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Most expensive homes for sale in DC region, ranked a top mansion city

This McLean, Virginia manor has five bedrooms and nine full baths as well as two half baths. (Courtesy MRIS)
$7,790,000 in McLean, Virginia This five-bedroom, nine-full bathroom Old World Castle, New Age home overlooks the Potomac River. It has an indoor pool, a ballroom, two indoor cinemas and a glass elevator. (Courtesy MRIS)
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This McLean, Virginia manor has five bedrooms and nine full baths as well as two half baths. (Courtesy MRIS)

WASHINGTON — Many homeowners may daydream of an oceanfront home in Los Angeles or the Hamptons, but it turns out the D.C. area has the fifth-most mansions among major cities in the United States.

“We define a mansion as having five bedrooms or more and at least 15 rooms total,” said AJ Smith with financial technology firm Smart Asset.

As part of a recent study, researchers looked at U.S. census data and found only seven cities have at least 1 percent of homes with more than 15 rooms.

“That total number of rooms does not include bathrooms, kitchenettes, hallways or closets. It’s just living space within the home,” Smith said.

Many of the most expensive homes in the D.C. area (in the gallery above) might not meet the study’s definition of a mansion, but those on the market in Georgetown would likely consider a nine-bedroom home there luxuriously large.

The study looked at the D.C. area, including Maryland and Virginia.

“When we think of cities that are dense, like D.C. and New York, we don’t necessarily think there’s enough room for that much space, but we are considering the metro area. And perhaps it does make sense with the high income in the area,” Smith said.

Three of the other cities in the top five are in Utah, which study authors attribute to the cost of living and the higher rate of occupancy in the state.

The study found five in every 1,000 homes is a mansion.

“Across the 100 metro areas we analyzed, about 0.5 percent of homes had at least five bedrooms and at least 15 rooms total. That means that [in these cities] only the top half of the top 1 percent of homeowners live in a mansion,” it said.

The top five:

  1. Provo-Orem, Utah
  2. Ogden-Clearfield, Utah
  3. Salt Lake City, Utah
  4. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn.
  5. Washington, D.C.

Editor’s Note: MRIS provided the ranking information and images for this list. MRIS Homes is the only mid-Atlantic region real estate home search site offering real-time local listings from the Multiple Listing Service.

Disclosure: The data provided includes the most expensive listings with 5+ bedrooms within the MRIS DC Metro as of 5/10/16 excluding sales without seller permission to advertise or promote.

Megan Cloherty

WTOP Investigative Reporter Megan Cloherty primarily covers breaking news, crime and courts.

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