House Hunting
For the Ultra Rich

Here's a look at what's new in real-estate markets across the U.S. from around the Web. (Some links may require registration or subscriptions.)

House-hunting for the über-rich

For house hunters at the highest echelon of the housing market -- we're talking properties valued in the millions -- touring homes may involve being escorted in a private jet or helicopter for an aerial view, according to www.telegraph.co.uk, the Web site for the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph of the United Kingdom.

Buyers of such homes often acquire their residences through private sales, "low-key transactions" in which the availability of the residence is known only to a select few, and the home never actually hits the public market. Buyers can be charged "house-search fees." For instance, one company, Quintessentially Estates, charges clients  1.5% the worth of a property -- or £30,000 for a £2 million property, the Web site says.

The real-estate agents who facilitate such sales often do more than just initiate and close the transaction -- they often stay involved (for a fee) afterwards, helping with details like finding furnishings, introducing families to local schools and hosting house-warming parties, according to the story.

Home sellers swap

Vacationers looking for a place to stay sometimes "house swap" -- exchange homes for a week or two -- instead of renting out a hotel room or vacation cottage in their place of choice.

With the housing market in a funk, some anxious home sellers are using this method as well, says a Palm Beach Post article. The article shares the story of Luis Santos, a homeowner in Boca Raton, Fla., whose house sat on the market for more than two months after he listed it to move to Dallas. So, he posted a house swap offer on Craigslist.org, offering to permanently swap his place with that of another homeowner in Dallas. While he hasn't found any takers yet, the Florida resident has received two inquiries so far, the Post says.

Swaps can be successful -- RealEstateJournal.com recently profiled a pre-housing-market-slowdown house swap that solved the dilemma of three New Jersey neighbors looking to move without leaving their leafy suburban neighborhood.

County sees few foreclosures

A continued demand in housing is sustaining Colorado's Garfield County's real-estate market and is keeping the number of foreclosures there low, says an article by the Post Independent newspaper of Glenwood Springs, Colo.

The northwestern Colorado county has seen only 54 foreclosures in the first six months of this year, versus the 19,460 counted for the state in 2007 to date, the article says. Twenty-five of those 54 foreclosures have been withdrawn or are pending a withdrawn notice and just eight have gone to market, the Post says.

However, local officials don't expect the county to bypass the fallout from the national housing slowdown and subprime mortgage mess, the article says. "I wouldn't be surprised if we see more [foreclosures] next year," the newspaper quotes one local public official as saying.

Foreclosures a boon for Realtor

The National Association of Realtors expects to see its ranks decrease by 4% in 2007 -- thanks to the national housing slowdown -- but Realtor Cecily Tippery won't likely feel the pain. That's because business for the real-estate agent, who specializes in selling foreclosed homes for lending institutions like Countrywide, Chase and Washington Mutual, is actually up, says a San Francisco Chronicle article.

Since focusing on foreclosed properties, the Bay Area professional has gone from a self-staffed operation of one to an operation that employs seven people, says SFGate.com, the newspaper's Web site. Her listings have grown from four to six a year to as much as 12 a week, the Chronicle says. Ms. Tippery -- whose territory includes Contra Costa County cities Antioch, Pittsburg, Byron, Discovery Bay, Oakley and Brentwood -- averages $8,000 in commissions per home, the article says. The value of the properties she represents range from just under $155,000 to nearly $1 million, SFGate.com says.

Shore Sales

Real estate is about "location, location, location," but in New Jersey, even homeowners in beach communities are having difficulty selling their homes, according to an article by the Record newspaper of Hackensack, N.J.  So far this year, the number of homes sold has dropped 38% from a year ago in Atlantic County, 32% in Ocean County and 22% in Monmouth County, while prices have fallen about 5% across the shore from their 2006 heights, the article says. The dip in sales volume, though sizeable, is smaller along the shore than the 20% sales decrease for the state as a whole, the article says. Meanwhile, Jersey shore buyers aren't looking to buy simple cottages for their summer houses, but want second homes that are as nice or nicer than their primary homes, the Record says.  "If the house doesn't have central air and all the conveniences, they don't want it," the Record quotes one shore-area real-estate agent as saying.

-- Ms. Kim is a senior editor at RealEstateJournal.com.

Join a reader discussion about the housing market.

Send links to articles about residential-real-estate markets to Lauren Kim at lauren.kim@wsj.com.

Email your comments to lauren.kim@wsj.com.