Prices of high-end property in the world’s most attractive cities continue to rise, impervious to the real estate slowdown in the United States.

The buyers are a bevy of high-flying cosmocrats who work in all of the world’s most glamorous cities from New York and San Francisco to Moscow and Shanghai.

About 50 percent of these super-prime property owners are expatriates, according to the global property research firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

They float on a cushion of international capital, largely immune to regional concerns, and are flush with cash, observers say. This year has been particularly good for bankers and traders who got huge bonuses in February.

With so much money floating about, the demand for luxury housing in the most-sought-after cities has outstripped available supply, driving up prices to eye-popping levels.

"It's quite an interesting irony that these buyers are globally footloose," says Sue Foxley, head of residential-property research at Jones Lang LaSalle, "because there are probably only 100 streets around the world on their shopping lists."

— Newsweek International, Joseph Contreras and Emily Flynn Vencat (03/14/2007)