Here's The Home The Obamas Will Rent In D.C. (Photo Gallery)

Dcist: Photos: Here's The Home The Obamas Will Rent In D.C.

Well, it's definitely not a white house, but President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have already been there and done that. It looks like the Kalorama abode the Obamas will lease is more of a brick house.

Politico reports that the president's family is renting the 8,200 square foot mansion of former Clinton White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart and Glamour Washington Editor Giovanna Gray. The Belmont Road house, spotted by Elizabeth Dias of Time, boasts nine bedrooms and eight and a half bathrooms. Redfin estimates that the home is worth around $6.4 million.

The first family is sticking around in the District once the president's term lapses so that younger daughter Sasha can finish high school at Sidwell Friends.

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Editor: Not the White House .... but still very nice.

The Most Expensive Properties In The World That Are Currently On The Market Are Revealed

The Nile Niami Bel Air Spec Home in Los Angeles, which is currently the most expensive home on the market costing $500million 

 Daily Mail: The $100million mansions: The world's most expensive properties that are currently on the market are revealed (but the price tags aren't for the faint-hearted) 

* A list has been compiled revealing the most expensive homes around the world that are currently up for sale
 * Topping the list is a unfinished 100,000 square foot resort in Bel Air that has an asking price of $500million
 * Others featured in the top ten include a bubble palace in France, the Playboy mansion and an apartment in London

Set in sprawling estates in some of the world's most desirable locations, they boast the likes of swimming pools, nightclubs, casinos and even theatres.

And now a list of the most expensive properties currently up for sale has been published, with a 100,000 square foot Bel Air estate on the market for $500million topping the chart.

Christie's International Real Estate, which complies the Luxury Defined report, has drawn up the list of the properties, which all cost more than $100million.

The homes are not often advertised as being up for sale, and are kept shrouded in secrecy.

But here, we reveal the top ten most expensive homes that are on the market right now.

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Editor: My favorite is the the home at Taohuayuan, China (asking price $154million).

Mansions And Their Gyms

Realtor.com  

Realtor.com: Mansions With Muscle: 6 Over-the-Top Home Gyms

Now that we’re well into 2016, there are still a few high-end homes to help fulfill those New Year’s resolutions. Namely, mansions with fitness facilities on their well-manicured grounds. While these properties are pricey, you can realize a modicum of savings when you cancel your fitness club membership. Plus, there’s no more excuses when the gym is only steps away. Right?

Increasingly, a well-appointed home gym has become a high-end perk that gets luxury buyers all hot and sweaty.

"Home gyms are definitely in demand,” says Joel Goodrich, a luxury real estate specialist with Coldwell Banker Previews International. “Along with media rooms and wine tasting rooms, they are the kind of amenity that distinguishes the ultraluxury from luxury properties.”

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Editor: But are their owners in shape?

Is George Clooney's London Home About To Get Flooded?

Under threat: Aerial photographs show the floodwater, seen centre at the bottom of the image, slowly encroaching on the riverside mansion owned by Hollywood star George Clooney and his human rights lawyer wife Amal, 37, after the Thames burst its banks  

Daily Mail: Floods hell for George Clooney as the Thames bursts its banks and threatens to inundate his £10m riverside mansion

 * George Clooney and his human rights lawyer wife Amal, 37, bought the nine-bed property in Berkshire in 2014
 * But a large part of the riverside property's sprawling grounds have been flooded after the Thames burst its banks
 * Environment Agency has warned there could be more flooding today after heavy downpours over recent weeks

These aerial photographs show floodwater threatening to inundate George Clooney's £10million sprawling country pile after the Thames burst its banks.

The Hollywood actor, 54, and his human rights lawyer wife Amal, 37, have been renovating their nine-bedroom mansion in a village near Reading, Berkshire.

But today the results of the multi-million pound revamp appeared at risk as muddied water poured on to a large patch of their sprawling garden, which backs on to the swollen river.

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Editor: I suspect that he and his wife and an army of workers are watching this development very closely.

