Hillside manor in 90210 could be yours for only 2,486,398 . . . euros

"The dollar is weaker," said Folender, who is selling the property with partner Chuck Taylor. "We're capitalizing on the strength of other currencies."

Whatever works!

Marketing a home in both currencies isn't a flaming trend yet in Los Angeles, but it is being seen in New York.

"Lots of Europeans will now get what that dollar amount is in their currency," said Mark Goldsmith, a Beverly Hills Coldwell Banker agent who's listing the home.

Can't hurt.

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Diane Wedner

The top is taking longer to slide

Whether expensive homes in prestigious areas will escape the housing crash remains a hotly debated topic. I hear from many readers (and see some examples where I live) of houses still selling, sometimes quickly, and sometimes for prices higher than the owners paid just a couple of years ago.

Yet economists I interview contend prices at the high end are just sticky -- they take longer to fall, but do so eventually. Holdout sellers at some point cave in, raising supply, and trade-up buyers from other areas don't have as much money to buy in the pricier neighborhoods, squeezing demand.

John Karevoll, chief analyst at DataQuick Information Systems, has provided a breakdown of Southern California home sales in June that shows the top end is falling as well.

The median price for the top tenth of homes sold in June was $900,000, down from $1,129,500 the same month a year earlier. That's a 20% drop.

The price peak for that market segment occurred in June 2007, according to DataQuick.

The bottom tenth of homes sold fared worse, with a 41% drop in the median sale price.

But the June decline in the top tenth shows a reversal from last summer. In June 2007, the median sale price for that tier was up 3%, while prices in the bottom tenth fell 11% from the previous year.

So the top is sliding. Or is it? The June median sale price for that tier was up from the May median of $875,000, with roughly the same number of transactions.

A one-month bump may not mean much, of course. A few more months of data will give us a better picture.

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