Palm Beach County is home to one of the most desirable real estate markets in the entire country. It is a hub for billionaires and celebrities, and it is easy to see why. With white-sand beaches, upscale country clubs, and luxury restaurants and shops, Palm Beach is filled with areas that cater to the upper class.
Palm Beach County is bigger than just Ocean Boulevard, and there are more affordable areas throughout. However, Palm Beach has seen an influx of domestic migrants from states like New York and California, driving prices up across the county. As we move towards spring, the pace of the market will likely continue to pick up. Let’s look at current trends playing out in the Palm Beach real estate market.
Palm Beach County General Trends
Palm Beach County has experienced a significant surge throughout the pandemic as wealthy residents from across the country pack their bags and head to warmer weather. This resulted in 2021 setting a new record for all-time total home sales in the country. According to Benzinga, the surging market hasn’t slowed down entering 2022. The January 2022 home sales rose 11.5% year-over-year, from 2,073 transactions to 2,311.
This comes even though inventory is dramatically down in Palm Beach County. The same report from Benzinga shows that the inventory of single-family homes in Palm Beach County had decreased 49.9% year-over-year from the previous January. There were 3,446 active listings in January 2021, and that number has cratered to 1,727 in January 2022. Homes are selling rapidly, and the supply of options available can’t meet the demand. The months’ supply of inventory for single-family homes in Palm Beach is down to 1.1 months, with a healthy market having around six months’ supply of inventory.
Some of this low inventory can be chalked up to the usual cycle of the market, where winter causes the number of homes available to be below other months. However, it can also be looked at as a result of the massive buyer interest in Palm Beach right now.
Home prices are also rising across the county, which is to be expected when there is a low supply and high demand. According to Redfin, the median sales price for a home in Palm Beach County was $390,866. This was a 14.3% increase year-over-year and an all-time high price for January in the county.
Palm Beach Luxury Market
Palm Beach is known for its luxurious properties and wealthy residents, and that reputation has helped drive the massive growth of the luxury real estate market in the area. Palm Beach’s luxury market is one of the most active and impressive in the country, and 2021 and the start of 2022 have only sped up its rapid rise.
According to South Florida Agent Magazine, Palm Beach County’s single-family luxury ($1 million or above) home sales increased 18.7% in November 2021 compared to November 2020. Some of that increase can be attributed to foreign buyers seeking out Florida and Palm Beach, as vaccination numbers increase worldwide and pandemic restrictions on travel wind down.
Palm Beach itself, the town that stretches along the Lake Worth Lagoon and the Atlantic, is one of the country’s most expensive real estate markets. According to Realtor.com, the median listing price was $2,700,000 in January 2022. This makes it one of the most expensive markets on the planet. Shockingly, that price from Realtor marked a 97.9% increase compared to January 2021.
Luxury real estate in Palm Beach is highly sought-after right now. According to the Benzinga report, luxury ($1 million or more) condo transactions in January rose 31.7% year-over-year, while luxury single-family home transactions increased 23.6%. Every single type of luxury property in Palm Beach is a hot commodity.
More homes in Palm Beach are being sold, and for higher prices, than ever before. It is one of the real estate markets that has skyrocketed most in the past few years, and this trend isn’t suddenly going to stop come spring. Buyer interest in Palm Beach is incredibly high, and with low-interest rates and a general migration to Florida, Palm Beach prices will only soar from here.
