Would You Rather Have a Mansion Abroad or a Crappy Apartment in the U.S.?

The housing market in the United States is in shambles, but looking at some of these comparisons will definitely make you want to buy elsewhere.

Take for example, the beautiful Stratford Castle in South Africa. You can buy this thing for $500,000 and reenact all your favorite Lord of the Rings scenes everyday. The castle comes with stained glass windows and a great proximity to a beautiful lake and golf course.

Compare that to what you might find for $500k in the San Francisco market and you're looking for a big disappointment. Hippies everywhere, pretentious neighbors, tiny apartment, all for the same price.

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Now we travel to Europe where everyone's favorite, the French, are offering a jewel of a chateau in a quiet town with 5 bedrooms, sauna, swimming pool, and gardens. Plus all the frog legs you can eat for that same $500,000.

Compare that to the Downey neighborhood of Los Angeles, where you can get what appears to be an old crack house with some serious landscaping issues. Jennifer Lopez's nanny dated a guy in the 80s who lived here!


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In the Ukraine you can use $1.8 Million to buy this sweet medieval castle. It's gotta have all sorts of crazy torture chambers, Soviet riches, and Siberian babes in it somewhere. Try not to use them all at once.

Compare that to mutha effen New York City where $1.8 Mil gets you a little converted 2-bedroom in Chelsea. The thing was probably an industrial revolution-era factory not more than 10 years ago. But now it's close to Penn Station and you can barely fit your twin-sized bed in it.


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Let's not forget that South Africa, the Ukraine, and France, might not be your ideal places to live. Even though you bought yourself a cheap house, all those dollars you saved will disappear when you start converting your money into Euros.

Plus South Africa is hosting the next World Cup in 2010, are you sure you want soccer hooligan nonsense all over your doorstep?


via [DivineCaroline] +photos

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World's Most Expensive Apartment

The world's most expensive apartment sold for $200 Million, and it hasn't even been built yet.

A lot of people in New York complain about the extremely high cost of living in the city, but they can be considered trailer park trash compared to what people are paying in London right now.

One Hyde Park, the new luxury apartment building in London's Knightsbridge neighborhood has pre-sold 1 of its 4 exclusive penthouse apartments (which are probably called 'flats', right?) over 2 years before being able to test out the sink and look in the closets.

Even though the building is not expected to be completed until 2010, these apartments are selling quickly because (more pictures) of their fancy amenities and insane central location. Think of it this way, your Monopoly board might soon say One Hyde Park instead of just Park Place. The Monopoly guy will be sooo pissed.

The developer of the property is Candy & Candy (lots of cavities, even by British standards), and the owner of the property is Sheikh Hamad, Foreign Minister of the Gulf State of Qatar.

Some of the included cool features will be:

1. communal spas
2. wine-tasting facilities
3. wooden baths
4. marble surfaces
5. floor-to-ceiling fridges

And also, according to most-expensive.net:

Each of the four penthouses will have a number of security features, including bulletproof glass, panic rooms and access to an underground passage leading to a nearby hotel.

I guess if you have enough money to buy a place like this, you're definitely a prime target for robbery.

Also, I bet that secret passage comes in handy when you're trying to slip out to the hotel bar after your girlfriend goes on a screaming tirade about her $2,000-coasters not being used, and you leaving your Million-dollar-socks all over the place.



Is this place worth $200 million? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Most Expensive: Most Expensive Apartment, April 25, 2008
BusinessWeek: Nouveau Riche Palaces

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