South Florida Home Prices Continue to Break Records

South Florida’s popularity among home buyers seeking to relocate or purchase a second home in a warmer climate drove up the area’s property prices at the start of the year.

Palm Beach saw record median prices for both condos and single-family homes with year-over-year increases of 52% and 46%, respectively, in the first quarter , according to the Serhant’s South Florida Report released on Thursday.

The median price for single-family homes climbed from $6.8 million to almost $10 million over a year. On the other hand, the number of sales plunged considerably due to tight inventory.

“There does not seem to be a clear ceiling of just how high prices for single-family homes in Palm Beach can go. Each quarter they hit a new record, and the first quarter was no exception,” Garrett Derderian, director of market intelligence at Serhant, said in a news release. “As Palm Beach continues to attract the world’s elite, we expect the market to experience further price growth. Buyers purchasing at these price points are not influenced by rising mortgage rates as we see in other markets.”

Across Miami’s coastal mainland, the property market also saw prices jump in the first quarter.

Median condo prices rose 35% and single-family home prices increased 41% from 2021, both recording record numbers for the first quarter. The increases were a result of a 47% rise in the average price-per-square-foot.

While condo sales increased 51%, single-family home sales declined 23%.

“Newly constructed condos, which command a premium, and ballooning interest in resale condos, created a market frenzy. Demand was fueled by national buyers, many from the Northeast and West coast, as well as internationals, who drove the steep increases,” Mr. Derderian said.

Median luxury sale prices in Miami’s coastal mainland also recorded an increase, with condos up by around 30% to $1.63 million and single-family homes up by almost 9% to $3.1 million, according to a slew of data from brokerage Douglas Elliman on Thursday.

Similarly, the greater Miami Beach housing market saw a 22% increase in condo sales and a 38% decrease in single-family home sales, according to the Serhant report. Condos saw their median sale price decrease 15% while single-family home median prices increased 19%, reaching $2.5 million.

The decline in condo prices can be attributed to a 15% drop in average unit size rather than a loss in real value, according to the report.

“To see over $2 billion in condo trades in a first quarter speaks to just how desirable Miami  Beach has become,” Mr. Derderian said.

Median luxury condo prices increased 23%, reaching $4.55 million, and median luxury single-family home prices dropped 7.2%  to $16 million, according to Douglas Elliman’s data.

“Miami and Palm Beach continued to gain momentum in the first quarter, with single-family properties and condos selling faster and at higher average prices than Q4,” Jay Phillip Parker, CEO of Douglas Elliman Florida, told Mansion Global. “While rising mortgage rates could alleviate some of that pricing pressure in the coming months, we are still in a low inventory situation where supply simply isn’t matching the demand.”