Dive Brief:
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The number of home sales declined by 1.2% in the third quarter of 2014—but not among the wealthy. Sales of $1 million-plus homes soared 9% over the summer, according to a report by Redfin.
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The market for luxury homes—those costing $1 million or more—has made a stronger and quicker recovery since the recession than the housing industry overall.
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Still, the report noted, the customer for high-end homes is changing. Much of the demand for mansions over the past few years has come from international investors, whose interest has started to wane. The Redfin report predicted that luxury home sales will slow next year and those who buy them will be well-heeled owner-occupants.
Dive Insight:
$1 million buys more house in some areas of the country than it does in others. In high-rent San Francisco, for example, the average listing price of homes for sale is $1.6 million and the average selling price is $975,000, according to Trulia. That compares with an average listing price of $420,442 in Houston, which ranked No. 6 on Redfin’s list of cities that sold the most $1 million homes.
So out-of-state employees who have flocked to Houston for its oil industry’s high-paying jobs are “shocked at how much home they can get for $1 million,” one Redfin agent noted.