My sleepy little Southern city has hit the big time. We’ve got a home for sale here at a Beverly Hills price.

The city to which I refer, of course, is Raleigh, North Carolina, which until just a couple of decades ago was indeed your classic sleepy, magnolia-infested Southern municipality. Sherman, in a rare display of good manners and consideration, declined to burn it, which means most of its glorious old homes and the stately stone capitol building remained intact. For the hundred years that followed, Raleigh was notable mostly as the place where (1) the annual State Fair is held every autumn, and (2) the ACC basketball tournament was staged for a glorious 13-year run in the ’50s and ’60s. But when IBM located a facility here a few decades ago and other technology companies followed, Raleigh began to evolve into a sure-enough metro area. Its sleepiness faded with every passing year.

It disappeared entirely a few months ago — when a home in Raleigh was put up for sale at an asking price of $23 million. Any city that has that kind of real estate available left “sleepy” behind a long time ago.

When I first heard about this house, I didn’t believe it. Scoffed heartily, I did. I told my informant that she was surely wrong about that price, and suggested she had perhaps confused price with square footage. I could have grasped the idea that Raleigh might have a 23,000 square-foot house somewhere. After all, we’ve got our share of garish types these days, who seem to need big houses so that we understand how important they are. But no way anybody could be selling a home for $23 million. Why, I’d stake my reputation on it.

Well, my reputations is in tatters now. (OK, fine. My reputation was already in tatters. It’s now been shredded, pulverized and turned over to Mike Nifong for a fair trial.) The house is real and the asking price is real. You can see for yourself here.

I’m still having a hard time wrapping my mind around this fact, though. I love my city, but I cannot imagine spending $23 million for a house here. Five million dollars will get you an amazing home in Raleigh. Your life here won’t be 4.6 times better with a $23 million home. It’s still going to be Raleigh, in all its modest glory, surrounding you. When you spend $23 million on a home, you expect Rodeo Drive outside your front door. Not a bunch of suburban, affordable multi-family units, along with a Goodberry’s frozen custard stand around the corner.

When I moved into my new house twelve years ago, the neighborhood matriarch — known to one and all as Miss Zelma — brought us a pie as a welcome-to-the-neighborhood gift. What do you bring somebody who’s just dropped $23 million on their house?

That’s not a rhetorical question. People actually do that here. Advice in this matter is sincerely needed.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 1:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.