Is San Francisco Luxury Real Estate on the Rebound?

According to a CNN Money article, “After four straight years of declines, sales of million-dollar homes and condos rose last year in all 20 major metro areas, according to DataQuick Information Systems. On average, these cities saw an 18.6% jump in high-end home sales.”
The article goes on to state that “”It hasn’t been a good six months for all people, but it was a good six months for rich people,” said Glenn Kelman, CEO of Seattle-based real estate brokerage Redfin. “When Wall Street goes up, rich people buy homes.””
And Wall Street has been going up!  Not to mention, the higher end of the job market seems to be on the rebound.  A friend that works for a tech recruiting company has mentioned that she’s busier than ever looking for job candidates in the well over six-figure incomes.
So IS luxury real estate in SF on the rebound?
In San Francisco, in 2010 there were 1,083 homes sold over the $1M price range.
So far, in the first 66 days of  2011, 111 homes over the $1M price range have sold and another 146 are already in contract, meaning that so far, 257 luxury homes have sold in San Francisco.  At that rate, 1421 homes over the $1M will sell in 2011.  That’s a projected 31% increase in high end real estate sales in San Francisco.
OK, so the numbers are rough, they’re based on a period of increased activity that we have experienced since the beginning of this year, and they don’t take into account the fact that I have no crystal ball to tell you what the future holds.  But … there’s no denying that the outlook for 2011 is fairing better than years past, and if I had to place bets on how the luxury market will fair in SF, I’d say we’ll have a pretty good year ahead.
Where are you going to place your bets?