The saying, the bigger is better, is back; at least when it comes to homes. Despite the four-year housing downturn, some of the wealthiest people in the nation are busy building for themselves mega mansions that are as impressive as their bank accounts.

The first mega mansion on our list is the latest home of Anthony Pritzker, the heir of Hyatt Hotel. This private family residence is a 49,300-square-foot compound that features luxury amenities such as a hairdressing room, gym, and bowling alley. Designed by architecture firm in Paris, this mega mansion is located in the hills of Los Angeles.

Another mega mansion to make the list is a 25,900-square-foot, Colonial-style home built by Hedge-fund manager Cliff Asness. This impressive beauty located in Greenwich, Connecticut boasts an indoor swimming pool and tennis court. Not so far away, another impressively large home is being built for Lee Weinstein, founder of Xand. His 31,500-square-foot mansion features 15 bathrooms, a 2,500-square-foot master suite, and a basement with a wine cellar, theater, juice bar, sauna, records show, and dance studio.

And if you’re still not impressed, consider the home just twenty miles away, being built for Melissa and Doug Bernstein, owners of a company that makes educational children’s toys. Their giant compound encompasses more than 29,500 square feet of land and boasts a guest cottage, pool cabana, and a gym partially covered by glass. The compound also features a playground, tennis court, and a pool.

The next mega mansion on our list is being built in Silicon Valley for co-founders of a cell phone insurance provider, Jim and Jenna Ellis. The plans for this mansion feature property longer in length than a football field, that is expected to feature several garages, including a showroom for cars with a glass wall that is connected to the family room, making is possible for family and guests to view the cars from the interior of the home.

Locally referred to as the Cave House, this 37-acre home is located near Bisbee, Arizona, and about 80 miles from Tucson. Listed at $1.5 million, this unique home is literally carved into a granite boulder that extends more than 2,000-square feet into a man-made desert cave. The home boasts 2,890-square feet of land, and features a library building, a separate workshop room, a stand-alone home office, a 890-square foot guest home, and a game room underneath the guest house. It also comes with a carport.

The main living area features rock and cement ceilings, rough walls, and a glass-walled sunroom that is the first thing guests see before entering the cave. Homeowners get to enjoy an impressive kitchen with stained glass cabinets and mosaic tile, a spacious dining room, a lower-level living room, two full bathrooms, a bedroom loft with a large walk-in closet, and another bedroom that can be used as a gym or yoga studio. And since it is a cave, the home boasts comfortable temperatures year-round that never reach below 66 degrees Fahrenheit or soar above 72 degrees.

The home also boasts natural pools that are a short hike away. These pools are filled with freshwater from a creek for six to eight months out of the year. They also have a camouflaged hot tub.

The game room underneath the guest house comes with a separate entrance and features cement blocks and fluorescent lighting. The library building is also made of cement blocks and can be used as a safe house.

The Cave House was built by the owner’s husband, who passed away recently. He had to recruit a mining engineer to build the home. While the owner has listed the home on the market several times, she has reduced the price dramatically from the original price of $3 million. The realtor believes the home can be used as a yoga retreat or alternative healing studio.

Hollywood history buffs prepare yourselves: for a handsome $12 million dollars you can live in Farralone, the mansion where Frank Sinatra lived, and where Marilyn Monroe is said to have met with John F. Kennedy for a tryst. The glamorous estate is found in Chatsworth, C.A. and its connections to Hollywood royalty and their history runs deep. It also sits on a 14 beautiful acres.

The house dates to the start of the 1950’s, and was designed by the same folks who were responsible for two American structures that are recognized around the globe: San Francisco’s iconic Transamerica Pyramid Building and Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center. Talk about a home with cultural import. Dora Hutchinson, an American heiress to a banking fortune (Chase Manhattan Bank), was the original inhabitant and the person whom many would shower in flowers and praises for her tireless work to host fabulous parties!

According to Forbes.com, Lucille Ball, Paul McCartney, Ava Garner, and Judy Garland all sang, danced, and schmoozed at this place. The home’s pool is not only the location of the last photo shoot session of the former Mrs. Joe DiMaggio, but for a period of time she lived in the guesthouse, whose square footage is a comfy 1,000 sq. ft. More recently, the home has appeared on television and film in “Mad Men,” “Californication,” Jennifer Hudson’s and Beyoncé Knowles’ Dreamgirls, Will Smith’s Ali, and an Usher music video.

