<p>[Hong</a> Kong Island Property for Sale / Rent in Hong Kong - Square Foot](<a href=“http://www.squarefoot.com.hk/property/hong-kong-island/]Hong”>http://www.squarefoot.com.hk/property/hong-kong-island/)</p>
<p>Compared to these in Hong Kong, that whole west LA is dirt cheap. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these great deals in WLA have been snatched by the Chinese.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You have to remember that the OP is concerned about safety. UCLA is extremely safe, a large part because of the nice neighborhood that encompasses the U. Again, OP mentioned something about not wanting to be in gang-infested neighborhoods, or something to that effect.</p>
<p>My friends and I would often walk over to the small golf park they had right off of Mapleton and Club View, which is where the former Spelling mansion is. The UCLA track teams often run in Holmby and Little Holmby and generally areas east of campus because the west is more congested with students living in apts and frat houses (the sororities are right off of Hilgard). Adventurous students often run past the East Gate of Bel Air and in its canyons. The golf team practices in Bel Air CC and Riviera, and I believe LACC. There are a good amount of alums who decided to settle in the luxurious triangle that encompasses the campus, extremely well-heeled, obviously. Some even rent their guest houses to certain students. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yeah, I did misstate things. I shouldnt have used among the most expensive RE in the world; I should have stated among the most luxurious. Ill even change the quote for you:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Btw, if my figures are correct, the former Spelling home in Holmby Hills, which is considered a part of Westwood and includes the Playboy mansion, sold for $85M/57K-sf or ~ $1500/sf. I dont know if they sold Fleur de Lis in Bel Air ugly home, btw, yet … which I think was listed for more than the $150M price tag of the former Spelling house.</p>
<p>If you want to argue that Hong Kong is more luxurious, feel free. A lot of what you state about cost per sf is (and as beyphy intimated) because of a congested extremely urban feel of people who pay outrageous prices for 500-sf studios becasue they want to live like sardines in the big city. </p>
<p>And if you wouldnt mind, since it appears you were coached up by xiggi, where did I attack you personally? And xiggi, whose information did I buy into in this instance taht made me gullible? The Universitys? No, my points of promoting UCLA run counter to school administrators: gorgeous/hot coeds, extremely smart too, btw, etc…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No one ever claimed West LA wasn’t cheap. You’re the one who keeps bringing it up as an anecdote. </p>
<p>Sure, HK is substantially more expensive than LA. But it’s also ridiculously smaller. The city of LA is larger than the whole of HK. It doesn’t have several outer cities like LA does (or even inner if you include West Hollywood, Culver City, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica which are all their own “cities” but engulfed by LA basically.</p>
<p>Here are some home prices for Mulhollond Drive for example:</p>
<p>[Mulholland</a> Drive Real Estate And Homes For Sale | Los Angeles Luxury Homes](<a href=“http://www.elitelahomes.com/2010/05/mulholland-drive-real-estate-and-homes-for-sale/]Mulholland”>http://www.elitelahomes.com/2010/05/mulholland-drive-real-estate-and-homes-for-sale/)</p>
<p>It’s not immediately adjacent to westwood, but given that you’re using the whole of HK, i feel justified in using the whole of LA.</p>
<p>Btw, did anyone notice the date stamps on the thread UCB linked in his post #37? Circa August, 2007 ~ five years ago. This was when bayboi, Cal student, was probably still posting on these boards, so I wouldn’t put it past him to have created all those user names to have a conversation with himself. </p>
<p>beyphy, the Mulholland area, though rife with $multi-million houses is not as expensive as “Lower Bel Air.” The most expensive homes in WLA are in Holmby Hills, & lower eastside Bel Air, contiguous communities. Not even Beverly Hills or Brentwood are comparable. HH is east of UCLA, stretching from Little Holmby to HH and Lower Bel Air is just north of UCLA across Sunset. </p>
