Playground :: Rejuvenile by Christopher Noxon

A New York Times article entitled "Billionaires Beware This Bubble"
reports that Worth Magazine’s cover story this month "makes a
convincing case that there
may be a bubble on the extremely high end of the market."  While overly
optimistic resort developers believe that the rising number of wealthy
households will offset downward pressure felt in other price
ranges, MIT Economist William Wheaton argues that resort buyers will
substitute "the next mountain or beach or lake" in search of lower
prices, and Christopher Mayer of the Columbia Business School says that
supply will "outstrip demand, depressing prices."

Falling high-end prices are not limited to resort communities.  In a
March 2005 article on their Luxury Housing Affordability Index, Business Week
reported that "Luxury housing became significantly more affordable in
Boston and Chicago, where prices fell a little over 10%; in Miami, down
6%; and Washington, D.C., down about 7%."

A year earlier on Valentine’s Day 2004, The Real Estate Cafe
released it’s own study entitled "Sweetest Deals of 2003:  The Year of
the Million Dollar Markdown."  At that time, only 50 properties in the
MLS had ever been marked down by $1 million dollars in Greater Boston
and 30 of them occurred in 2003.  That price correction helped trigger
a comeback and record setting pace for luxury homes in the first
quarter of 2004.

What’s happening now in the multi-million dollar price range in
Greater Boston?