Merriam-Webster defines luxury as “a condition of abundance or great ease and comfort.” This is subjective to an individual’s situation, and the perception of what would add more value to your life right now. When it comes to luxury real estate, the options are endless. Let’s have a look at what a luxury home is, and come up with some broad strokes of objectivity to try and assist you with identifying them.
To begin, the local community marketplace has a great impact on whether or not the property is considered a luxury. To be considered a luxury home, the price value needs to be in the top 10% of the local market. The baseline price for a home to qualify is generally around $500,000, sometimes shy of that, depending on the location. There’s no cap to how high a price can go.
Luxury Home Indicators
Location and privacy are indicators of a luxury home. Examples include enormous estates on acres of land in the foothills of mountains, waterfront homes directly on the ocean with a private beach, and high-rise penthouse suites in the heart of a big city. Some luxury homes have landscaping conducive to privacy, such as tall hedges or fencing with thick vining plants.
Luxury home features often are a telling sign a home is above and beyond the basic. The architecture, materials, roofing, finishes, flooring, windows, appliances, and any other minute details are top of the line, next-level quality. From Calcutta marble to Bertazzoni appliances to Davinci Roofscapes, estate homes offer only the best in structure and materials. Bouncing off of this, luxury homes also offer lavish amenities from enormous specialized garages for car collectors, to intricate candy rooms, to large home theaters. For some, the history of the home is an important value. In 2015, Babe Ruth’s 2 bedrooms 3 bath apartment in the Upper West Side of New York was listed slightly under $1.6 million dollars.
Ultra Luxury
Additionally, there is the next level called “ultra luxury”. Ultra luxury is considered the archetype of perfection in design, finishes, build, and location, oftentimes exceeding over $100 million in sales price. Here are some examples of ultra luxury homes.
Pulling it all together, the definition of a luxury home depends on you. However, in general, we can conclude a home to be deemed luxury if it is in the top 10% of the local market, offers the best of the best in every way, provides ultimate privacy with a prime location, offers one of a kind customized amenities, and sometimes, provides historical value.