In 2024, the luxury housing market experienced significant growth, with Florida leading the way in high-end sales. Home values increased, particularly in the luxury sector, as low inventory and strong demand fueled price increases.
The priciest transaction of the year — Oakley founder James Jannard’s Malibu complex — exceeded $200 million, blowing past Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s top deal of 2023, which ultimately closed at $190 million in Malibu.
But climbing price points are not the most striking fact about this year’s roundup of top deals, all of which commanded $60 million or more, up from a bottom threshold of $50 million in last year’s top 31. In a lopsided lineup, one state came away with nearly twice as many deals as the runner-up.
That state was Florida. Florida dominated the top sales of the year, bringing nine residential transactions at or above $50 million in Palm Beach, five in Miami and surrounding areas and one in Fort Lauderdale.
By contrast, California, which saw the second greatest number of high-end deals in the last year, netted only eight in the $50 million-plus range. New York came in third with seven $50 million-plus deals, all but one of which were in New York City. (The outlier was the La Dune compound in Southampton.)
In sweeping the top deals of the year, Florida also presented as a market of contrasts. While commanding some of the most eye-popping residential sales across the country, the state’s market at-large also managed to decline into one of the country’s most challenged this year.
Issues with homeowners insurance coverage, HOA fees, property taxes and an onslaught of natural disasters have made living in the state untenable for the everyday American, even as high-net-worths like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin continue to grow their real estate assets there.
Pandemic-era migration to Florida may be in the midst of a reversal in fact, with those who fled there after gaining flexible working conditions now grappling with the reality of trying to obtain — and afford — homeowners insurance.
The state includes five U.S. metro areas where pending home sales are falling fastest annually, Redfin reported in November, including Fort Lauderdale (-15.2 percent during the four weeks ending Nov. 10), Miami (-14 percent), West Palm Beach (-13.8 percent), Jacksonville (-9.5 percent) and Tampa (-7.2 percent).
By contrast, pending sales rose by 4.7 percent nationally in the same period.
Miami alone has seen a 57 percent uptick in for-sale inventory in the past year, an Intel analysis of Realtor.com data shows. Meanwhile, about half of homes for sale in Miami have sat on the market for at least 74 days, and in October, half of all active listings saw list price per square foot fall 9 percent year over year.
In addition to rising home insurance costs and HOA fees related to an increase in tropical storms and hurricanes, some homeowners are also dealing with assessments on condos in response to the Surfside condo collapse in 2021.
“Between the insurance costs and property taxes and just general cost of living, Florida has become very expensive, and it’s becoming a tale of two cities — the haves, the have-nots,” Erin Sykes of SYKES Properties told Inman. “Before, it was really focused for retirees, you know, people on fixed incomes, lower cost of living, and now that’s really been 180-degree change.”
The fact of the matter is, at the ultra-high end of the market, homebuyers are not as concerned with rising costs associated with Florida homeownership. Many are also self-insuring at that level as well, Sykes said, so if they incur flood or hurricane damage, they hunker down and repair, and rebuild smarter.
“Nobody’s going to reimburse them the cost of a $100 million home,” Sykes said. “So, frankly, they want to be waterfront because there’s limited amounts of waterfront, particularly on the islands. So if it’s the Venetian Island or Palm Island or Star Island or Palm Beach Island, that’s where people want to be because there’s only so much space. There’s only so many lots and it’s, of course, prestigious to live there.”
As with many things done by the wealthy, uncovering a complete list of the top sales of the year presents a challenge, since these elite transactions are often shrouded in secrecy. This list aims to present those publicly reported on in an organized fashion, but likely is not wholly comprehensive.
