What Housing Crisis?

Of course, the United States has plenty of homegrown would-be real-estate barons with millions to spend. In the midst of the housing crisis, the credit crunch and the softening dollar, hedge-fund manager Louis Moore Bacon bought the 171,000-acre Trinchera Ranch in Colorado from the Forbes family for $175 million, shattering a the previous record set by the $103 million sale of a Hamptons estate earlier in 2007. Bacon, who founded Moore Capital Management, has an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion. He spent more than $1,000 per acre on the ranch, which Malcolm Forbes bought in 1969 for just $50 an acre.

Farther out West, the market is also quite strong, says Avram Goldman, the San Francisco-based CEO and president of Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate. His clients made their fortunes in Silicon Valley's high-tech and biotech industries, while others are East Coast residents looking for second homes. "There's a lot of wealth in the Bay Area, and not enough inventory," says Goldman, whose highest priced listing is a seven-bedroom home in San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood listed at $55 million. His bread and butter however is slightly less pricey. In the fourth quarter of 2007, he sold 33 residences for more than $3 million each, almost double the number for the same quarter in 2006.

How long can the high-end market sustain itself? "I think we'll see more caution on the part of the wealthy in all of their investments," says Moore-Moore. "The top of the market will stay strong, but luxury consumers will look long and hard at value." For the superrich however, value is a relative term.

© 2008