John Wilson of Douglas Elliman on the hot Palm Beach real estate market
Palm Beach and West Palm Beach have been experiencing a very active real estate market.
Both places are located within Palm Beach County in sunny South Florida, with the former sitting on a barrier island and the latter just across the Lake Worth Lagoon.
Palm Beach County saw over 13,300 single-family home sales transactions and 9,900 condo and townhouse deals close in 2024, according to a report from Broward, Palm Beaches and St. Lucies Realtors.
Single-family houses in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., on Wednesday, April 7, 2021. Purchase contracts for single-family houses priced at $10 million or more surged 306% in March from a year earlier, the biggest gain since the pandemic started, appraiser ( Marco Bello/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“Right now, South Florida real estate in general, but especially West Palm Beach, Palm Beach is extremely active,” Douglas Elliman sales associate John Wilson told FOX Business in an interview, adding the area has “bunches of new development.”
There were 398 new signed contracts for Palm Beach County single-family homes and 335 for condos last month, a report from Douglas Elliman showed. Some 1,600 homes were newly listed.
Condo signed contracts and listings were both also up year-over-year in January.
Palm Beach and West Palm Beach’s luxury markets have been particularly flourishing.
“A lot of the, let’s say like $700,000 to $2 million, that’s sort of an interest rate driven market, so it’s not as much, where mainly what we’re dealing with on the island and in West Palm Beach, and we do a lot of new development, a lot of that’s cash,” Wilson said.
He said he has “never seen anything like this” in the West Palm Beach market.
West Palm Beach skyline features Royal Park Draw Bridge, West Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by: Visions of America/Joseph Sohm/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) (Visions of America/Joseph Sohm/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“West Palm, I describe it this way … It was kind of like the outside of the island if you know what I mean and sort of quiet and really wasn’t over developed, but now, with all the developers and stuff coming here, this place is on fire, and it’s exciting because there’s just so much new things happening. It’s like a renaissance, if you will.”
Wilson said demand in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach’s luxury markets had grown “exponentially” in recent months.
“Right before the election, it was sort of like ‘wait and see.” Yes, there was activity, but I think people were holding back, and it just seemed like after the election, the market just lit up. It just got way more active, way more people were looking,” he said.
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New signed contracts for single-family homes worth at least $1 million in Palm Beach County clocked in at 138 in January, up from 90 in the same month last year, the Douglas Elliman report found.
He noted that ultra-luxury market properties in the Palm Beach and West Palm Beach area had been trading before the November election “even in season, which is the summertime,” but said the luxury market “definitely” saw a boost in activity after the election.
Palm Beach County notched 132 sales of homes worth more than $10 million over the course of 2024, according to a recent report from Compass. That marked a 21.1% year-over-year jump.
Wilson also weighed in on what he thinks is driving demand in the two locales.
“People want to be here,” he said. “Everyone’s always known about Palm Beach Island, but I think during Covid, what happened is people rediscovered it, and what you had is you had a whole new group come rolling into town during Covid, and then what happens? Like all things in life, all of the sudden, you start telling your friends ‘I’m having so much fun’ and ‘you gotta see this,’ and then more and more people come.”
Building development in West Palm Beach played a part as well, according to Wilson.
West Palm Beach, Lake Worth Lagoon and marina. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)
He also said young families have been moving to the area because of new development and “what’s happening with all the hedge funds.”
More than 300 hedge funds, private equity firms and financial services call Palm Beach County home, according to the Development Board of Palm Beach County.
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It has helped the area, particularly West Palm Beach, earn the nickname “Wall Street South.”
Wilson also told FOX Business “there’s always going to be demand on the island [Palm Beach], but you can come over to West Palm Beach, get a beautiful residence, whether that’s a new development condo or a house for a lot less than on the island, and literally just cross a bridge and still be on the island and all the activity and Worth Avenue and the shopping.”
Worth Avenue is an area in Palm Beach known for its restaurants and high-end shopping.
Wilson said there are “no new development buildings” in Palm Beach so “there’s a lot going on and there’s a lot being traded in the condo market, but the single-family home market is extremely strong” and “continues to remain very strong.”
Florida (iStock / iStock)
West Palm Beach is seeing a lot of new luxury condo buildings being developed, he also said.
The real estate markets in the two cities didn’t become hot overnight, according to Wilson. Rather, it has been going on for “a few years now,” with the boom during the pandemic helping drive that.
He was bullish about the future for the real estate markets in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach.
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“I think it’s going to continue to go higher because of demand,” Wilson said, noting many people from the Northeast and California are coming to the area.
“If you’re looking at long-term growth potential over the next two to three to five years, I would say this market’s going to continue to drive higher.”
Homes in Palm Beach had a median listing price of $3 million in January, according to Realtor.com. In West Palm Beach, it was $374,200.
