The Quad Cities is breaking records as a luxury home market.
The Insitute of Luxury Home Marketing defines a luxury home in the Quad Cities Area as one priced at $500,000 or more.
2017 was a big year for luxury homes with an unprecedented 102 sales above $500,000. Typically, we see 70 to 80.
When it comes to the $1,000,000+ homes, it almost doubled. So far in 2018, we’ve had 7 sales of these homes.
We also haven’t seen $2,000,000 home sales since 2009, and this year alone, there’s been two. The highest one sold for $2.5-million in Milan, Illinois.
Alex Wolking is a Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist with Keller Williams Realty.
He believes a lot of the growth has to do with the economy and stock market.
“The real estate market tends to follow the stock market,” says Wolking. “So when the stock market is doing well, we see an increase in high end home sales. When it drops, the same thing follows with the high end market.”
These luxury homes are spread out across the QC.
Of the million dollar sales this year, three have been in the Stoney Creek neighborhood.
But a lot of times, they’re an acreage on the Illinois side of the river or a new construction home in what used to be a cornfield on the Iowa side.
“Typically for high-end consumers, the things they want the most is high quality finishes,” says Wolking. “They do not want the biggest house on the block. They don’t want things that are just stripped down.”
These luxury buyers are also looking for privacy, security, and technology.
Smart home technology is becoming popular in new homes. It lets homeowners control lighting, cameras, thermostat, even music from a mounted panel or smartphone.
Franco Fedrizzi is owner of Automated Lifestyles in Bettendorf.
“We’ve done it for 18 years, and tried it,” says Fedrizzi, “but when people got used to smartphones and apps, that’s when it took off. And they’re used to using it in cars now too.”
Smart home technology has come down a lot in price over the years. You can get a basic system for $500.
Wolking tells us, the luxury market is a buyers market and sees that continuing in the foreseeable future.
He says if you’re looking to sell a larger, older home, you’ll need to update it, because that’s the only way to compete with the new construction on the Iowa side of the river.
For more on luxury homes available for sale in Illinois and Iowa, contact Alex Wolking here.
For more information on the Frank Lloyd Wright home featured in this report, contact Dick Carr here.
For information on new construction in Bettendorf, contact Windmiller Design Build here.
For more on smart home technology, contact Franco Fedrizzi at Automated Lifestyles here.