This single-family home in Concord is currently listed with Concord’s Carlson GMAC Real Estate. The seven-bedroom Colonial is being offered for $7.95 million.

Realtor Kathy Riley heard a surprising story from a friend who sells real estate in Manhattan: A buyer recently walked away from a $600,000 deposit for a $6.8 million apartment in the city.

Riley, who sells high-end homes in Wellesley, said the buyer was having doubts about making the big purchase. While Riley said she personally hasn’t experienced that type of scenario yet, Bay State Realtors are reporting that once-eager buyers are a lot more cautious nowadays about purchasing multimillion-dollar properties.

That has translated, in some cases, to sellers dropping prices and million-dollar homes staying on the market weeks longer than they used to during peak market days. The economic downturn and the uncertainty that comes along with it is partly to blame, according to brokers who specialize in such high-end sales.

“We do feel that the market is definitely slowing down considerably up at that end,” said Riley, a vice president of Coldwell Banker Hunneman. “There’s plenty of inventory in Wellesley between $1 [million] and $2 million.”

Currently, there are roughly 60 homes priced over $1 million on the market in Wellesley.

“Considering that maybe we sell 50 or so houses over a million [dollars] in a year, we certainly have, I’d say, an ample supply – a year’s supply, anyway,” she said.

Despite that, Riley and other Realtors in more upscale communities like Newton, Brookline and Chestnut Hill said buyers are still out there making offers on luxury homes, particularly older “antiques” with unique features.

Take, for example, a few of the recent sales handled by Hammond Residential in Chestnut Hill: a home on Heath Street in Brookline priced over $4 million; a $2 million home on Amory Street in Brookline; a home with an asking price just under $2 million on Chestnut Street in Newton; and a $1.7 million home on Kingsbury Road in Chestnut Hill.

“Those [sales] are a solid indicator of the strength of the market,” said Jim Nemetz, manager of Hammond Residential’s Chestnut Hill office.

Even though Nemetz estimates there has been a 50 percent increase in inventory compared to same period a year ago and that overall home prices have decreased about 15 percent since spring, he maintains that appropriately priced homes are not languishing on the market.

“The buyers are out there looking,” Nemetz said. “They will pull the trigger when they perceive a good deal.”

Realtor Michael L. Durkin also reports steady sales of newly constructed single-family homes of $1 million or more in towns like Southborough, Westborough and Marlborough.

The day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a buyer relocating from Connecticut made an offer on a $1.2 million, 10-room home in Schipper Farms, an 18-home development in Southborough that is currently under construction.

And in late September, another buyer bought a $1.3 million home in the same development, said Durkin of Carlson GMAC Real Estate in Marlborough.

“We need only four more buyers,” said Durkin, referring to the number of unsold homes in Schipper Farms.

‘More Inventory’
Overall, sales of single-family homes over $1 million in Massachusetts have risen consistently over the last three-and-a-half years, according to Warren Information Services, a sister company of Banker & Tradesman that collects sales statistics from the state’s registries of deeds.

Last year, there were 936 such sales statewide, up from 568 in 1999. In 1998, sales of homes priced $1 million or more were much lower. Only 395 single-family homes in that price range were sold then.

Sales statistics for the first half of 2001 indicate that single-family homes of $1 million or more are holding steady, despite the fact that the economy was showing signs of softening at the beginning of the year.

According to WIS – which to date has only been able to collect sales statistics from all counties for the first half of the year – there were 438 sales of single-family homes in that price range during the first six months of 2001. That figure is slightly higher than the 414 sales during the same months a year ago.

Communities like Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, Weston and Nantucket have continued to top the list in million-dollar-plus home sales. During the last three-and-a-half years, Wellesley has had 212 sales; Nantucket, 200; Newton, 173; Weston, 149; and Brookline, 137. Also showing impressive sales of single-family homes sales in that price range during the same period have been Concord, with 99 sales; Boston, 95; Cambridge, 79; Dover, 54; and Lexington, 51.

Realtors interviewed by Banker & Tradesman were hesitant to speculate about whether that type of trend would continue through next year.

“I think that people are going to hold back at least through the end of this year,” said Riley, adding that she was not sure if that would continue through most of next year.

Joseph Hare, regional vice president for Hammond Residential, was also cautious about making predictions.

“In all price ranges, there is more inventory on the market today than there was at the same point a year ago,” said Hare. “That had started to occur even in late summer.”

Realtors say the spike in homes for sale can be attributed to any number of factors. Some of the sellers are people who were considering retiring and moving elsewhere for a long time and jumped into the market after hearing stories about a softening economy.

Other sellers are people who are relocating and must make the move.

Hare cautions against misinterpreting the numbers. In some communities, a 20 percent jump in the number of homes for sale, could mean only one or two more homes because the inventory was so “thin” to begin with, he said.

He also said the increasing supply is putting pressure on prices that didn’t exist before, but whether that translates into downward pressure – or price reductions – or fewer sales in the future “remains to be seen.”

“There continues to be viable interested buyers,” he said.

Cape Cod Realtors likely will be able to attest to the abundance of buyers who are still interested in luxury properties.

Andy Montone, vice president of corporate communications and marketing for Carlson/Hammond/Kinlin Grover GMAC Real Estate, recently conducted an informal survey to see how high-end home sales were faring at offices in Boston, Lexington and the Cape Cod region.

One survey response from a Kinlin Grover GMAC office on Cape Cod indicated that inventory was still low in the region. The lack of high-end homes for sale has helped keep prices stable in that region, according to the response.

Quoting from the survey response, Montone said, “People are willing to pay a premium for the privilege of owning a home on Cape Cod. The best of the best appears to remain in most demand.”

Montone explained that “best of the best” refers to waterfront properties.

In Wellesley, about seven properties over $1 million have been sold since the Sept. 11 attacks, including two that were sold by Riley.

Riley estimated that in early spring there were only about 20 homes in that price range on the market, and they were selling within a matter of days. Today the number of homes for sale has escalated dramatically, and some sellers are dropping prices as much as 5 to 10 percent.

While the pace of the activity has slowed down, Riley said some of the old, “classic” and restored homes still tend to sell much faster than the newly constructed homes in Wellesley.

“It doesn’t mean that the market is dead,” said Riley. “I think people are a little cautious right now. They’re just waiting to see what will happen next.”