either a few blocks from the beach or are farther away but have an ocean view, so they have big markups for those things.
9.8 million, 5,000 sq. ft, 2 blocks from the beach

13 mil, 7,000 ft2, on the beach but not the trendiest area.

10.5 mil, 7000 ft2, ocean view about 3/4 mile from the beach

6.9 mil 4800 ft2, ocean view 6 blocks from beach

I like this house.

I'm not sure it needed a banquette AND bar seating though...

5.5 mil, 4000 ft2. Yikes, is that a... garbage disposal.... ? ;)

Looking through high end listings in this area the cabinet styles vary by when the kitchen was remodeled, but viking or wolf gas ranges/cooktops and built in fridges seem de riguer.

Just to show how much location matters

6 mil, 2300 ft sq duplex 2 blocks from beach and 5 blocks from a downtown area

Main unit upstairs cute 40's kitchen

All of you from California are reinforcing why I would never want to live there!!

Not only are your housing costs insane but your code requirements are ridiculous.

No ocean view or beach access is worth that much IMHO.

It is fun to look at the houses but if I had to peg a price on them, I think I've seen only two houses in this thread that I would think were over a million dollars.

The 12000 sq ft beach view that Gooster posted and the library one.

Actually, that might be a fun game. Post a picture of the outside and a few interior shots of houses in your area, but don't say the location or price. Let others guess how much they think it is worth based on their own perceptions from their area. :)

Oh, Texas Gem, I have a good one for that game... right across the street from us, I'll shoot a photo of it tomorrow

@nosoccermom - Gosh, you're right! Not much in the way of high-end finishes in those photos. I'm guessing that folks who are paying mortgages of $2-4k/mo don't have a lot left over for more expensive finishes in remodels? I dunno, then. Must be housing demand then, I guess?

Out of curiosity, I just googled for median wages in cities like SFO, LA, NYC and Boston and it's clear most people living in those areas don't make enough to make the payments necessary to buy the properties in those cities much less disposable income for theater, concerts, fancy dinners, museum outings and expensive remodels. I don't get it. Things aren't really adding up for me with all this.

I'm in the DC area, so next time when you read about the high government salaries, think of that thread :)

Oh, no worries! I'll end with that as I'm afraid anything else I say will pull politics into this thread. :)

7.9 M Upcountry Maui:

video

Closer to waterfront, Makena Maui - don't know price but certain it's not in my range!

who needs a kitchen?

Here is one

Kitchen

Master bath entrance

It is 2200 sq ft, 3 bed, 2 bath. How much do you think this house would be listed for?

unfortunately a good deal of RE in NYC is being bought up by foreigners and they are paying cash. NYC itself is too expensive which is why we live on Long Island. its a 40 minute train into the city

We're about a 50-minute drive from a small city and 1h,45m drive from a major city. We could pick up a train part-way but we've only done it a few times for fun as it's adds expense to the trip and takes longer to get there. But it's a great option for baseball and football games when traffic is thick and crazy.

So like you, we can make a short day trip to enjoy all the amenities of city living and return home to the advantages of lower COL, nature outside my door, no congestion, and such. Best of both worlds, imho.

We're an hour from a major city, and in the other direction, an hour and a half from an almost as big city... perfect :)

High end kitchen from the Kips Bay Decorating Show house, New York City, designed by Peacock and supposedly 250K.

Kips Bay Showhouse 2015 · More Info

Kips Bay Showhouse 2015 · More Info

Kips Bay Showhouse 2015 · More Info

San Francisco Show House

San Francisco Decorator Showcase: Happy Days are Here Again · More Info

San Francisco Decorator Showcase: Happy Days are Here Again · More Info

Pasadena, CA

2015 Pasadena Showcase House of Design · More Info

2015 Pasadena Showcase House of Design · More Info

Butler Pantry in Washington, DC, 2014 Design House

And the Kitchen