The nation’s most expensive home for sale: Crespi-Hicks estate, $135 million

It's not often we get to write about home listings that break the nine-figure barrier. Oh, sure, maybe there's a $90 million Woolworth Mansion or a twin mansion package or Yuri Milner's $100 million boondoggle of a house (which the county assessor said was worth half the price). Gianni Versace's Miami villa was listed at $125 million, but it's languishing on the market after a price cut to $100 million. The Spelling Manor was asking for $150 million, but ultimately sold for $85 million.

Now there's a new contender in the neighborhood -- and the neighborhood isn't California, or New York, or any coast at all.

The Crespi-Hicks estate, on 25 bucolic acres just five minutes from downtown Dallas, recently became the most expensive single-family home for sale in the nation, at $135 million. It has more than 40,000 square feet of living space, including a five-story main house, two guesthouses and a pool house, according to Forbes, and was built for the magnificently named Italian Count Pio Crespi in 1939. The main house is 29,000 square feet of opulence, our friends at Curbed report. And other folks in the neighborhood include business and civic leaders, not least among them former President George W. Bush.

You can take a tour of the grounds with listing agent Douglas Newby in the video above, or see many (many, many) pictures on his website. (He does tend to go on a bit, both in the video and on his site, but if you want to cut to the chase, the best images start around three minutes into the video. On his site, you can find photo collections broken out into exterior, main house interior, main guesthouse, pool house and -- oh, yes -- more. We'd particularly commend to your attention the Art Deco bar and the stunning kitchen with centuries-old Dutch manganese tile.)

Feast your eyes, then tell us what you think in the comments. Beauty or folly?