(FORTUNE Small Business) – Barb and Bruce McLeod don't need to "get away" as much as they used to. True, she's still a busy 56-year-old public relations exec and he remains a harried 58-year-old with a career in software sales. But ever since they traded in their suburban Maryland home last November, the McLeods have been enjoying the many creature comforts of their new 1,100-square-foot condo just down the street from the White House. After a long day at their respective offices, the couple now comes home to a valet who parks their car, a concierge who arranges to have their dry-cleaning hung in their closets, an on-call massage therapist to knead away their aches and pains, and a 24-hour kitchen to deliver gourmet room service.

If the McLeods' new home sounds less like an apartment and more like a luxury hotel, that's because it kind of is. Look closely at their new building, on the corner of Washington's 23rd and M Streets, and you'll see a discreetly placed plaque that reads: THE RESIDENCES AT THE RITZ-CARLTON. Many affluent empty nesters like the McLeods are trading their picket fences and manicured lawns for the uniformed doormen and daily maid services offered at new condominiums constructed by the Ritz-Carlton and the Four Seasons, among others.

Despite the economic downturn, high-priced high-rise condos with five-star hotel credentials are selling out around the country. In Boston, buyers have lined up to pay between $500,000 for a one-bedroom unit and $6 million for a four-bedroom penthouse at a new Ritz-Carlton Residence. Even in the dot-com disaster zone of San Francisco, nearly all the condominiums priced between $1 million and $15 million at the new Four Seasons on Market Street are sold out. On the swank south side of New York City's Central Park, on the site of the old St. Moritz hotel, 11 Ritz-Carlton apartments are now under construction and selling quickly for between $15 million and $29 million.

There are similar luxury land-rush stories in Miami, Austin, Atlanta, Chicago, and even Scottsdale, Ariz. "This is how baby-boomers of affluence want to live," says Chris Jeffries, president of New York-based Millennium Partners, which has co-developed many of the Ritz-Carlton's and Four Seasons' new condominiums. "This is how real estate in the future will be done."

That's a point well taken by Sue and Dick Wollack, who were one of the first couples to visit the San Francisco Four Seasons when the sales office opened last December. Within hours, they plunked down "several million" for a 25th-floor, three-bedroom unit with floor-to-ceiling windows, marble bathrooms, and herringbone hardwood floors. "To live in the Four Seasons is the penultimate," says Dick, who owns a winery and several vineyards in nearby Napa Valley and Sonoma. "You can go around the world and not find another chain with the extraordinary level of service offered there. Plus, I love the idea of ordering room service in the morning or maybe a BLT in the afternoon."

But beyond bacon, there are healthier bene-fits too. For Barb McLeod, there's the added perk of morning workouts at the posh Sports Club/LA. Because it's just an elevator ride away, she has time to roam around the 100,000-square-foot health club with her personal trainer, trying out new sports like kickboxing or squash. If she wants to take a dip, there's always the junior Olympic pool that's outfitted with an underwater sound system.

And since the McLeods' condo, like many of these branded five-star residences, are often built on top of or adjacent to a Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton hotel, dealing with guests isn't too much of a hassle. When her adult children came to visit last Mother's Day, McLeod just booked a few rooms next door at the Ritz. "They make it so easy for you here," she says. "I used to put everyone up in my house, where it got crowded really easily. Now we're not on top of each other, but they're just next door."

While the buildings' conveniences have been good for residents, the decision to blend condominiums with hotel services has been good for real estate developers. The price of constructing a new luxury hotel in a major American city has become nearly prohibitive. In San Francisco, for example, it costs about $400,000 to build one five-star hotel room. Developers of the Four Seasons there say it would take quite some time to break even on the construction costs for that room. But when they opened up the top 12 floors of the project for home ownership, they realized hundreds of millions of dollars almost instantly. Construction for the 35-floor luxury condominium and hotel project, with 145 residential units, began more than a year ago, and the building won't be complete until later this year. But having a building to show potential homebuyers didn't matter. Within six weeks of breaking ground, the project was almost sold out.

What's more astonishing than the speed with which the Four Seasons' condominium units sold is that the building is located on seedy Market Street, an area of San Francisco more famous for its homeless population than for upscale shops and addresses. This hasn't bothered the developers either. "When you make a project big enough and powerful enough, you can change neighborhoods," says Jeffries. "It's quite amazing that people are buying multimillion-dollar apartments in an area that five years ago they would have been afraid to walk in."

Perhaps their willingness has something to do with rocketing resale values. Just six months after they purchased their $557,000 one-bedroom apartment, the McLeods' new home has appreciated in value to about $700,000. And in New York City, where real estate sales have slowed some in recent months, the prices for Ritz-Carlton residences in Battery Park City have increased five times since pre-opening sales began in April 1999.

And then there's the added value of a city apartment's proximity to restaurants, theater, and work. "I'm thrilled to be able to walk a couple of blocks to the Metro or to the movie theater," says Barb McLeod, whose husband now routinely walks to work. For them, moving into a "condo-tel" has been a smart investment for both their lifestyles and their finances. Says Barb McLeod: "Living here is like being on a permanent vacation. I can't imagine coming home to anything else."