Contrary To Wall Street Reports, Luxury Home Sales Are Increasing

While most Wall Street analysts and press reports say that sales of luxury homes have decreased, John Burns Real Estate Consulting contends that the opposite is true. First, sales of homes priced above $600,000 have risen in 37 of the 43 counties where Burns purchased data. Second, home sales above $600,000 in the last 12 months exceeded sales in the prior 12 months by 10 percent. Third, home sales in the third quarter of 2016 exceeded sales in the same period last year by 5 percent. Lastly, sales have increased in every price increment from $600,000 to $1.5 million-plus.

A confluence of five high-profile events has conspired to give the wrong perception about the luxury-home market: new disclosure laws that have slowed foreign buyer activity in Manhattan and Miami; declining sales in two high-profile Florida second-home markets; a misleading article in Fortune magazine on Greenwich, Conn.; a surge in the supply of new $1 million homes in a few markets; and improving entry-level home sales.

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