The beauty of working in the Luxury Real Estate niche is that my clientele are rarely affected by Real Estate Market Fluctuations. Buyers and sellers in the starter home or more affordable housing sector are more vulnerable to mortgage rate hikes, unemployment, lack of income growth and the economy: these influences rarely have an affect on high net worth individuals who are established and sophisticated real estate buyers. My luxury clientele can more or less buy or sell whenever they want: Their purchases are primarily fueled by 'wants' rather than 'needs'. Based on this you would think that the high end of the market just humms along at all times of year like a well oiled machine. However, Insert some Stock market Volatility and it factors in like a veritable monkey wrench in the system. While these high net worth individuals are still incredibly wealthy, the fact that their investment portfolio is temporarily lower due to due to a stock market correction, has a strong psychological effect. No one wants to make any major purchase when they are feeling 'less wealthy' regardless of whether their over all bank account is exponentially higher than most of the population. Buyers and Sellers are only human after all.