Luxury-home market picks up

Coldwell Banker hosted a broker-only open house, complete with new Maseratis, last spring for this $3,799,000 home in Franklin Lakes.

The setting: a luxurious home late last spring in Franklin Lakes, complete with a hand-chiseled granite facade, a high-end golf simulator in the basement, and the newest line of Maseratis displayed on the grounds, courtesy of a local dealer.

The goal: showcase the house to 170 brokers with deep-pocket clients who might be in the market for a home in Bergen County priced at $3.7 million.

One of the $25 million properties listed in Bergen County is the stately Gloria Crest Estate in Englewood.

An aerial view of a 29-room Franklin Lakes mansion, which is listed at $15 million.

The foyer of the Franklin Lakes home listed at $15 million features a domed center with hand-painted ceiling.

This 10,000 square-foot brick manor in Alpine features a two-story great room and is listed at $5.298 million.

A $13.9 million home in Saddle River offers indoor and outdoor pools, a tennis court, a 10-stall barn, a four-bedroom guesthouse and a six-car garage.

Events like this are among the marketing tools real estate agents in the luxury market use to get their homes in front of potential buyers, who have their pick of high-end locales and amenities.

Though the economic downturn has hurt the sales and prices of luxury homes like the rest of the market, economists and Bergen County Realtors say they are starting to see an uptick in some areas in the number of homes available, and in interest.

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Luxury-home market picks up