The days of kicking over a rock in your office parking lot and finding three buyers ready, willing, and able to write a full price offer on your new listing may be a distant memory, but for many agents there is still a sliver lining to this stormy market. What is it? Surprisingly it is the luxury home market!

"We have reports of hot spots coming in from across the country," says Scot Spading, a partner in the Luxury Home Council, a group that provides the Accredited Luxury Home Specialist designation to agents across the country. "The fundamentals are still strong for affluent buyers. They have a strong economy, strong GDP growth, low unemployment, and a booming stock market."

A few hotspots highlights:

• Phoenix, AZ, where according to sales data from the Information Market in 2000 440 homes sold for $1 million dollars or more but amazingly through the first 10 months of 2006 a mind blowing 2000 homes had sold in the same category (and 32 homes have sold for $5 million or more).

• In Manhattan the average price per square foot is $1171 for a condominium making the average purchase price more than $1 million dollars while in the upper 10 percent of the New York market the average sales price has also surged 18 percent in 2006 to $4.5 million dollars.

• California -- According to the First Republic Prestige Home Index by First Republic Bank in Los Angles luxury home prices are up 12.8 percent from a year ago to a record $2.36 million, San Diego luxury home values have also climbed 6.4 percent to a new record of $2.14 million, and San Francisco has gained 4.8 percent hitting a new milestone of $2.93 million dollars.

Luxury home developers show no sign of throwing in the towel either, Chris Peterson a developer in Ogden, Utah, is working with the city to buy the city’s Mount Ogden Golf Course as well as an adjacent parcel of land from Weber State University, his plan? To build a subdivision featuring luxury homes surrounding a redesigned golf course, and he isn’t alone. According to a recent interview in the Wall Street Journal developer William Zeckendorf, who is building one of the most highly anticipated buildings in New York City, states, "From my vantage point the super luxury market is as strong as I’ve seen it."

Toll Brother the nations leading builder of luxury homes is also pressing forward with several new projects.

Interestingly the continued strength in Luxury Housing doesn’t end at the border. In London-Ontario, Canada luxury downtown apartments and condo’s are a favorite according to Derek Anderson, president of the London Home Builders Association. He points out the aging baby boomers are the most likely buyers for these units. Baby boomers a 78 million strong demographic tour de force have become the target market of choice for luxury home builders, developers, and real estate agents. Wisely they have discovered that almost one in four boomers or roughly 19 million of them have a high net worth of $500,000 or more and this is expected to rise as the generation ages. Virtually all of these high net worth households are home owners and 47 percent own more than one home. According to a study done by the National Association of Realtors® boomers want more than just four walls and a roof when buying a home they also want amenities where they retire, including cultural activities such as museums and art galleries.

The Iconic retirement Del Webb development company has seen this trend first hand as well and few companies are better at anticipating boomers' evolving housing needs more than Pulte's Del Webb division, the nation's biggest builder of retirement homes. In their newest active retirement community just outside of Phoenix, where the biggest home tops out at nearly 3000 square feet the focus is on so called "soft amenities" like cooking classes, yoga and core training sessions, and even "adventure programming" that includes white-water rafting and skydiving.

"Boomers want to enjoy life, and they should. They’ve earned it!" concludes Spalding of the Luxury Home Council.

Will the luxury home market be your silver lining in a stormy market? For many agents the answer is yes! To discover if luxury homes are a hotspot in your own market you may want to explore the local MLS system by analyzing how many homes have sold for at least twice the average sale price and then compare these numbers with the historic trends in your community.

Published: January 18, 2007

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Jim Remley is a speaker, author, and consultant. He is also an active real estate broker in Southern Oregon where he owns a network of six offices. Jim won the Rookie Instructor of the Year award in 2001 from Realty-U, the largest network of real estate educators in the nation. He was the winner of the 2002 Pacesetter Award, and nominated for the Real Estate Instructor of the Year Award during the first quarter of 2003. To learn more about Jim, please visit ProPerformer.com or e-mail him at .