The DataQuick analysis didn’t include New York, where sales exceeding $1 million are more common, because complete data wasn’t available for June, said Andrew LePage, senior analyst for San Diego-based DataQuick. The median price for a home in Manhattan was $865,000 in the second quarter, according to Miller Samuel Inc.

Rebounding equity markets have helped to fuel the surge in sales of high-end homes, LePage said. The Dow Jones index has surged TK19 percent this year for the period’s biggest gain since the technology-stock boom in 2000. North American millionaires have about 37 percent of their assets in stocks, according to a June report by Cap Gemini SA and Royal Bank of Canada.

Better Prospects

“The rich are feeling better about their prospects and starting to rediscover real estate as a place to park money,” LePage said. “The stock market has created a tremendous amount of wealth, and that’s being put into homes.”

Bruce Bernard last month bought a $2.6 million five-bedroom home in Rancho Santa Fe, California, about 30 miles north of San Diego, after stock market gains “put a little extra change” in his pocket, he said in an Aug. 2 interview as the Dow hit an all-time high.

“We were in a better position with our investments, so it felt like we had a little extra cash we could use for a move without feeling pinched,” said Bernard, 64, a retired executive from Shell Oil Co.

For people buying homes closer in value to the national median price, the U.S. the housing recovery hasn’t been as straightforward. With prices rising at the fastest pace in seven years and the average mortgage rate about a percentage point higher than the 3.35 percent seen in early May, affordability has dropped for four consecutive months, according to an index from the Realtors’ association.

Bubble, Bust

President Barack Obama said yesterday in a speech in Phoenix that the U.S. has “got to turn the page on this kind of bubble-and-bust mentality that helped to create this mess in the first place,” as he proposed measures to boost homeownership.

For buyers of real estate selling for more than $1 million, rising interest rates may be less relevant. About eight out of 10 purchases of luxury real estate are made in cash because it makes bids more competitive, said Aspiriant’s Michelini, the director of wealth management. Most buyers then take out mortgages on their new properties, she said.