Beyoncé, Jeff Bezos, and William Lauder bought some of the priciest US mansions in the last year
While record-high mortgage rates spooked potential buyers from purchasing homes last year, they haven’t raised fears in the mega-wealthy. More rich people are buying luxury homes in cash, and sales of homes over $100 million have risen substantially.
Here’s a look at the priciest homes sold over the last year, along with the big name celebrities and businesspeople who bought them.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z handily set records for the priciest home sale in 2023 when they purchased a 30,000 square-foot compound for nearly $200 million.
Their new mansion on the Pacific Ocean in Malibu is also one of the most expensive home sold in US history. It’s second only to Citadel CEO Ken Griffin’s $238 million purchase of a penthouse on New York City’s Billionaire’s Row.
The name Michael Cantanucci ring any bells? Probably not.
He’s not as popular as Beyoncé, sure, but this Florida-based luxury car dealer bought the second-priciest home in 2023 behind the star and her husband. Cantanucci purchased a waterfront home in Palm Beach for $170 million last spring. He also set records for the most expensive sale in the elite beach town, which is home to the likes of billionaires such as Carl Icahn and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman.
Before Michael Cantanucci upstaged him, William Lauder held the record for Palm Beach’s most expensive home sale for a few short weeks. The billionaire chairman of Estée Lauder purchased 2.7 acres of beachfront property for $155 million in March 2023.
Jeff Bezos bought two homes worth a total of nearly $150 million in Miami Beach in 2023. First, he put down $68 million for a house in August. Two months later, he dropped $79 million on its neighboring property, which was represented by Dina Goldentayer of Douglas Elliman.
He plans to bulldoze the two and create his own mega-compound on Indian Creek Island, an exclusive community dubbed “Billionaire Bunker.” Neighbors include Tom Brady and Ivanka Trump.
Bezos is one of several billionaires who’ve relocated to Florida recently.
Notably, a few buyers of estates in Connecticut and the Hamptons beat Bezos in the priciest homes area, but they remain anonymous. (Those properties have been left off Quartz’s list, but they’re detailed in the Robb Report.)
Terry Taylor, who Forbes recently likened to Batman as “the car dealership billionaire that no one knows,” often make splashes in real estate news for lofty real estate purchases. If it weren’t for a few photos in local newspapers proving he’s real, some may wonder if the Florida-based businessman is simply a myth.
This past year was no different in terms of Taylor’s spending habits, when he bought a ski-in, ski-out Aspen spread for $76 million. Its interiors are as extravagant as would be expected.
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