It used to be that a million-dollar home was a big deal, the biggest place in town. But now, million-dollar homes are barely included in the "upper-brackets."

Consider the November issue of Unique Homes. It features a palatial Bel Air estate with eight bedrooms and 21 baths on the front cover.The asking price -- this is not a typo -- $45,000,000.

In comparison, in1803 Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France -- about 500 million acres -- for $15,000,000. Later, in 1854, James Gadsden bought what is today the southern portions of Arizona and New Mexico, a total of 30,000 square miles that was purchased from Mexico for $10 million, Later still, William H. Seward bought all of Alaska -- 586,412 square miles -- by paying $7.2 million to Russia in 1867. Seward paid about 2 cents an acre.

Times have changed.

Dataquick Information Systems reports that in the three-month period from July through September there were 2,976 California homes which changed hands for $1 million or more. And around the country, it seems that every community has properties valued at $1 million and more.

Why such high prices?

One reason is inflation. We measure the cost of things in terms of dollars. Over time dollars buy less than they used to because of inflation, thus it takes more dollars to buy a given object.

A second reason has been the huge accumulation of wealth that has resulted from a decade of Wall Street hyper-growth. We've minted new millionaires at electronic speed, or at least we did until last spring.

Lastly, there is the matter of demand. More people with more dollars are competing for the best properties, a limited commodity. Just look at the salaries for professional athletes. Top players in baseball, basketball, and football are now paid tens of millions of dollars -- and sometimes more. Leading corporate executives sometimes earn hundreds of millions of dollars per year when stock options are considered. People just as skilled 30 years ago may well have made salaries in the five-figure range.