Playboy Mansion Up For Sale. Asking Price $200,000,000.

Quartz: The Playboy Mansion is being sold for $200 million, with a pretty big catch

Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion—known for some of Los Angeles’ wildest and most lavish parties—is now for sale.

Playboy Enterprises is listing the 20,000 square-foot property, complete with its iconic cave-like Grotto, for $200 million.

Built in 1927, the 5-acre residence in Holmby Hills, one of three affluent neighborhoods—along with Bel Air and Beverly Hills—known as the “Platinum Triangle,” features 29 rooms, including six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, as well as a host of amenities like a catering kitchen, wine cellar, and home theater, the listing says.

The private residence also has a separate four-bedroom guest house, game house, gym, tennis court, pool, and even a zoo license.

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Editor: $200 million for that house .... it is only worth that (maybe) because of the history and the "brand name".

More News On The Playboy Mansion Going On Sale  

Playboy Mansion FOR SALE But Hef Gets to Stay -- TMZ
The Playboy Mansion Is For Sale, But You Have To Live With Hef -- AP
For sale, Playboy mansion -with one elderly, robed lodger -- The Times
Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles for sale but Hugh Hefner wants to stay put -- Chicago Tribune
The Playboy Mansion is for sale — and Hugh Hefner comes with the place! -- Today
How Much Would It Cost To Renovate The Crappy Old Playboy Mansion? -- Vocativ
Playboy Mansion Sale Is Next Step in Business Transformation: Exclusive Photos -- WSJ

A Look At David Bowie's Former Caribbean Retreat

Tranquil: This photograph offers a glimpse inside the tropical holiday retreat David Bowie had built on a private Caribbean island in 1989  

Daily Mail: Inside David Bowie's 'tranquil' Caribbean retreat: Stunning mansion built for him as a private getaway goes on sale for £14million

 * These photographs offer a glimpse inside the tropical holiday retreat David Bowie had built on a Caribbean island
 * He once described the £14million five-bedroom mansion as a 'tranquil place' so relaxing he found it difficult to work
 * Bowie later sold the peaceful hillside retreat on Mustique to British publisher and poet Felix Dennis for £3.5million
 * Dennis passed away in 2014 and the private island villa is now thought to have been purchased by a mystery buyer

Blissfully tranquil and idyllic, these photographs offer a rare glimpse inside the tropical holiday retreat David Bowie had built on a star-studded private Caribbean island shortly before he married his supermodel wife Iman.

It may be nearly 30 years old but the £14million ($20million) five-bedroom mansion still retains the same glamour, extravagance and lavishly colourful interiors Bowie envisioned when he chose the home's Indonesian look back in the Eighties.

The peaceful hillside hideaway, once described by the 69-year-old glam rock icon as a 'tranquil place' so relaxing he found it difficult to pen new music there, now appears to have been snapped up by a mystery buyer.

It is located on what Bowie called the 'fantasy island' of Mustique, a popular getaway spot with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

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Editor: An Indonesian theme is not my thing .... but this is a beautiful place.

Charlie Sheen Sells One Of His Three L.A. Mansions

 
Via Estately Variety: Charlie Sheen Secretly Sells One of Three L.A. Mansions

It was real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak who first clued us in and property records do indeed confirm that veteran Tinseltowner and gossip glossy staple Charlie Sheen secretly sold one of his three mansions inside the guarded gates of the Mulholland Estates development in an off-market deal for $6.6 million. The long-troubled former “Two And A Half Men” star, once one of the highest paid actors on television, recently told “The Today Show” his financial situation wasn’t as rosy as it once since he’d paid out around $10 million to nefarious characters who threatened to expose his positive HIV diagnosis. And, unfortunately for Mister Sheen and his suffering finances, he took a substantial $400,000 loss on the Beverly Hills Post Office property that he picked up in March 2011 for $6,999,999 million from entertainment industry mover and shaker Mike Medavoy.

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Editor: Charlie Sheen never lived there .... so what was the point of keeping the place.

