May 30, 2008
...That's true in luxury markets across the region, many of which attract international buyers taking advantage of a weak dollar, said Delores Conway, director of the USC Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast, which focuses on Southern California markets. "There's not as much inventory and fewer buyers. It's highly selective, and that's why the prices tend to hold," Conway said.
"When you have the whole market declining like this, the high end does sort of hold up," she added, comparing the current downturn to the late 1980s, when the upper-end real estate market withstood a housing bust. "It gets more attention because it is one of the few things that are holding up."...