"Weapons of Mass Distortion!"

David & Britt Fair
Hexter-Fair Title Company

It has been reported in our local paper, the Dallas Morning News, with the headline, “Mansion Market Meltdown” is happening. This is one of those “Weapons of Mass Distortion!”

The stats may be true since the high end of the market has not been immuned to the slowdown and the number of transactions year to date is down. What is missing with the statistics is the context of these declines. The unit declines in the price ranges over $500k only appear dramatic because the first eight months of 2007 were ridiculously active by any historic measure.

If you look specifically at the “$1,000,000+” price range, the number of MLS transactions is down 12% so far this year. But that 12% decline comes on the heels of a 21% increase in volume in this price range the year earlier. And that 21% increase last year was on top of volume increases of 18% and 24% in this price range for the 2 years before that. I think it may be pretty far fetched to call this a “mansion market meltdown!”