Luxury isn't easy to define. The dictionary says it's “the state of great comfort and extravagant living.” But since that leaves a lot to interpretation, we all have different ideas about what luxury really means. This is easy to see when thinking about the housing market. After all, a luxury home in one market can be vastly different than a luxury home in another. So, in order to get a better view of recent home sales, one new report broke them down into five price tiers. The results show that homes in the top – or luxury – tier are selling at a much faster pace than those in the middle and lower tiers. In fact, sales of luxury homes were up 60.7 percent from the year before, while mid-tier priced homes rose 14.8 percent and affordable homes were up 6.8 percent. In short, the luxury home market is far outpacing the rest of the housing market, and it's not even close. Similarly, vacation- and second-home sales are also seeing a year-over-year bump, with demand for second homes up 100 percent in October. (source)
