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Champagne wishes and caviar dreams, Robin!

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You can be excused if you don't know who Robin Leach is.  He's been living under the radar for some time, but back in the mid-80s he brought the lavish "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" into middle class living rooms across America.  You might say he was single-handedly responsible for elevating our aspirations and spurring the real estate market by making persons crave spacious bathrooms and kitchens, sunken firepits, walk-in closets, indoor-outdoor swimming pools, and other amenities to their modest homes. 

The period between 1984-1995, in which the syndicated show ran, coincided with an unparalleled building boom in the real estate market.  Everyone wanted a bigger home with as many of the features of the jet set as they could get a second mortgage for.  The average size of a single-family home grew from 1700 square feet (170 square meters) to 2500 square feet (250 square meters).  Real estate agents pushed large bathrooms and kitchens, walk-in closets and fireplaces as must-have features if you wanted to fetch a good price on the market.  People maxed out their lots, and if they ran out of space converted their garages into extra rooms.  With  real estate prices going up, up, up, you were guaranteed a good return on your investment.

Mr. Leach is probably too modest to admit his show had a big influence on this booming real estate market, but he opened the door to all these glittering palaces, which you could only see before in the glossy pages of Architectural Digest and other coffee table magazines. 

The show also had an impact on the rich and famous, as they soon began trying to one-up each other for the biggest mansion.  One of the more hilarious competitions was between Aaron Spelling and David Saperstein for the largest house in LA.  Spelling eventually topped out his sprawling mansion at 56,500 square feet (5650 square meters), leaving poor Dave a distant fifth with his 35,000 square foot (3,500 square meter) mansion.  You can read all about these monstrosities on Curbed.

With the MTV era and the rapid rise of music moguls, we soon had the syndicated show MTV Cribs, the heir apparent to Leach's long-running show.  We got to see the homes of all these suddenly wealthy rap artists and other overnight celebrities, similarly battling each other for the coolest "cribs."  Robin Leach wisely bowed out.

Now, you can check out all these lavish homes on the Internet.  Everyone seems to love to show off their "crib."  The only problem today is that some of these guys spent so much money on their lavish homes that they had to eat the losses on resale.  Nicholas Cage is one sad story.  Apparently, there is a limit after all.

For decades we had been coaxed into the idea you could spend as much as you could borrow on your home because you would get it all back on resale.  When the housing bubble burst in 2008, many folks were taught a hard lesson in real estate speculation.  It reaches the point where a house is simply too big and/or too gaudy to interest a prospective buyer, especially when there is a downturn in the market.

Ironically, Robin Leach lived a relatively modest life, well within his means, despite having promoted these lavish estates for so many years.  Smart man.  Maybe he could have shared some of that wisdom with Nicholas Cage and other celebrities who lost big financially.


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