On one hand, over half of Americans had to make at least one major sacrifice in order to cover their rent or mortgage over the last three years. Then, there are people like Bill Gates, who could purchase every single home in the entire city of Boston out of his own pocket.

Redfin published a report for the sake of illustration that shows some of the billionaires on the Forbes’ 400 Wealthiest list each paired with a city that they could hypothetically buy if they so desired. Perhaps not surprisingly, entire city's are not a billionaire's first choice to invest in.

And although Bill Gates is the richest single person in the United States, several of the Waltons (as in Walmart) are among the super rich.

When put together, the Walton family could choose from any of a number of large cities in which to buy up every home, including these 10:

1. Seattle

2. Dallas

3. Washington D.C.

4. Miami (pictured above)

5. Portland

6. Baltimore

7. Austin

8. Las Vegas

9. San Antonio

10. Atlanta

And the buying action does not stop there. Other top names like Mark Cuban could purchase Forney, Texas for $2.6 billion and George Lucas could buy Jonesboro, Georgia for $2.2 billion. Amazon's Jeff Bezos could buy all of Napa, California for $29.5 billion. That'd do wonders for Amazon's wine business.

Take a gander at this picture to understand just how much money can really buy.

(source Redfin: click for larger image)