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The million-dollar tier of Greater Cleveland's luxury housing market is suffering from a hangover.
"Things have certainly slowed down," said Jeff Halpern, president of Kingdom Development Corp., a homebuilding firm in Solon. Mr. Halpern said homes in the $1 million-plus price range make up "the single worst market in Cleveland."
He knows firsthand of what he speaks. Mr. Halpern has up for sale three $1 million-plus homes in the eastern suburbs that he erected on a speculative basis in the last two years. They include a $1.65 million home in Solon with a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired design that he built for this year's Homearama home show.
Mr. Halpern is confident his homes will sell because they are welllocated and there's still plenty of wealth in Cleveland. But he acknowledges there is concern throughout the real estate market about the number of $1 million-plus homes on the market.
A glut of pricey homes has developed as builders pumped up production of such homes due to strong sales in recent years, just in time to catch the stock market slump and economic downturn. It's the dark spot in a generally rosy housing market in the area.
The sheer numbers are daunting at this rarefied end of the housing market.
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