Floating status

City residential properties don’t come cheap due to high land valuations. But an American real estate broker in Orange, New Jersey, auctioned off a 445-square-meter home near Seton Hall University at a starting bid price of $1.

Broker Brendan DaSilva purchased the two-story colonial-style home on Reynolds Place for $300,000 and spent an additional $100,000 on renovations, according to the New York Post.

DaSilva said the house was worth $525,000, but the $1 bid — valid until June 24 — was a social experiment meant to test the current state of the housing market, according to the New York Post.

Before the auction, the three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bathroom home, built in 1945, last sold for $30,000 in April.

Meanwhile, 77-year-old Sharon Lane of San Diego, California, used her life savings to purchase a cabin at Villa Vie Residences for $129,000 last year and moved in on 15 June.

In addition to the purchase price, Lane will pay a $2,000 monthly fee covering meals, soft drinks, alcohol, Wi-Fi, medical consultations, weekly housekeeping, and bi-weekly laundry service, according to CNN.

A residency at Villa Vie is valid for 15 years — the estimated lifespan of the Odyssey cruise ship that houses the unique community.

Lane and other residents look forward to an excitingly endless leisure of circumnavigating the globe aboard the vessel.