Aspen Is Most Expensive Town in America

[WSJ]  While most housing markets in the rest of the country continue to struggle with low demand and foreclosures and second home sales at most competing luxury ski resorts remain sluggish, Aspen has continued to defy to the odds.

The average home price in this mountain town has increased over the past four years, to $6 million in 2010 from $5.4 million in 2006, according to multiple-listings data.

The median price for single-family homes is now the highest in the country at $4.6 million, says San Francisco-based Altos Research, surpassing the Hamptons, Beverly Hills and Palm Beach.

The lowest-priced single-family home on the market in Aspen is listed for $559,000. It's located in a trailer park.

Sales of absurd, over-the-top luxury Aspen estates continue to be remarkably healthy, thanks in part to Wall Street and foreign buyers. Of the 25 real-estate transactions recorded by Pitkin County for the week of Jan. 19 to 25, 2011 , five were wealthy buyers from overseas.

The "new" Aspen:

• Hedge-fund titan John Paulson paid $24.5 million for a 13,000-square-foot estate
• Chicago-based food and beer distributor Reyes Holdings paid $31.5 million for a 15,000-square-foot stone mansion
• A 90-acre Aspen estate known as Jigsaw Ranch just went on the market for $48.5 million, listed by Joshua Saslove of Joshua & Co.
• In 2008 Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich paid $36 million for a 14,300-square-foot house on 200 acres

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