Amid all the talk of slowdowns and bubbles, a California firm that tracks property-sales data has released the news that sales of homes priced $5 million and higher are up 11 percent and could set a new record, according to a story in today’s Chicago Tribune. Fortune Magazine predicts 2007 will be “another blowout year” for the highest of the high end.
Rubloff president James Kinney told the Trib that 47 Chicagoland homes priced higher than $4 million have closed this year– that’s up from 29 in 2005. Last year, the area’s top sell was a $7.4 million home in Winnetka; this year’s was the $17.6 million Highland Park estate of jailed insurance executive Michael Segal. The most expensive Illinois property currently on the market– a 21-acre lakefront estate in Lake Bluff (pictured)– is listed at a cool $25 million.