Good analysis begins with a precise definition and ends with a clear account of what the evidence cannot prove. Palm Beach rewards that discipline because small samples, private transactions, land value, and extreme property differences can make a technically correct average practically misleading.
The four MLS areas provide a reporting geography. Buyers, sellers and agents also read the island by Oceanfront, Intracoastal and Interior settings, and by recognizable enclaves such as Billionaires Row. These overlapping perspectives, along with street, property type, building, lot and condition, help define a relevant comparison. They are not additional MLS areas, and the four MLS areas do not capture every distinct market on the island.
Population and sources
Single-family homes, townhouses and villas in Palm Beach’s North End, Midtown & In-Town, Estate Section and South End; condos, co-ops, South Palm Beach and Manalapan excluded. Condo building reports are presented separately in Coastal Condos. The four named development exports were refreshed November 3, 2026; tax exports retain their separately recorded source dates. The named development exports define the reporting groups; no independent area-code field is supplied in each row. The MLS reporting areas are North End — MLS 5001; In-Town — MLS 5002; Estates — MLS 5003; South End — MLS 5004. A Palm Beach city and ZIP 33480 check excludes mislabeled out-of-town records.
Distinct closings and listing attempts
Transaction tables count distinct parcel / closing-date / closing-price combinations. The ledger counts each MLS listing attempt once. Separate attempts for the same property can have different outcomes; neither failed attempts nor closed listing entries are automatically unique properties.
Buyer financing
Cash purchase share uses the MLS BuyerFinancing field for distinct trailing-year closings. Cash-coded closings are divided by closings with a known financing value; blank or unknown financing is excluded from the percentage and disclosed separately. The known-financing count must independently reach the measured area’s 1% threshold. This is MLS-reported financing and does not describe private or off-MLS transactions.
Separate private-market study
The off-MLS study retains its own ZIP 33480 single-family population and September 1, 2025–August 31, 2026 study window, with deed records available only through late July 2026. It is not a complete deed census through August, does not cover attached homes, and is not combined with these refreshed MLS figures.
What this analysis is—and is not
It is an evidence-based description of defined market populations. It is not an appraisal, automated valuation, prediction, legal opinion, tax advice, insurance advice, or substitute for property-specific diligence.
Periods, formulas and data limits
Single-family homes, townhouses and villas · North End, Midtown & In-Town, Estate Section and South End · Condos and co-ops excluded. The four named development exports define these reporting groups; individual source rows do not supply an area-code field. The MLS reporting areas are North End — MLS 5001; In-Town — MLS 5002; Estates — MLS 5003; South End — MLS 5004. Records must identify Palm Beach and ZIP 33480. These are the named development groups, not all transactions in ZIP 33480.
Medians and sales-based comparisons use a minimum computed from 1% of the total residential inventory for the measured area and property type, rounded to the nearest whole transaction (minimum 1) in refreshed analyses. Earlier editions retain their recorded minimum until updated. Residential lots are included in that total. Both historical endpoints must qualify. Months of supply uses the same threshold for trailing-year closings. Counts remain visible; one-sale results are labeled “single transaction.” This is a display rule, not a claim of statistical reliability. Explicitly provisional parent measures may use two documented source scenarios only when both yield the same rounded minimum; the population, inventory-based percentages and unverified subgroups remain unavailable. Other unknown residential totals, missing observations and zero comparison baselines remain unavailable. Smaller samples show “Limited sales” and the count. The count shown with a figure is the number of eligible sales, closings or listing attempts behind it. Sold $/living SF is each closing price divided by its recorded living area, then the median of those ratios. Counts remain visible when medians are suppressed.
Closed sales are deduplicated by parcel number, closing date and closing price; listing key is used when parcel number is absent. When duplicate closing records disagree on detached versus attached housing type, the sale remains in the overall total and appears in a separate conflicting-type row. The ledger counts listing attempts separately: a property can expire and later sell. It is not a count of unique owners or unsuccessful properties. Failed-attempt dates use the recorded status-change date. Price reductions compare final asking price with original asking price; they do not reconstruct every price change. The reduction percentage requires this area’s 1% threshold in closings with both usable asking prices. The failed-attempt percentage requires the same threshold in concluded listing attempts; it reports attempts, rather than unique properties.
Market time runs from OnMarketDate (or ListingContractDate if absent) to PurchaseContractDate; missing, negative or over-ten-year intervals are excluded. Months of supply = active listings ÷ (trailing-year closings ÷ 12), when that measured area’s 1% trailing-year closing threshold qualifies. Only Active status counts as available inventory; pending and active-under-contract listings are excluded.
Cash purchase share uses the MLS BuyerFinancing field: closings coded “Cash” divided by closed sales with a known BuyerFinancing value. Blank or unknown financing is excluded from the percentage and reported separately. The known-financing count must independently reach this area’s 1% threshold. It describes MLS-reported financing on these closings; it does not measure financing in private or off-MLS transactions.
Annual rows before 2026 are full calendar years; 2026 is partial through 11/03/26. Changes in medians reflect sales mix, not repeat-sales appreciation. Waterfront groups follow explicit MLS flags and features; ocean access or beach access alone does not establish frontage. A record coded for both oceanfront and lakefront does not verify an ocean-to-lake parcel. Tax parcel counts use Town of Palm Beach municipality code 50 and are deduplicated by property-control number, including across area exports for the combined count. The displayed property counts are total distinct residential parcels, including verified residential vacant lots. Current developed parcel identities and classifications match the immutable September 5 directories exactly; dated lot supplements remain distinct from the current exports. Nonresidential and ancillary parcels are excluded, and parcels are not a count of occupied homes. Area counts can overlap; they are not a count of homes for sale.
This inventory uses the four named Palm Beach tax exports, restricted to Town of Palm Beach municipality code 50. South Palm Beach and Manalapan are excluded. This directory contains 2,253 developed residential parcels under recorded tax classifications, excluding vacant land. Recorded use does not certify physical completion or occupancy. It is not a complete cadastral census or a count of homes for sale. Condo building inventories remain separate in Coastal Condos.
Each Parcel ID appears once in its directory. The combined Island view deduplicates IDs across all four areas. Three parcels occur in more than one area export, so the area counts must not be added together. Repeated tax records can describe building or land components; inspect them separately rather than adding their values.
Property addresses, building characteristics, Last Sale Date (tax), Last Sale Price (tax), and Tax Market Value come from tax records. Last sale means the latest positive-price transaction among the five recorded tax sales, excluding zero-dollar transfers. It is not necessarily an arm’s-length sale. Conflicting sale or market values are withheld; blank values mean not reported. Appraiser market value is not a current sale-price estimate, and the tax valuation year is not supplied by these exports.
Map outlines are matched to the same 17-digit Parcel IDs in the official county parcel layer. The saved boundaries are in GeoJSON format, compatible with QGIS, and displayed with Leaflet. Outlines and measurements are approximate; use a recorded plat or survey for exact boundaries. Tax and GIS source dates are separate from the MLS dates used in the market reports. County GIS source.
