Sky-High Prices, Record Deals, and Ultra-Luxury Demand Define the Palm Beach Real Estate Market

Thinking of shopping for a home in Palm Beach? Your pockets better be deep. Very deep.

Some examples:

Larry Ellison, the Oracle software founder, paid at least $277.39 million for a beachfront home in Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa in Manalapan, just south of Palm Beach, according to a recent court document.

The late Jimmy Buffett’s historic cottage near the ocean in Palm Beach sold for $6.11 million.

A batch of recent real-estate reports by companies and agents shows tremendous strength in the market in the second quarter of 2024. Four deals in April, May and June, totaled an eye-popping $60 million, the reports said.

One of those deals was for a whopping $148 million for oceanfront property at North Country Road in Palm Beach.

A report by Tina Fanjul Associates says that the area is still seeing the fallout from the real-estate boom that began in the late spring of 2020 after the arrival of the Covid pandemic. No one is too sure when the boom will end.

In another report, the Corcoran Group reported that the average home price soared a stunning 68 percent in a year-over-year comparison, to $28.6 million.

Corcoran’s report says that the average price of a single-family deal “has exceeded $11 million each quarter since 2012, highlighting the strength and demand of Palm Beach’s luxury real estate market.”

While there has been a significant jump in the average sale price, a report by Brown Harris Stevens said the median price – the price at which half of the properties for more and half for less – saw a smaller increase, of 143%.

But all in all, it was a banner quarter for the real estate industry in Palm Beach. The dollar amount generated by houses, condos and coops slightly exceeded $1 billion, according to several of the reports. The reports made use of different criteria to measure sales.

Sotheby’s, one of the toniest of the agencies, reported that 10 single-family properties sold at prices of about $35 million or more. A year ago, Sotheby’s said, there were only five such deals in that price range.

But not all the news is good for the industry.

The overall number of deals was nearly 30 in the second quarter, down year over year.

“The number of transactions remains fairly low, and there are new listings compared with the second quarter of 2023,” said Jessica Shapiro, in her report for Sotheby’s.

There was lower inventory in the quarter. The inventory-crunch has caused some buyer to seek out off-market deals, said a report by Frisbie Palm Beach Real Estate, a group led by Corcoran Group agent Susanne Frisbie

But sales were up from the first quarter of 2024, which was marked by unusually wet weather in January and February, keeping people at home and away from seeking new quarters.

The second quarter “witnessed some of the highest-priced transactions in the history of Palm Beach, many of which occurred off-market,” Frisbie wrote.

Her report said that of the single-family sales in the second quarter, nearly 25% were private deals.

“Limited inventory continues to put pressure on the number of transactions, while today’s prices and ultry-high end trades more than compensate for lost sales,” Frisbie’s report said.

Jonathan J. Miller of Miller Samuel Inc., said in a report he prepared for the agency that inventory began to return to the market toward the end of the quarter.

But, he wrote, “it’s still sharply below long-term levels. The numbers are still very low, but they are coming off record lows.”

Believe it or not, there are still some Palm Beach homes that are not in the stratosphere – those on the North End – that is If you consider multimillion-dollar places not in the stratosphere. Eleven of the 13 single-family homes on the North End sold for less than $12 million, and five for under $7 million, according to a report by Fanjul Associates.

The reports said that some buyers of North Shore homes have razed the houses and built new ones.

Condos and coops remain unpopular, Frisbie said. Sales of such units declined across Palm Beach.