Check out this excellent article from Forbes.com, entitled "Priciest home sales of 2007." After conducting extensive research, Forbes.com discovered that the top five most expensive U.S. home sales this past year were in Manhattan. In fact, two real-estate sales records were broken in New York City: the priciest apartment with the $60 million purchase of almost an entire floor of the renowned Plaza Hotel, and the highest price per square foot ($6,287) at another property in Central Park West. It's safe to say that the luxury real estate market is alive and well in New York and other places.

It seems difficult to explain luxury real estate's strength at the moment. However, in his Forbes.com article, author Matt Woolsey makes an astute point about high-end real estate markets: "Prices in the top sector are not affected by general market trends because, quite simply, they exist outside the general market." In fact, luxury homes are so different from regular homes that they can only be compared to priceless pieces of art. They are seldom sold and are mainly considered second homes, assuring only sporadic use. Feel free to let me know your thoughts on this. Are luxury homes so distinct from other homes as to mark them as outside the regular real estate market? Perhaps this should have been an entirely different blog entry, but I hope you don't mind.