Housing crisis hits high end

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from CNN Money, via Yahoo!:



CNNMoney.com
Housing crisis hits high end
Tuesday June 10, 11:17 am ET

By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer



Across the country, real estate agents and home sellers in wealthy neighborhoods who grew accustomed to seven-figure bidding wars during the boom are feeling the sting of the housing crunch.
Ed McMahon can vouch for that. The former Johnny Carson sidekick and TV pitchman recently saw his $5 million Beverly Hills home go into foreclosure.

In fact, McMahon is a celebrity face to a broader trend.

Three of the nation's richest zip codes saw particularly steep home-price declines in the three months ending April 30, compared with the previous three months.

Prices down, foreclosures up

In Palm Beach, Fla. (zip code 33480), median home prices fell 38% during that period, according to the real estate Web site Trulia. Prices in Greenwich, Conn. (06831), dropped 15%, while homes in Wayzata, Minn. (55391), are selling for 28% less.

Prices in other wealthy towns also declined: Gladwyne, Penn. (19035), was down 6%, and Beverly Hills (90210), Lincoln, Mass. (01773), and Ladue, Mo. (63124), each slid 2%.

"What I'm finding is that million dollar plus homes declined 4% or so ," said Don Kelly, a spokesman for Zaio, which is building a national data base of home value appraisals.

And foreclosure data tracks the pricing information. In Beverly Hills, filings nearly doubled to 41 in the first four months of this year, up from 22 in the same period last year, according to RealtyTrac, which compiles foreclosure stats. In Palm Beach, there were 34 foreclosure filings, up from 9 in the period a year ago. Greenwich had 23, up from 10, while Wayzata had 18, compared with 14 a year ago. Kenilworth, Gladwyne and Medina had just one each, while Lincoln had none. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://biz.yahoo.com/cnnm/080610/061008_housing_crisis_hits_high_end.html?.v=4&.pf=real-estate