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I get pretty envious of the homes we cover at Mansion. But what I yearn for most are the amenities that make it so you don't even have to leave home. I'm talking movie theaters, golf simulators and state-of-the-art gyms. And now we can add après-ski bars to that list.
Instead of heading to a crowded bar for cocktails, wealthy homeowners are hosting friends at private bar areas with high-end, mountain-inspired finishes, real-estate agents say.
Brian Healy, an Ireland native who runs an energy company in California, spent about $800,000 to build a bar area on the main floor of his home in the Lake Tahoe area. Healy says he has "an open-door policy" when it comes to the space, dubbed Healy's Bar, and will invite skiers who venture onto his property to join him for a drink. "We invite them in for a beer," he says.
We also visit London's Bayswater neighborhood, where home prices have jumped 21% over the past five years. In part thanks to billions worth of investment in new developments like Park Modern, the price gap between Bayswater and its neighbors around Hyde Park has narrowed.
"For a long time, Bayswater felt transient rather than settled," said Daniel Daggers, founder of brokerage DDRE Global. "It was somewhere people passed through, not somewhere they aspired to live. It just felt unloved."
Unloved, no more.
Wealthy skiers are spending big on custom spaces where they can relax and get toasty after a day on the slopes.
New development is driving up home prices in the area around Hyde Park.
Drew Barrymore is putting her Westchester County house on the market for $4.99 million. The actress, who felt a "spiritual calling" to the property, is listing the home roughly two years after buying it.
A California estate that has been used in shows like "The Bachelorette" and "The Biggest Loser" is coming on the market for $78 million. The seller is Vietnamese-born billionaire Kieu Hoang, who made a fortune in plasma-derived medicine products.
An entity tied to billionaire Barry Diller has paid $11 million for a penthouse at the Carlyle Hotel. John F. Kennedy stayed in the unit so often that it became known as the "New York White House."
"Their shock turned into excitement and celebration." We spoke to three brokers about their most heartwarming experiences during a real-estate transaction.
Chicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman feared he'd miss the MLB draft after a freak injury in high school. "With the help of my parents, I snapped out of it. I said to myself, 'Let's focus on getting this healed as fast as possible.'"
Will WSJ's House of the Month for March be a hillside retreat in California wine country, a church-turned-home in New York or a New Jersey mansion built for a Revolutionary War general? You decide.
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Kerry Barger is Mansion's senior platform editor. Say hi at Kerry.Barger@wsj.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.