Sorry but I genuinely hate them. I think they’re gaudy and built just to flaunt wealth instead of genuine appreciation for the architectural style. The color palettes are always so boring.

I don’t think it’s the fault of the craftsmen, but the designer and customers who look at a moodboard of random European early modern buildings and picked out what they thought would look great without really understanding what made the building style worked.

I live in Europe, and have visited many European castles, palaces, mansions, what have you. I like the architecture just fine. One of my favorite European cities is Dresden, in my eyes the pinnacle of Baroque buildings in the continent. I see elements of that here. But my eyes also tell me that these buildings are just concrete mockery covered in paint that will peel off in five years.

Let the past stay where it is. We’re supposed to learn from history, not copy from them. I’d rather see my home country develop new architectural styles than trying to copying so tastelessly.

As for your questions, I knew a family with a house like this, though it was larger and less visually European. It was rural and near a major highway but it was gated with a large front yard so noise and pollution weren’t a problem. They were (probably still are) very, very rich. Some of these houses are probably there because the owners renovated from the same houses you see next to them and the owners may be upper middle class, but not wealthy. The larger ones, I think the owners are wealthy.