Jule Pond, New York, $175 Million, currently the second most expensive home in the nation.
If you’re lucky, you might get a pair of Airpods or some new Yeezys this Christmas. But as the holidays come around, we find ourselves dreaming BIGGER.
Here’s a roundup of the five most expensive homes in the U.S. you can ask Santa for this holiday season. Who knows, maybe dreams really do come true!
Nestled on a picturesque, tree-lined street in Boerum Hill – a relaxed village in the northwestern portion of Brooklyn, New York – rests an incredibly chic, Greek Revival brownstone that is a book lover’s dream, and it could be yours to the tune of $8.995 million.
“This is one of the single largest homes that exist in Boerum Hill, with nearly 8,000 square feet of interior space,” says listing agent Ryan Serhant of Nest Seekers International. “The light-filled house spreads 6,473 square feet across five floors, with an additional 1,040 square feet in the full-height cellar.”
The gut-renovated, 26-foot-wide home is owned by Jonathan Safran Foer, New York Times bestselling author of two award-winning novels, Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, plus a bestselling work of nonfiction, Eating Animals.
Petoskey real estate. Don’t know where that is? Hold your left hand up in front of your face, palms out, fingers straight up. With your right index finger, touch the tip of your left ring fingernail where it meets your middle finger. Your hand is a map of Michigan. The spot you are touching is Petoskey. It’s a coastal resort village situated on Little Traverse Bay on the shores of the massive great lake named for the state.
Among the claims to fame of this lovely, small town is that Ernest Hemingway spent summers in the area for the first 22 years of his life (1899-1921) in a cottage his parents built on nearby Walloon Lake. His first novel, The Torrents of Spring, is set in Petoskey, and his short stories featuring the character Nick Adams also contain many references to the town. A Petoskey historical tour will lead you through local spots associated with the literary icon in some way.
Residents here enjoy boating and other water sports, hiking in the abundance of woods, and biking the 26-mile Little Traverse Wheelway that runs along the coast. In the winter, skiing, ice skating, snowmobiling, and sledding dominate outdoor activities. The Crooked Tree Art Center is the center of cultural happenings such as concerts, art classes, and events. There’s waterfront housing of all sorts, but what caught my eye was a charming well-priced cottage circa 1899-1921, Hemingway’s Petoskey time. Make the jump for a look at this cozy area and the cute home near the bay: (more…)
Dear Readers,
We’ve had a great year covering the most stylish and interesting homes, as well as reporting on the issues that concern our readers the most.
So after today we will be enjoying the spaces that hold families and memories — our homes — and we encourage you to do the same.
We hope your holiday is merry and bright!
XOXO,
Six months has gone by fast for me writing about vacation homes for SecondShelters.com. What have we been covering? Beach, lake, ranch, and mountain abodes, among other destinations of interest to North Texans. Year end is a time to look back and reflect. What are the top spots for vacation homes for DFW residents?
Gas up the virtual jet and click to see highlights; we’re taking a tour of some of our favs…
All photos courtesy of Big League Ranches LLC
Turning the calendar to September signals the start of the hunting season and leaves me longing for the Texas Hill Country, even though I’m more likely found shooting with a camera than a gun. I love the feeling of being in a natural setting, flush with fish and wildlife. Wish-booking through ranch property listings, I came across this lovely property, Fall Creek Ranch off the Pedernales River in Travis County, northwest of Austin.
It’s available all or in part, with or without a 9-acre parcel with a lodge house bearing the address 26109 Wild River Road, Spicewood. The five-bedroom, six-bathroom home was built in 2004 as a retreat house. At 3,128-square feet, the lodge sleeps up to 15 with space for more in cots on a sleeping porch. Modeled after 1800s-era Texas dog-trot style log cabins, the structure is finished out with antique and reclaimed materials and is so charming it has been featured in both Country’s Best Log Homes Magazine (Spring 2010) and Cabin Living (April 2016.)
Here’s more of the magazine-quality interior and gorgeous surrounds: (more…)
Cedar shake shingles for siding is a classic look for cottages all over Cape Cod. They are left unpainted and turn from light tan to a weathered gray over time. Clapboard siding is also commonly seen on Cape Cod cottages. All photos: Leah Shafer
Cape Cod has historic roots in American history, one of the earliest places the Pilgrims settled, later becoming a thriving fishing, whaling, and trading area.
But the romantic mythos of the Cape took off during John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign, much of which was based out of the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port. JFK gave his acceptance speech there after winning the 1960 election, and returned frequently during his presidency. The Kennedy’s Camelot and Cape Cod are inextricably linked in the American imagination.
Today, the year-round population of 220,000 swells during summer months, when many thousands flock to Cape Cod for relaxation and resorts. It stretches from Provincetown in the northeast to Woods Hole in the southwest, and each of the 15 towns has its own individual character and hallmarks.
The sunset at low tide from our vacation house near Orleans in Cape Cod. Stunning.
Cape Cod still maintains a charming, maritime feel, with almost 560 miles of wide, sandy coastline (including the gorgeous Cape Cod National Seashore), and house after house with weathered cedar shake shingle siding and colorful flowers that thrive in the temperate summer climate.
I just returned from a week’s vacation in Cape Cod, where we stayed in a classic shingle-style Cape beach house near Orleans on the inner bay. My fiancé’s family has vacationed there since the 1970s, and I joined them last year for the first time. As someone who spent her childhood summers in Galveston, Cape Cod was an enchanting experience, from windy afternoons walking by the seagrass along the shoreline to driving along winding roads with lush vegetation. The whole week we were there, the temperature never rose above 71 degrees.
Candy just wrote about the Cape for Grand Vie Magazine (read it here), and we both are delighted with the region and intrigued by the real estate market there. As Realtor Paul Grover of Robert Paul Properties in Osterville told her, 68 percent of his buyers were from Boston and its suburbs in 2013, and lots are empty-nesters.
But contrary to popular belief, Cape Cod is not just a haven for the rich and famous. As I discovered, there’s a range of housing available, with many beauties available for under $400,000 (I photographed 14 houses I’d consider classic Cape Cod cottage style that you can see throughout this post).
Our Vacation Home Week celebration on CandysDirt.com was such an amazing success. We got to feature incredible second homes and developments in some of our favorite locations. Luxury amenities and gorgeous design, each one of these homes has just what you want for a getaway and then some! And boy, let me tell you about location! Let’s run through our fabulous featured second home spots from Vacation Home Week!
