By Aglaia Pikounis

The news this morning that Manny Ramirez put his penthouse at the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton on the market for a whopping $8.5 million got my attention.

Back in 2005, at the height of the residential real estate market, Ramirez was trying to unload the flashy condo for $6.9 million. His broker hosted an open house tour for the media, and photos were splashed all over news sites and papers. Ramirez couldn’t hook a buyer then.

Now, almost four years later, with the housing market sputtering and loans pretty hard to secure, Ramirez and his broker think the condo will be able to fetch more than $8 million? Maybe I’m missing something here.

Only about 34 condos in downtown Boston traded for $5 million or higher in the last 18 months. And more than half of those units are at the Mandarin, according to data from the registry of deeds collected by The Warren Group.  The Mandarin, Boston’s latest ultra-chic condo project, opened last fall. At least three units at the Mandarin have fetched upwards of $10 million.

Meanwhile, only one unit priced $5 million or higher has been sold at the Ritz during that timeframe.

Who knows. Maybe some people want the prestige of living at the Ritz-Carlton bad enough that they’ll pay top dollar even in a down market.

Or maybe some people just have to have a wraparound balcony with views of Boston Common.

Or maybe, now that Manny isn’t playing for the hometeam and Sox fans don’t have to tolerate his antics, he’ll have better luck attracting a buyer.