High-end home sellers lower their sights
Los Angeles Times
By Lauren Beale
..."The market moved, and so with it did the price," Eisenberg said. "The seller is a smart businessman and a reasonable guy -- he gets it -- and the best part is that he is under no real pressure to sell as the property is owned free and clear of any debt."
Therein lies one reason for more overpricing in the luxury home market, said Gary Painter, director of research at the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
"What's different about the high end, compared to the general population, is that people who have substantial resources are able to wait longer" to sell, Painter said. "In the bottom of the market you see negative-equity situations, loans going up, people must sell. Outside forces force them to price to sell. Those sorts of outside forces aren't as present [at the upper end]."...