With some of the most expensive residential real estate in the Netherlands, Amsterdam is anything bu

Built in 1916, this house was used as a prime location in the hit television series and film, 'Women of the Gooi.' Engel & Völkers
In the Gooi, a cluster of affluent towns and villages southeast of Amsterdam, the trappings of the good life stand in opulent opposition to the Netherlands' national virtue of frugality. Here, the Dutch have traded in chock-a-block apartment buildings and bicycles for sprawling, thatched-roof villas and imported sports cars.

"We don't have the American dream, which means you can work hard and show off your crib on MTV," says Dutch actress and television personality Linda de Mol, who lives in the area's exclusive Crailo neighborhood. "We are more modest. But in the Gooi, you can show your wealth."

In recent years, the area has gained a near mythic status in the Netherlands thanks to Ms. de Mol, who created and starred in a hit TV series and subsequent movie about the Gooi. Something of a hybrid of "Sex and the City" and "Desperate Housewives," "Gooische Vrouwen" ("Women of the Gooi") is a sendup of the area's social pretensions and material excesses.One of three prime suburban areas in the country along with Bloemendaal, west of Amsterdam, and Wassenaar, outside The Hague, the Gooi is home to much of the Netherlands' priciest residential real estate. According to Woningmarktcijfers.nl, a website that tracks sales in the country, four of the 10 most expensive Dutch communities are now in the Gooi.