Anecdotally, high-end residential architects report they haven’t been this busy since before the recession. And now we have some evidence to back up the boom in luxury home sales. Redfin data shows that price increases for existing homes in the “top 5 percent” of the market have exceeded those for market-rate homes for the first time since 2014.
Luxury house prices rose by 7.5 percent in the second quarter 2017 as compared with 7 percent for “non-luxury” houses. According to Redfin, the average luxury home sales price in the 1,000 cities they track was $1,79 million versus $336,000 for market-rate houses.
California showed the strongest gains, likely driven by the tech boom. And there is some indication that inventory of luxury homes is constrained, a turnabout from the tenacious glut during the recession.
Still there is more softness in the sales prices of luxury homes versus their market-rate counterparts, a result of the smaller numbers of able buyers.
See the Redfin report for more details and information: