>By Les Christie, staff writerMarch 7, 2011: 2:47 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The rich are different from you and me: They’re buying real estate.
After four straight years of declines, sales of million-dollar homes and condos rose last year in all 20 major metro areas, according to DataQuick Information Systems. On average, these cities saw an 18.6% jump in high-end home sales.
479Email Print San Jose, Calif., had the biggest market for million-dollar homes, with a 27.4% spike in sales last year; Phoenix saw the smallest increase at just 0.4%
Meanwhile, sales outside of this price point actually fell 2.8%.
“It hasn’t been a good six months for all people, but it was a good six months for rich people,” said Glenn Kelman, CEO of Seattle-based real estate brokerage Redfin. “When Wall Street goes up, rich people buy homes.”
And Wall Street has gone up: Stock values have nearly doubled from their March 2009 lows.
