Million-Dollar Home Deals Soar in Florida’s Palm Beach County

(Bloomberg) -- Wealthy homebuyers are sending the real estate market in Florida's Palm Beach County to new heights.

Purchase contracts for single-family homes more than doubled from a year earlier in January, the strongest month since the pandemic hit in March, appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate said in a report Thursday. Signed deals for condos surged 133%.

Demand was even greater in the market's richest corners. Contracts quadrupled for single-family houses priced at $800,000 to $999,000, and more than $1 million.

New Yorkers have helped boost South Florida's housing market during the pandemic as more Wall Street firms look to open offices in a state with no income tax. Buyers heading to posh Palm Beach County, home to former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago, are favoring larger properties with plenty of room to spread out.

“Pre-Covid, the market was soft at the top and tighter as you moved lower in price,” Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, said in an interview. “That has flipped and we're now seeing strength at the high end.”

For single-family homes in all price ranges, January's surge in contracts far surpassed the average of 66% annual growth for March through December, according to Miller.

The demand frenzy has depleted the supply of listings. There were 871 single-family homes available in the county at the end of January, 30% fewer than a year earlier.

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