Colorado Luxury Home Sales Climb as Wealthy Bargain-Hunt

An uptick in sales of high-end mountain real estate in Colorado has prompted a critical question: Are the rich really returning to the real estate market and buying luxury homes? Or are they still hoarding their wealth after getting burned in the crash?

Mixed signals about what the wealthy are doing with their money are everywhere. One day we hear via Scorpio Partners that the rich might have as much as $26 trillion stashed away that they're not giving to banks and wealth managers. Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that a growing number of homeowners with million-dollar-plus mortgages have simply stopped making payments.

On the other hand comes word that high-net-worth buyers are apparently loosening their wallets a bit to purchase homes in swanky Colorado resorts like Vail and Aspen. It's not a bellwether market like Manhattan, or course, but some say the flicker of activity in this micro-market favored by high fliers could be a signal that the end of the Great Recession is near and a real estate rebound is on the way.

It's more like a blip, as high-end buyers cherry-pick discounted properties while the getting is good.