This story appears in the October 6, 2013 issue of Forbes. Subscribe
Note: This is an extended version of a story that appeared in the FORBES 400 issue of the magazine.
The rich continue to get richer. The 400 wealthiest Americans account for more than $2 trillion worth of wealth combined, according to FORBES 400 editor Luisa Kroll, with the average list maker's fortune growing to $5 billion, a $300 million gain from last year. That ever-increasing mountain of money can be chalked up to a variety of factors, but among the most notable is the recovery in real estate. But billionaires haven't just enjoyed renewed price appreciation on their luxury property portfolios, they've been adding to them.
Over the last 18 months America's wealthiest have splashed out record sums for coveted trophy homes in America's most expensive ZIP codes, on America's most exclusive streets.
Take hedge fund manager Steve Cohen. The Wall Street investor, worth $9.4 billion, has garnered attention this year thanks to a federal indictment against his firm SAC Capital Advisors. And he listed his
In May the billionaire paid $62.5 million for a seven-acre beachfront estate on East Hampton, N.Y.'s tony Further Lane -- right down the street from the other Hamptons abode he has owned since 2007. In June, he spent $23.4 million on a triplex "maisonette" condo in the Abingdon, a nursing home-turned- "limited edition" apartment building in Manhattan's West Village. Rumor has it Cohen plans to bunk there until renovations on the massive Perry Street building he picked up for $38.8 million last September are complete.
Some FORBES 400 members snapped up their new digs in the final months of 2012, reaping price discounts as sellers scrambled to offload high-end homes before the 2013 hike in capital gains taxes. Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk shelled out $17 million in the final days of December on a 20,000-square-foot mansion in Los Angeles' swanky Bel Air neighborhood. Musk, who's worth $6.7 billion, had been renting the home, which has a two-story library, a 1,000-bottle wine cellar and a five-car garage, with his five sons. He acquired it at a 15% discount off the $20 million asking price, a deal the seller, hedge fund manager Mitch Julis, reportedly agreed to on the condition that it close by the end of 2012.
Others have scooped up their brick and mortar conquests in secretive off-market deals, acquiring homes that were quietly shopped sans the Multiple Listing Services or in some cases unofficially as pocket listings. Many of the biggest sales of the past 18 months transpired this way, granting billionaire buyers some semblance of exclusivity and privacy -- at least initially -- in the process.
Citadel founder Ken Griffin, worth $4.4 billion, purchased four side-by-side oceanfront lots totaling eight acres in Palm Beach, Fla. in December. The combined price tag: $130 million. None were officially listed for sale.
In November Griffin also splashed out $15 million for a penthouse in Chicago's Park Tower the same day it was scheduled to come to market. It is the most ever paid for a Windy City apartment and the 7,900-square foot unit sits directly below another Park Tower penthouse he already owned.
Some billionaires have turned to economically hard-hit Europe to scour real estate bargains.
Earlier this year Malone also bought several stateside properties, specifically in the moneyed equestrian enclave of Wellington, Fla. The media mogul bought a Provencal-style manor for $7.8 million as well as a nearby 123-acre horse farm for $12.5 million. And he wasn't the only FORBES 400 member to buy in Wellington this year: America's richest man Bill Gates also spent $8.7 million on a 4.8-acre equestrian estate in the town's coveted Mallet Hill neighborhood.
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