Are United States Ambassadorial Residences usually luxury homes and mansions?

Question

Many countries who have embassies in the United States also have Ambassadorial Residences which seem to be usually luxury homes or mansions.

Are most of the official residences of Ambassadors of the United States luxury homes and mansions? I know for a fact some of these are worth in the millions, some almost as large as the White House it seems like. The upkeep and domestic staff must be expensive.

It seems a very little studied and documented thing, perhaps the Government does not want the public to know how much is spent by the State Department overseas? Maintaining embassies, Ambassadorial Residences, local staff, and all is not cheap.

Answer 1

You're completely wrong about Ambassadors' residences being "very little studied and documented."  Great care is taken of all US-leased and -owned residences abroad, and the standards for size and cost are very strictly supervised and enforced by the Overseas Building Office and Congress.

There is some misunderstanding, however, especially about the apparently huge and elaborate places that ambassadors appear to occupy.  What you need to understand is that these residences are primarily meant for - and are used constantly for - representational purposes:  receptions, meetings, congresses, etc that engage and involve American political, social, cultural and business interests with local authorities, businesspeople, rulers, despots, charitable organizations, NGOs, artists, cultural icons, etc.  It is not unusual for there to be two or three such events every single day.  As you can imagine, it is considered very prestigious to have attended an event at the US Ambassador's house, and this prestige is used for good effect to support American interests.

For these purposes, a large part (usually the ground floor of the building) is large, open, and usually decorated with art produced (and often donated) by American or local artists.  Many Ambassadors have also collected and then donated local arts and crafts to the residences they have occupied only temporarily.

Where the Ambassador lives is a different story.  It is normally a medium-sized three-bedroom, two bath, pretty ordinary  apartment on an upper floor.  These apartments, because they're often located in older buildings, frequently suffer even more than the usual local problems with electricity, plumbing, termites, cockroaches, ets.