Most Expensive Homes In America 2005: Northeast

By Sara Clemence
Forbes.com

Real estate prices may continue to climb, but the one place they haven't budged is at the very top. When we ran our story on the Most Expensive Regional Homes in the U.S. last year, the top property in the country was Three Ponds, a $75 million estate in Bridgehampton, Long Island. This year, it still is, and the price is still the same.

But there has been some activity among other homes that made last year's list. Eothen, the Montauk, Long Island property that once belonged to artist Andy Warhol, has sat unsold for $50 million since 2001. Warhol's friend Paul Morrissey has now lowered the price to $45 million, which may generate some interest.

Go to Forbes.com to view a slideshow of the most expensive homes in the Northeast

Burnt Point, another veteran property on our list, which had initially been listed at $50 million, finally sold in January for $45 million. When it sold, it set a record for the highest price ever paid for a single-family residence in New York State.

What was even more surprising was how many new properties there are on our 2005 roundup of the Most Expensive Homes in the Northeast. In fact, 60% of this year's list is comprised of newcomers. One big new entrant, coming in only $5 million under Three Ponds, is financier Martin Zweig's $70 million, 14,000-square-foot triplex atop the Pierre hotel in Manhattan. It was first featured on Forbes.com in our look at the Most Expensive Penthouses.

What the Most Expensive Homes in the Northeast have in common, besides their staggering price tags, are, first, unique, highly desirable, if not over-the-top amenities—one house has 23 bathrooms, another features a private golf course. Second, they occupy property that is rare and coveted, whether it be the penthouse of a luxury hotel or a tract of oceanfront land in the Hamptons. And, unsurprisingly, they are all either in or close to New York City.

Last year, in comparison, half of the homes on our list were in the Hamptons, three were in Manhattan and the remaining two were in Greenwich, Conn. This year, the Hamptons and Manhattan again made up the bulk of the list, but New Jersey edged on as well, and Greenwich didn't even make the cut.

We're dealing with a paper-thin slice of the real estate market, one that doesn't necessarily act in concert with the rest of the country. For example, the median price for an existing home (the point at which half of the homes are cheaper and half are more expensive) in the Northeast climbed from $220,000 in June of last year to $250,000 for the same month this year, according to the National Association of Realtors. That's an increase of 13.6%.

Meanwhile, the median price for our top ten residences actually dropped over the last year. In 2004, half of the homes were priced above $50 million and half below. This year, the median price was $45 million. That's a 10% drop despite the addition of Zweig's $70 million penthouse.

At these price points, homes can linger on the market for months—if not years—waiting for the right buyer to come along. Owners are generally in no rush to unload such valuable assets, and the pool of potential buyers is painfully small. But it does happen, and some properties dropped off of our list because they were sold for stunning sums—even if they didn't get their original asking price.

In addition to Burnt Point, an incredibly luxurious 80-acre farm in Conyers Farm, an exclusive gated community in Greenwich, made our 2004 list with an asking price of $53 million. It, too, sold last year, reportedly for somewhere in the mid-$40-million range.

Who knows? If wealthy buyers start snapping up top properties, we may be looking at a whole new crop of homes next year. For now, see which ones are still on the market.

See the Most Expensive Homes in America: Northeast.