For 200 new billionaires around the globe, going home means going big. Extra big. Their homes aren’t just large—they’re lavish. Worldwide, sales of oversized, over-extravagant houses are rising. Meanwhile—and sometimes just down the street—many homeless people would gladly call a much smaller structure home. Today’s housing market includes some extreme opposites.
Life in a Trophy Case
What’s the lure of the kind of luxe that includes a dozen bathrooms, a regulation-sized basketball court, a bowling alley, and multiple swimming pools? Some analysts speculate that over-the-top dwellings double as giant trophy cases for expensive collections of stuff, a kind of show-and-tell gone wild.
Real estate agents say lavish homes with $100 million price tags are the “new class of collectible—they’re trophies,” according to Dan Conn, CEO of one of the nation’s top real estate firms.
Elevators, arcades, multiple home theaters, spas, hair salons, putting greens, even archery fields are part of a luxury mega-home’s listing. And garages store more than the family automobile. Car collectors install maintenance bays, gas pumps, and even car washes. One home holds a complete highway-themed diner for when the owner needs a snack in the garage!
Part of the reason for the luxury-housing boom is the strength of the U.S. dollar. Today’s economy is producing fresh multi-millionaires and billionaires. As a result, English castles and Italian villas are more affordable for wealthy Americans and others.
The ultra-rich scour the globe for posh homes with imported floors, handcrafted lighting fixtures, and salon features. “You’ve got this club of billionaires who just like to have unique assets,” says Conn. Further, he says, “They like to entertain their friends and say, ‘This is mine.’”
Last year, five homes worldwide sold for over $100 million each. One French mansion sold for $146 million, making the cost of every square foot of the home about the same price as a brand new Honda Accord. That’s right, every foot = a car.
Humblest Homes
Contrast the uber-luxe homes with the tiniest of tiny houses Elvis Summers builds. Summers began building 3.5-x-8-foot wheeled structures that can be moved around by a single person. The mini houses cost less than $500 for materials—plywood, shingles, a window, and a small door with a lock. The houses are so small that they don’t legally qualify as a dwelling or a building.
Summers built the first tiny house for his friend Irene, who was sleeping on the streets of Los Angeles. After a whopping 5.6 million viewers saw him building Irene’s house on YouTube, Summers began getting offers of money, materials, and helping hands. Soon he was building more tiny houses for other homeless people. His GoFundMe campaign, “Tiny House Huge Purpose,” brought in over $73,000 in less than a month.
Summers hopes to build more tiny homes for homeless people. “People are calling it a movement,” he says, “I’m humbled. But now I can’t turn my back on it.”
Even Irene wants in on the tiny house building action. “I’m ready to start building,” she says. According to Irene, the police won’t bother her if she moves her tiny house to a new spot every three days.
Tiny houses are proof that going home doesn’t necessarily mean going big. Joy comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ—not from possessions or surroundings. Those who know and love Him can be content whether they live in a mud hut or a multi-million-dollar mansion. “By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.” (Proverbs 24:3-4)
