CNN: Home sales slowing but "biggest & most luxurious leading the charge"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Million dollar homes
Home sales are slowing but the biggest and the most luxurious are still leading the charge.
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer
February 23, 2006: 11:31 AM EST

http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/22/real_estate/february_million_dollar_homes/index.htm?cnn=yes

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Americans are buying homes that are bigger and contain more luxury features than ever. By some accounts, the million-dollar-plus home is now the strongest segment of many housing markets. Pamela Liebman, CEO of The Corcoran Group, a leading real estate brokerage in New York City, Long Island, New York and Florida, says, "A lot of money is going into high-end housing. Buyers just don't want to compromise their desires."

A lot of those desires have filtered down from the luxury home market to more mundane residences. That has contributed to a jump in single-family home prices of more than 13 percent this past year. The median U.S. home now costs about $214,000, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The largest areas of million dollar homes cluster in and around big coastal cities and posh beach and mountain resort communities. Among states, California had the highest percentage of million-dollar homes the last time the Census Bureau reported; 4.1 percent of all Golden State homes were worth a million or more at the end of 2003.

That was almost double the percentage of four years earlier. As housing continued to boom throughout 2004 and much of 2005, the number of million dollar homes in California has, undoubtedly, climbed considerably.



"What a great lookin' group of people...the "haves" and the "have mores." Some call you the elite...I call you my BASE."

[acmejack]

1. That jack ass hughes braying behind him!

[LisaLynne]

2. So that means everything's fine.

Move along. Nothing to see here. As long as there are rich people (even just three or four of them) who cane build really big, expensive houses, it doesn't matter if everybody else is decorating their cardboard boxes. The economy is GREAT!!

[Ino]

3. Is that Heather Wilson on his left?

n/t

[AnnieBW]

4. If You're Looking To Sell A Low-Priced House

You're screwed. My friend has been trying to sell her townhouse for at least 3 months now, and this is in the supposedly-hot suburbs of Washington DC. The market has cooled for lower-priced homes.

[misternormal]

5. Just another case...

... Of as long as the rich can afford stuff the economy is great...

I smell bullshit

[SmokingJacket]

6. Who are these new millionaires?

Where are they finding all this money? Because in my little world, there just isn't all that much money around for the taking.

[MissB]

7. In Oregon, it may be due to Californians moving north.

Or at least that is what the local paper suggested today. A $400k home may seem like a lot to a first time buyer in Oregon, but to a Californian that may be a helluva bargain.

It is frightening how quickly homes leave the market around here. We watched our former home go on the market last weekend- for nearly half of a million (under 2000 square feet on a standard city lot). It went off the market on Monday. Same thing with a house in our current neighborhood- it went up last weekend for nearly $900k and went off the market by the end of the week. It wasn't anything spectacular either.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

9. With a median price of $700K in California, $400K IS a "bargain"...

That's in Silicon Valley, where things are at their worst, and it includes the millionaire haven of Atherton (Schwarzenegger bought a home there).

Right now, townhouses in this area go for $400-650K, depending on size and location. "Single family" 2 to 3 bedroom homes with low square footage in "OK" to "questionable" neighborhoods are in the same price range, and they are often "fixer-uppers" (with the emphasis on a LOT of "fixin"...)

Times are great for Bush's base, because life is just one long blank check.

The thing I'd be most concerned about, if I were an Oregonian watching a Californian buy a house is this: Are they actually going to LIVE In it, or are they a "house flipper" that will eventually make it impossible for a working family to buy a house THERE as well?

There was a news item in the San Jose Mercury two weeks ago. Right now, FOURTEEN PERCENT of working families in this valley can afford a median-priced home. The remaining EIGHTY SIX percent CANNOT.

:grr:

[Lenore]

10. I am part of that 86%, despite our good wage

Hello :-) I just moved from San Jose after living there for a solid (and sucky) 4 years. I hated it mostly because I knew that even if we managed to scrape by enough to buy a 600k "fixer upper", what about our children? Why would I want to put down roots in an area I know my children won't be able to afford (unless they hit the lottery or what have you)?

The last year we were there, we pre qualified and began to look around (in disgust). We just couldn't deal with it! And to top it off, we couldn't even afford a house that would provide the children with their own bedrooms! For 600K??

So! We packed up and moved back to the Pacific North West and bought a beautiful home, on a quarter acre, and not a fixer upper mind you!

My husband commutes from the local airport down to The Valley for work during the week. His weekly airfare, apt. right by work, plus the mortgage and housing costs for our large lovely PNW home are substantially less than the mortgage on a small dumpy Silicon Valley fixer upper would have been. We continually find ourselves grateful for making this lifestyle choice to live in a lovely, green, safe and affordable area where we can feel good about what our housing dollar is buying. I also know that it is very likely my children will be able to afford their own housing and won't have to move from the area just because they could never afford a home.

Our current 2400sq ft home (thank you Lord) was purchased a year ago for $270k and yes to us it was an absolute steal! We came up from CA, saw the place, fell in love and signed that very day (with proper contingencies of course).

I still receive alerts for the area of the Valley we lived in, when a prospective home comes onto the market. I never de listed myself because I still enjoy opening up those emails, seeing the crappy little homes for such a high dollar (1200sq ft/650k) knowing I ain't stuck there and we aren't overburdened with a *huge* mortgage we could never really afford.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

11. Congratulations to you and your family...that's a true "happy ending"...

I've seen the quality of life in this valley go down, down, down...over-crowding, falling wages, rising prices...it's a crying shame, but it always makes me feel good when people get away from it and find happiness elsewhere.

2400 square feet sounds SWEET. I have a friend who's a realtor who told me about selling a 950 square foot, 2 bedroom house recently for $450K...

:toast:

[Jamison]

8. That's how it is around here.

The market for median price homes has slowed b/c homes are increasing out of reach pricewise for the average person. For the rich around where I live, well, I'll just put it this way, it's as easy for them financially to purchase a $10 million estate as it is for you and I to purchase a soda at the gas station.

[SoCalDem]

13. When we moved here in 1981, the billboards said " 4 BR-2 BA..$75K"

now they say "5-6 BR 3-4 BA..starting in the low 400's"

Builder are not even building modest homes anymore, or if they are, they cost so much they don;t even bother to advertise via billboards..

Our house sold new for $55K and one down the block,just like it sold last week for $396,000. It's CRAZY..

[SoCalDem]

12. Why NOT?? The rich have plenty of money..always HAVE

and they get more all the time..

It breaks my heart to know that all the "extra" SS money the Boomers have paid in for 40 years has been given to rich folks who shelter 99% of their money, and yet they still grabbed ours:cry: