A Letter to Owners

The figures below summarize eligible single-family, townhouse and villa sales in the four named Palm Beach development groups. Full calendar years and the current partial year are labeled separately. The 2026 YTD median sold price per living square foot is 2.2% below the 2022 median; changing sales mix affects that comparison.

Three observations. The repricing held — even the slower years of 2023–2024 cleared at more than double pre-pandemic levels, and 2025–2026 have returned to near-record territory. Volume fell sharply from the frenzy not because demand vanished but because owners, knowing what they hold, stopped selling. And the mix has moved decisively upmarket: the eight-figure sale is now simply how the island trades.

The public inventory is limited. 60 homes are actively listed in the four development groups. At the trailing-year pace of 102 distinct closings, that is 7.1 months of supply. The reconciled inventory contains 2,276 residential parcels: 2,253 developed parcels plus 23 residential vacant lots. Occupancy is not measured.

The demand is structural. Palm Beach County leads every county in America in net income gained through migration — some $22.7 billion between 2019 and 2023, led by arrivals from New York, California, New Jersey, Illinois, and Connecticut — and the buyers now come to stay, not to winter.

Cash insulates the island. Most purchases at these prices close without financing, which is why Palm Beach long ago parted company with the national interest-rate story.

Supply can scarcely grow. The island is built out; landmark and zoning protections see to the rest. Every arriving family removes a property from circulation, often for a generation.

Since January 1, 2024, these four Palm Beach MLS areas recorded 224 closed listing attempts and 207 expired, canceled or withdrawn attempts: 48% based on 431 listing attempts of concluded attempts ended without a sale. The closed attempts represent 222 distinct closings after duplicate transaction records are removed. 95 of 222 eligible closings (43% based on 222 closings) had a final asking price below the original asking price. Median time from market entry to contract was 104 days based on 216 closings.

The table separates sales by recorded construction year and living area. Age alone does not verify renovation, landmark status or turnkey condition. These observed medians reflect the properties that sold and should guide the comparable set rather than stand in for a property valuation.

The market speaks in six-month increments. Two streets here can mean a thousand dollars per foot of difference, and the most reliable guide to value is the most recent closings — segmented by vintage, size, grounds, and waterfront, never a market average.

Condition is currency. Buyers here pay a documented premium for the turnkey home; presentation and selective pre-sale refinement translate directly into the achieved price per foot.

Timing is a position of strength. Few owners on this island sell out of necessity, and the data rewards that posture: those able to wait for the right buyer, at the right number, consistently achieve the strongest results — while certainty on a short horizon is simply a different pricing strategy, deliberately chosen.

The quiet market. A meaningful share of island transactions never appear publicly. Many owners prefer a discreet placement before a small circle of qualified buyers — the result achieved without a single photograph leaving the property.

On assessed values. The tax roll trails this market considerably; in most cases it sits well below what a buyer would pay today — a pleasant note for the property-tax bill, and an irrelevant one for pricing.

The island has rarely, if ever, been worth more — or demanded more precision to sell well. The gap between a record result and a year of quiet expiration is, in nearly every case, strategy: the comparables chosen, the number set on day one, the way the property meets its first buyers. That is where I come in.