"Once you get into the market over $2.5 million, a lot of people just prefer to build their own," she said.
One developer, Christopher Homes, recently opened a neighborhood of homes in the hills west of the Strip selling for $1.7 million to $3 million. Several houses have sold to residents of adjoining neighborhoods who lived in their houses for less than five years, including homes built by the same developer, said Erika Geiser, the company's vice president.
"They feel their residence is obsolete," she said. "They're looking for something more innovative, more cutting-edge."
Michael Lemoine, an architect who specializes in custom houses for the wealthy, says he has clients who build houses as often as some people buy cars.
"New neighborhoods pop up that become the place where these people want to live," he said. "They move from one to another because they want to be with their friends, then in five to seven years' time they go to another community."
To be considered a premium home, "8,000 to 10,000 square feet is the new threshold," Lemoine said. It was 5,000 to 7,000 square feet just five years ago, he added.
Buyers today want two sets of refrigerators and freezers, two game rooms (one for the kids, another for adults) and showers that are at least 7 feet by 7 feet, he said, adding, "Laundry rooms now are better than kitchens were five years ago. They have stainless steel cabinets, glass tiles."
The high-end home market barely existed when Lemoine moved to Las Vegas from Southern California 21 years ago. Real estate agents say few if any houses sold for more than $1 million before the mid-1990s.
That began to change as Las Vegas evolved into an upmarket destination, which Moehring traces to the opening of the Mirage resort in 1989. That ushered in an era in which gambling shared the stage with golf, spas and shopping. Soon, the Strip was filling up with world-class restaurants, boutiques and hotels.
This helped draw even wealthier visitors who bought second homes in the area, Moehring said, while also expanding the local population of wealthy professionals and casino executives.
In 2000, 176 Las Vegas homes sold for more than $1 million, according to real estate research firm DataQuick Information Systems. By 2006, that number multiplied nearly eightfold -- to 1,385 before ebbing to 1,219 last year.
Along with being out-of-date, developer Tom McCormick says, a lot of the mansions built hastily during the boom were poorly designed.
