NEIGHBORHOOD: Town of Palm Beach

Even though Palm Beach is a bastion of old money and old-world wealth, its oldest buildings are barely over a hundred years in age, when Henry Flagler brought his railroad to the undeveloped barrier island and built the Royal Poinciana Hotel in 1894. But not long after that, this house was built.

Just a few months ago, this 10,000 square foot Palm Beach estate on a sweeping piece of property facing Lake Worth sold for a whopping $55 million, which any sane person might think was an impressive enough price tag, after having been on the market for about five months. But this is how over-the-top the current real estate market is. The house appears to have been almost immediately whallopped back onto the market, with a new listing price of $79 million. If that brash of a flip isn't proof we live in truly bizarre real estate times, than what is?

At the dawn of the new year, just nine days ago, this extensively renovated Palm Beach regency-style property, hit the market for an eye-watering $17.8 million. Originally built in 1970, every inch of the house looks like it's brand-spankin' new, decorated gorgeously, to the umpteenth degree. It's listed by Christopher Leavitt, one of the brokers on the short-lived reality show Million Dollar Listing Miami (boy that feels like a million years ago), which explains what he's doing with his time these days. He must have absconded from Miami. Zillow says most of his listings are that-a-way.

El Solano, the Palm Beach estate once owned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, has hit the market for a whopping $47.5 million. Lennon bought the house in January 1980, and spent the winter living there. He was killed in December of that year. After proceeding with the home renovation she and Lennon planned together, Ono eventually sold it in 1986.

This home and studio, located in Phipp's Plaza, a residential and commercial plaza with central green space in the center of Palm Beach, is the home and studio of modern-day interior designer Scott Snyder, and was the home and studio of Marion Sims Wyeth, an architect who designed many notable projects around South Florida in the freewheeling 1920s.

Like everything the Donald does, the conversion of the historic Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach into a private club in 1995 was thick with controversy, with Trump himself often playing the bad guy. In the first few years, there was scheming, sex, and decadence, the perfect storm for a great story about the 1 percent. The latest issue of Vanity Fair features an essay by Laurence Leamer, author of Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Trump's Presidential Palace. Here are the juiciest tidbits from the story:

I would have liked to save the first Palm Beach Regency house to be featured on the Big Bubble for a perfect time capsule of that architectural style, a gracious flowering of subtropical neoclassicism that was extremely popular in Palm Beach in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. However, this unrestrained expression of... well... something... makes this house one not to miss.

Maurice Fatio, one of Palm Beach's most noteworthy architects, designed many classic Mediterranean Revival numbers in the 1930s, including this one. Called Villa Las Carpas, Spanish for 'house of the tents,' the recently landmarked house is listed for $10.9 million.

Built in 1952, this midcentury modern house in the Estate Section of Palm Beach is listed for $5.69 million and centered around a fabulous circular courtyard and pool. The house has some traditional architectural detailing, like a chevron parquet wood floor, and large french doors, but it also includes some spectacular midcentury elements like that pool. Ohhhh, that pool. The front gate is pretty spectacular too. This place is meant for people who drink way too much and somehow stay fabulous doing it. Here's how the brokerbabble describes the joint:

Bling, bling, with a Hamptons-in-the-tropics look. This shinge-style joint's on the market for $24 million. Whaddaya think, yo?