Government statistics show that 41 percent of the nation's million-dollar homes are in California. So, when California's upper-tier market prospers, it's big news. And prosper it did in 2004! The total number of million-dollar-and-above California properties sold in 2004 soared to 33,107, as compared to 19,080 the previous year, a jump of almost 74 percent.



While the vast majority of the pricy sales were resale homes, 15.75 percent – or 5,210 homes – were new construction. The upper-tier condo niche was also strong last year. There were 1,677 condo sales in the million-dollar category, up 90.8 percent from 879 a year ago.



DataQuick, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates which monitors real estate activity in California and published the 2004 statistics, also reported the most expensive property sold last year in the state was a four-bedroom, five-bath San Francisco home which closed for $22.5 million.



For more detailed information on the breakout of buyers by price range, see the charts below:





California’s upper-tier home buyers, 2004



Home Price Number



$5 million + 221 real buyers

$4 million – $5 million 237 real buyers

$3 million – $4 million 690 real buyers

$2 million – $3 million 2,894 real buyers

$1 million – $2 million 29,065 real buyers





California's million dollar home buyers as a percent of state's total buyers

Year Number Buyers Percent

2002 13,871 2.3 %

2003 19,080 3.0 %

2004 33,107 5.0 %



About 15 percent of the buyers paid cash. What did they get for their money? The median-sized home was just over 2,600 square feet with four bedrooms and three baths, making the median price per square foot about $469.


Copyright: 2005 The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, Dallas, Texas