This story appears in the October 18, 2015 issue of Forbes. Subscribe
THE TOP property pickups for America's wealthiest this year leaned (mostly) to the left coast. Drought, wildfires, earthquakes and zombie-like hordes of reality-TV stars notwithstanding, the enduring appeal of a 90210 Zip code shows no signs of waning.
Lavish doesn’t seem to quite cut it anymore. The homes America’s richest have purchased this year aren’t just average trophy properties. Inside the most opulent billionaire real estate purchases you’ll find a beachfront estate with three homes and a private boat dock, a 30-car garage, and one helluva penthouse party spot.
Some of the biggest transactions:
STEVE WYNN (No. 279 ON THE FORBES 400)
Beverly Hills
Purchase price: $47.8 million
In an off-market deal, the casino hotshot bought this 8-bedroom, 13-bathroom home from Guess Jeans cofounder Maurice Marciano, whose family's business and personal travails were the subject of a FORBES exposé in July.
JOHN MALONE (No. 68)
Jupiter Island, Fla.
Purchase price: $38 million
This 9-acre estate on the Atlantic Coast is the latest pickup of the
STEVE COHEN (No. 37)
Beverly Hills
Purchase price: $31 million
The SAC Capital hedge funder, more commonly domiciled behind high shrubbery in Greenwich, Conn., snapped up this nearly 13,000-square-foot spec home (with 9 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms and a waterfall) in February. Don't forget your sunscreen, Stevie.
HOWARD MARKS (No. 342)
Beverly Hills
Purchase price: $23.7 million
The investor's new crash pad is an 8,500-square-foot, nine-bedroom Mediterranean-style manse that once belonged to Nick Vanoff, a truly old-school Hollywood type who produced television shows for luminaries such as Sonny and Cher, Julie Andrews and Perry Como.
DONALD STERLING (No. 209)
Beverly Hills
Purchase price: $18.4 million
The disgraced ex-Los Angeles Clippers owner can lick his wounds in the comfort of this relatively modest--just 7,000 square feet--1950s Tudor-style home on nearly 2 acres. He bought it in September from former Warner Bros. chief executive Tom Whalley.
BILL ACKMAN (No. 256)
New York City
Purchase price: $91.5 million
The activist hedgie was the marquee name among a group of investors who closed on a 13,500-square-foot duplex on floors 75 and 76 of One57, the lavish tower just south of Central Park. The transaction was Manhattan's second-priciest home sale ever; toward the end of 2014 an undisclosed investment group purchased another One57 duplex, that one for nearly $100.5 million. Ackman plans to flip the place.
