Mansion Sales over the years
I recently tossed off some sales figures for large houses and opined that it was my sense that they were way off. A reader questioned exactly how many high end houses had sold in recent years and today I checked the statistics; never as much fun as just making stuff up but it's nice to do occasionally, if only to retain a shred of credibility.
So Here Goes:
2004: 122 houses sold over $4 million and of that number, 7 were over $8 million
2005: 130 houses sold over $4 million and of that number,28 were over $8 million
2006: 118 houses sold over $4 million and of that number,22 were over $8 million
2007: 139 houses sold over $4 million and of that number,34 were over $8 million
2008: 61 houses sold over $4 million and of that number, 16 were over $8 million
We've had 6 sales over $4 million since September 1 and 3 of those were over $8

It's interesting to note that wildly over-pricing houses is not new in 2008. The winners of this category in 2004 were (drum roll, please) 460 North Street, asked $12.5 million, got $8.6 million, or 68%, and 209 Taconic, asked $15.750 million, got (671 days later) $9.750 million or 62%.

All time winner for the entire 4 year period must go to 66 Cherry Valley Road which asked $20 million and sold for $11.4, or 57% of the original price. Funny thing: I first saw some of these houses when I was pretty new to this business and thought, "that'll be a cold day in Hell". If I can figure it out, what's wrong with the listing agents? You'd think they were doing it deliberately or something.