Where you live has always been the key to the price of a house. But these days the type of house - whether it's a starter, buy-up, executive or luxury home - is almost as important, reports Changing Times, the Kiplinger magazine. For example, prices for buy-up homes in the Atlanta area were up 3 percent in the second quarter of 1990, compared with the same time in 1989. Luxury home prices were down 10 percent. That's typical of other cities.
In some places, house sales are moving at a glacial pace. Condo owners in Boston are waiting as long as a year to close a deal. Wherever you live, "For sale" signs on more-expensive homes linger longer than those on starter homes. And owners who have found buyers for luxury houses have had to shave more off the asking price than sellers of less-expensive homes.Of course, this is all good news for homeowners trading up. They're likely to be net winners, even if they don't get as much for their own houses as they might have two years ago.