Most Expensive House in U.S.? A Shack

What is the most expensive house on the U.S. market right now? If you guessed Candy Spelling's Holmby Hills, Calif. mansion, selling for $150 million, you'd be wrong. The most expensive house is a beachfront shack in Carpinteria, Calif. That is, if you were going by price per square foot.

If you compare it to Candy Spelling's manse of 56,500 square feet (see photo on jump) you'll see that the beachfront shack -- listed at $5.3 million for a snug 641 square feet -- comes out to a higher per-square-foot price. Officially, this home has just 651 square feet of space–less space than a regulation squash court. The the agent for the home, John Henderson, claims it's actually a relatively spacious 750 square feet. Either way, Spelling's is only $2,700 a square foot and the beach shack is around $7,000, making it the most expensive house.

Indeed, according to a Forbes blogger, if you compare listings strictly by square footage, the shack tops the country's list of most expensive homes.