A study from Realtor.com revealed that Pinellas County, Florida is the second-fastest-growing luxury market based on sales growth. The county is also the fifth fastest-growing luxury market based on the growth of million-dollar sales.
The Realtor.com Luxury Home Index examines 82 luxury counties across the U.S., the majority of which are in California, with counties in various other states across the country. The index studies “yearly movement in the entry-level luxury price boundary, defined as the top 5% of all residential home sales in a given market for the past 12 months”. Several other Florida counties feature in the list include Duval, Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe, Walton, and Collier.
#2 for Year-on-Year Growth
Year-on-year growth for Pinellas was recorded at 15.5% in April this year. It was beaten by Summit, Colorado, with a growth of 19.9% and a luxury sale price of $1,829,000. Despite the rapid growth, Pinellas County remains one of the least expensive luxury markets in the top 20 fastest growing luxury markets based on sales price growth. The average luxury (top 5%) sales price entry point in Pinellas County for April 2019 was $743,000. Only Maricopa, AZ and Sacramento, CA had a lower luxury sales price.
However, the luxury sales price in Pinellas may not stay as low for long. The year-over-year million-dollar sales count was recorded as 52.5%, making Pinellas County the fifth fastest-growing market based on million-dollar sales. Combined with the 15.5% growth in the sales price, things could soon start to change for this luxury market.
Florida Counties with Growing Luxury Markets
In addition to Pinellas County, Walton has also been growing as a luxury market in Florida. The luxury entry point reached $1.69 million, with an increase of 10% year-on-year and an increase in luxury sales of 7.5%. While not growing as rapidly as Pinellas, the growth is still important to note. Sarasota, meanwhile, is declining, after it was the highest performing market for a number of months in 2018. It reached a top growth rate of 21.2% last year, with an entry point of $848,000 in April. However, million-dollar sales are still up 8.1%.
In Miami, a long period of decline in prices has reversed to a small increase of 2.6%. However, Miami is still featured in the top 20 fastest-growing markets based on million-dollar sales.
Monroe, Walton, and Collier counties are all featured in the top 20 most expensive luxury markets, but only Walton has not seen a decline in growth. Monroe has an entry price point of $1.828 million with just a 5.3% growth in the luxury sales price. In Collier, where the entry point price is at $1.62 million, sales prices have dropped 2.6%, despite a 16.8% growth in the sale of million-dollar real estate. The same is true for Duval, a county with a low entry-level into the luxury market at just over $500,000.
California Dominating the Luxury Market
Outside of Florida, California is the top luxury markets based on the report from Realtor.com. California counties take eight of the top ten places in the most expensive luxury markets, with the other two filled by Eagle and Summit counties in Colorado. They also count for more than a quarter of the fastest-growing markets based on the sales price. However, when it comes to million-dollar sales, just two California markets are featured: Santa Cruz at number eight and San Luis Obispo at number ten. Half of the most expensive California markets saw a decline in million-dollar sales, with the lowest, Santa Clara, at -17.7%, almost exactly mirroring the growth of Santa Barbara at 17.3%
Across the 82 luxury markets, 9,918 million dollars worth of homes were sold in April 2019. This accounts for a growth of only 0.6% but shows recovery after the 7.5% decline in March. Smaller luxury markets are continuing to emerge, although more markets are seeing declines. Pinellas County is a top performer but entry-level prices remain low compared to many other luxury markets.
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