It’s reported that the house’s income from location shoots has climbed to as much as 2 million in one year. Because it is so lucrative, the home has a production studio inside as well as a production studio-funded manager to work out shooting scheduling and compensation. If you’d like some more cherries thrown in, know that the property comes with a young vineyard and around it is a nature preserve.

Throughout the world, Americans are famous for their love of the open road and the exquisite machines that run on them: cars. Whether the car they’ve inherited, bought, or rebuilt themselves is a Chevy, Alfa Romeo, Maybach, or Jennifer Lopez-endorsed Fiat, the good people of the U.S. of A. like to take care of their macchine, as the Italians so bluntly put it. To take care of these engineering wonders, people have been known to build storing wonders to house them. Here’s a look at the automobile temples some Americans have built to honor the true apple(s) of their eye. We give thanks to Forbes for bringing the list to our attention.

Jay Leno has something called “The Big Dog Garage,” and the “big” in its name is not superfluous: it’s made up of two warehouses whose combined square footage — 17,000 sq. ft. — can house Leno’s ever-growing collection; at the moment that means 100 cars and 90 motorcycles, give or take a few.

Another celebrated California garage is in Santa Barbara’s Montecito area — the Glass Pavilion. This structure is valued at $20 million dollars and, as its name suggests, is built of glass. Adding to its luxurious construction is walnut detailing. It holds 32 cars and can be yours because it’s currently for sale. A bit south of Santa Barbara one finds a Cliffside Drive estate in Malibu, which has a garage that totals 7,000 sq. ft. It’s also technologically advanced enough to have “Micron-level filtration and dehumidification,” in addition to sound absorbent walls. The estate is worth $44 million.

Cross over to the Right Coast, and you’ll find a fantastic garage styled as a “man cave” in Cornelius, North Carolina. This masculine garage includes a kitchen and bar seating for more pleasant “car observing.” Truly divine.

Do you ever wonder where the nation’s wealthiest citizens spend their time? Or, exactly how much money they have? As we all know by now, President Obama is trying to make the rich cough up more in taxes, however, just how much are they paying now? If you’re really curious to find the answers to these questions, all you need to do is look it up using an IRS database of income tax data.

Although it does not reveal details, the IRS publishes the information into broad categories, with the top tier of income at $200,000 and higher. However, for many people, including politicians in need of income increases, this amount does not qualify as rich.

In an effort to find out more about the nation’s wealthiest citizens, Forbes.com scrutinized the data by putting a magnifying glass on the neighborhoods where the average income is around $1 million. The results revealed a series of tax returns from 64 extremely wealthy areas, including Fisher Island, yacht owners in Miami, and Manhattan.

According to the list, the wealthiest people ranked by income live in Fisher Island, with a high-bracket taxpayer amount of $3.2 million. The second richest place is Purchase, N.Y. at $2.2 million. Coming in at third place are two other New York City suburbs, New Vernon and Alpine, N.J. at $2.1 million. Finally, the fourth wealthiest place in the U.S. is Atherton, California at $1.9 million.

If you’re wondering what the estimated net worth of the wealthiest communities are, Forbes.com offers that information, too. According to the article, the top wealthiest community ranked by net worth is Fisher Island at $57 million per high-bracket return. Coming in at second place is Alpine, at $28 million.

Forbes.com also revealed where the wealthy get their money from. According to the article, nearly half receive their money from working, while the other upper-bracket people in the 64 wealthy areas receive their money from property, including stocks, bonds, real estate, oil wells and businesses.

If you’ve ever wondered what the home of the future will look like, take a gander at the Dupli Casa in Ludwigsburg, Germany. A quick glance of the home resembles a modern sculpture that has melted over lush grass. And the interior looks more like the inside of a spaceship rather than a family dwelling place. Yet, this white, three-story building is in fact a family residence designed by J. Mayer H. Architects.

Dubbed the “most futuristic house in the world”, the Dupli Casa features an open floor plan with pod-like bedrooms protruding from the building. The top level, where the bedrooms are located, boasts several large windows strategically angled to take advantage of the surrounding landscape and buildings. The middle floor, the common living area, features a large entrance hall in the lobby and impressive panoramic windows.

When discussing the plans of the building, the architect told Icon Magazine that he is “very proud of the homogenous skin that covers the building and the ground surrounding it.” According to Mayer the skin anchors the building on the site. He also said that the dwelling place was the firm’s first white building and their most difficult design to date in terms of geometry. The home looks different from every angle.