A Photo Gallery Of Castles, Chateaux And Mansions: Enter A Land Of Make-Believe

From The Telegraph: As China’s richest man snaps up an £80m pad in London, Anna Partington opens the door to a world of fairytale castles, chateaux and mansions, all at fantastical prices.  

Editor: And what is remarkable is that some of these homes are not expensive .... if you are a multi-millionaire that is. The gallery starts here.

Your Own White House For $15 Million

A Dallas mansion, complete with white limestone exterior and semicircular colonnade has gone on sale for $15m  

Daily Mail: Live like a President! Amazingly lavish replica of the White House – complete with 24-seater theatre and Louis XIV-style chandeliers – goes on sale in Dallas for $15m

 * The mansion comes complete with antique French fireplaces, a tennis court, pavilion and outdoor pool
 * It has a modest four bedrooms with five baths and measures 1604 square feet
 * The incredibly opulent home is one of the most 'noted' in the Dallas area
 * Its address in Strait Lane is known as Billionaire's Row where houses regularly go for upwards of $20m

Ever dreamed of being President of the United States?

Well now you can pretend you are (if you have a spare $15m lying around).

A Dallas mansion, complete with white limestone exterior and semicircular colonnade, is an impressive replica of the real thing and is now on the market.

Its interior is even more eye-wateringly lavish than the white columned frontage but the style is less presidential pad and more tacky mock-chateau.

For what it lacks in size - it has a modest four bedrooms - it makes up for in antique French fireplaces. From Garbled Marble flooring and double Jacuzzi tubs, to Mizner chandeliers and a customised theater that seats 24.

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Editor: The real White House is bigger .... but it is still a good version of it.

Do You Want To Buy A Bordeaux Chateau?

Chateau Fonplegade in St. Emilion, owned by the Adams family. Photographer: Alain Vacheron/Château Fonplégade  

Bloomberg: How to Buy a Bordeaux Château

A lovely vineyard will come cheaper than you think, but don’t expect it to come easily.

Over lunch on the stone terrace at Château Fonplégade in St. Emilion, France, owners Stephen and Denise Adams took in the sweeping views of their neat rows of organic vines.

The American couple bought the estate in 2004 and spent millions to restore it, including $1 million just to rebuild a critical vineyard retaining wall.

Maybe you’re one of those wine lovers who think people like the Adamses are living the ultimate wine fantasy. You’re not alone.

Two packed seminars on how to buy a Bordeaux château, held at wine trade fair VinExpo three weeks ago, show just how widespread the fantasy is.

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Editor: Like all things in life .... it all comes down to money.

A $100 Million Home In Dallas

A mansion fit for Dynasty: Dallas businessman Tom Hicks' 25-acre estate is currently for sale at $100 million 

Daily Mail: Former Texas Rangers owner's 25-acre estate hits the market for $100million

 * Dallas businessman Tom Hicks is currently selling his home, named the Crespi estate
 * The estate boasts a main house, guest house and recreation center
 * Originally listed for $135m in 2013; price has been knocked down to $98m
 * Former President George W Bush is a neighbor

For $100 million, you can live like an oil baron in Dallas, Texas and count former President George W Bush as a neighbor.

Businessman Tom Hicks, the former owner of the Texas Rangers, has knocked down the price on his 25-acre estate from $135 million to $98 million - but it's still the most expensive home listed on the Dallas market.

'Every time I go through it I see something more – there is so much detail,' listing agent Allie Allman told the Dallas Morning News. 'This property takes things to a whole new level.'

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WNU Editor: You have to wonder if this is a bubble .... A $100 million home in Dallas: Is real estate at its peak? (Market Watch).

A Look At The Most Expensive Home In San Francisco That Is On The Market (Photo Gallery)

Welcome to 2250 Vallejo St., the most expensive home for sale in the city of San Francisco.  

Editor: An interesting photo gallery on San Francisco's most expensive home on the market .... Go inside the most expensive home in San Francisco, on the market for $28 million (Business Insider).