Soaring Into The Stratosphere
Jade Mills is an agent in Los Angeles' high-end housing market.
"It used to be that $5 million would buy a beautiful house," said Mills, of Coldwell Banker Beverly Hills. "Now I'd say you have to go to $10 million to buy your dream home."
Talk about dreams! One house with a movie theater sells for $30 million. It also has a bowling alley and, amazingly, below the regular pool is an underground pool.
"I think it is the great square footage," said Mills when asked what one thing pushed up the price of a house. "Anything over 30,000 square feet."
And then there is a Beverly Hills mansion listed at $165 million, reports CBS News correspondent Hattie Kauffman. But that record price comes as the rest of the housing market is down 22 percent because of problems with subprime mortgages and foreclosures.
"Sales are very low," said John Karevoll of DataQuick Information Services. "They're probably the lowest they have been in 10 years."
But Karevoll says that is not the whole story.
"Once you get to the very high-end, the market removes itself from those fundamentals and behaves unto its own," said Karevoll.
In fact, across the country, while overall home sales are down, high-end sales are up. Look at these numbers:
Elizabeth Stribling sells to the rich in New York City. She agrees prices have remained steady in the luxury market.
One townhouse in the city is selling for $15 million.
"You're really in a calm, calm haven," said Stribling.
From East to West, no one knows how long prices for these princely palaces can remain insulated from the rest of the market.