Ever want to see a billionaire home? Forbes did the legwork for you. Enjoy the tour of 15 billionaire homes!
1. Bill Gates (Medina, Wash.): "The estate includes 11 surrounding properties that Gates bought, which goes some way toward explaining his local taxes. The properties are valued at nearly $140 million"
2. Warren Buffett (Omaha, Nebr.): "He still resides in the gray stucco home he bought in 1958 for $31,500."
3. Lakshmi Mittal (London, England): "The steel magnate set real estate records last year when he paid $128 million for a townhouse in London's Kensington Palace Gardens. The posh neighborhood was once just that--the vegetable-growing grounds for the royal residence."
4. Larry Ellison (Woodside, Calif.): "Set on 23 acres, it's fit for an emperor, having been built in the style of an imperial Japanese palace."
5. Michael Dell (Austin, Tex.): "The 33,000-square-foot mansion is perched on a hilltop in the college town where he founded his eponymous computer company."
6. Sumner Redstone (Beverly Hills, Calif.): "Built in 1997, Redstone's house measures about 15,000 square feet and includes three bedrooms, a gym, a billiards room, a screening room, an outdoor pool and tennis courts. Fellow residents of the gated community include Denzel Washington, Eddie Murphy and Paul Reiser."
7. Michael Bloomberg (New York, N.Y.): "Built in 1889, Bloomberg's townhouse has five floors and totals 7,500 square feet--including the chunk of the building next door, which he bought to enlarge his dining room."
8. David Geffen (Beverly Hills, Calif.): "The music mogul paid $47.5 million for the 100-room mansion, which has its own three-hole golf course. The real kicker? That was 15 years ago."
9. David Koch (New York, N.Y.): "David Koch and family may not have even moved into this opulent spread yet, since they had planned extensive renovations."
The story that is mose amusing belongs to Steve Jobs' house in Woodside, California:
"Some people fantasize about living in a 17,000-square-foot mansion built in 1926. But Steve Jobs thinks different. The brain behind Apple wants to demolish the white elephant he bought in 1983 and build a smaller house on a different part of the six-acre lot. Preservationists have objected to the destruction of the home, which was designed by Santa Barbara architect George Washington Smith. The Woodside town council has made Jobs a deal; He has a year to find someone who is willing to cart the mansion away. If he can't find a taker, he gets to tear it down."
Also check out the megamansions owned by Steven Spielberg, Craig McCaw, Roland Arnall, Mark Cuban and Oprah Winfrey. Use the links at the top to browse all these homes.