<p>Stanford with Atherton and Hillsborough are tony, tony, also, which is actually San Mateo County. Santa Clara County which is the county that encompasses Sanford and Palo Alto has some tony (just one) communities also, though Los Altos Hills is tony, tony. Palo Alto has some huge homes north of campus, but a lot of PA is overpriced one and two brs. I know someone who grew up in a real little town called Monte Sereno, beautiful place, which is surrounded by Los Gatos and Saratoga, all of which are really nice towns in SC County.</p>
<p>I just wanted to add to or even counter some of what I said in #42, specifically, </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I was somewhat pressed in my reply in my post #42, and that left me with an incomplete reply, when it appeared I conceded.</p>
<p>Here are some quick-hitters: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>price/sf obviously diminishes, the larger the abode.</p></li>
<li><p>To ignore the absolute price of an abode would be an incomplete analysis.</p></li>
<li><p>Absolute price eliminates a whole boatload of buyers, and in the case of Bel Air and Holmby Hills, just about all except for minute fractions of 1%.</p></li>
<li><p>If you put the former Spelling mansion, now owned by a Russian billionaire and his daughter, in Hong Kong, I propose that it would lose all of its value as a single-family dwelling because it would be so out of place. Its only use would be to turn it into a swank hotel.</p></li>
<li><p>Hong Kong has such a large population within its tiny hard boundaries, ie, the water, that people there have to shell out prices for even moderate homes or be pushed off of the island. There’s no concept of legitimate costliness which ~ luxury.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>Hong Kong is not entirely an island. It got many islands but the largest part of it is attached to mainland China.</p></li>
<li><p>There are big houses in Hong Kong. Severn Road is one of those streets with private residences.
[Hong</a> Kong?s Severn Road tops the list of world?s richest streets](<a href=“http://www.bornrich.com/entry/hong-kong-s-severn-road-tops-the-list-of-world-s-richest-streets/]Hong”>http://www.bornrich.com/entry/hong-kong-s-severn-road-tops-the-list-of-world-s-richest-streets/)
I don’t see how the Manor would be out of place there physically with all that greens surrounding it. It would be even more luxurious with the view of arguably the world’s most spectacular skyline.<br>
[Hong</a> Kong’s Most-Expensive Home Sales of 2010 - Hong Kong - WSJ](<a href=“Hong Kong's Most-Expensive Home Sales of 2010 - WSJ”>Hong Kong's Most-Expensive Home Sales of 2010 - WSJ) shows the top home sales in 2010. They are a lot smaller than Manor but couple of them were already sold at about the same price as the Manor.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In that sense, the Manor would be out of place in Hong Kong because the price would have been astronomical. But a place with more than 100 rooms is out of place as a single- family home anywhere. But if such waste is called luxury, I guess you can have it more easily in LA.</p>
<p>If I were in your case I would probably launch for Princeton!by the way can you to havard?if yes than go for it!its the best university in USA and probably the most well known in the world!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Some of the questions I would ask would be:</p>
<p>How many homes on Severn Road? </p>
<p>How many detached homes in all of Hong Kong? </p>
<p>What is the ratio of townhomes/condos to detached homes?</p>
<p>There are big homes just about anywhere. Crack/drug dealers build themselves big homes in south-central LA. You see overbuilt houses just about anywhere. The question is, do they fit in? Certainly in Holmby Hills and Lower East Bel Air, they do moreso, and large homes are typical in these places anyway. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think we get the point that you’re a big fan of Hong Kong. 
But despite the homes on Severn Road, large to super-huge manses have to be atypical of there.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And as should be attached to above … a lot of large and supersized homes look the same size when you pass them. What adds size a lot of time is how deep they go into the lot and if they have els and attachments which make these homes larger. When one sees the former Spelling home from the only side that is visible, one can tell that it’s a gigantic house, but the only visible part is the I would call, the southern most el. It does look overbuilt and really tall, but it wouldn’t be the only one fitting this description in the area, for sure.</p>
<p>Wharton grants an economics degree, so if your going to get a job in business do Wharton. You better be good at math for Princeton. UCLA is in the richest part of Los Angeles.</p>