Luxury housing market inspires ‘total frenzy’ in vacation-home boom towns like Aspen, Palm Beach and Lake Tahoe. People settling in vacation home destinations
Written content from Julia Falcon | HW
In the third quarter, luxury home sales jumped 41.5%, the biggest year-over-year shift since 2013, according to Redfin. And while real estate agents repping luxury homes aren’t seeing as many bidding wars as they did this summer, the message across the company was the same: their respective markets are crazy right now.
“What we’re seeing here in Palm Beach is a total frenzy,” Dana Koch, a sales associate with Corcoran Group, the Koch Team in Palm Beach, told HousingWire. “I’ve had many conversations with clients of mine from late April through early July, the margin was total pandemonium. And, since early July to now, it’s just getting very busy.”
A recent report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel revealed that the average home price in Q3 in Palm Beach was $7 million. Contracts during this time also skyrocketed 62%.
While the Palm Beach market has not seen a lot of bidding wars, Koch said that a lot of the inventory has been absorbed and properties are getting multiple offers.
Since it’s a summer destination, Palm Beach’s busy season for home-buying starts on Nov. 1, and runs through May 1. Koch said that since this summer — typically the home-buying off-season — was busy for buyers, he thinks it will only get crazier.
“We normally average roughly like $200 plus million on an annual basis, and during the first three quarters, we’ve sold $350 million worth of real estate,” Koch said. “So it’s been a crazy year. It’s been a very profitable year.
Over where the weather is colder, Steven Shane, a Compass real estate agent in Aspen, Colorado, said that buyers are coming from all over Texas, Florida, New York and California.
Shane said that schools in Aspen have increased their enrollment, as families are putting their roots down where they can have more space.
“I think that there’s a lot of people who rented, put their kids into school, and now, interest rates are so low, if you think about it, it makes a heck of a lot more sense to buy something than to pay rent,” Shane said. “So a lot of the people who came here initially may have rented just to get a place and now are looking to buy a home.”
From hiking to skiing and fishing, Shane said that people want to be able to get out and be able to stretch their legs if they’re working from home, and they can do that in Aspen.
“People learned that they can work from anywhere,” Shane said. “For the most part, people can work remotely, and their children might be attending school remotely. So why not be in Aspen, Greenwich, Connecticut, or the Hamptons?”
Speaking of the Hamptons, as of Q3, home sales in the area have increased 51% year over year, according to another report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. Gary Depersia, a broker with the Corcoran Group in East Hampton, said that the market is extremely busy right now at all price levels.
“We’ve had quite a few deals above $10 million, above $20 million and above $40 million,” Depersia said. “So, there’s activity all over the place.”
Depersia said that there are definitely bidding wars in his market, especially with more people coming out from the city and trying to live in the Hamptons full time. Read more from Housing Wire (HW)
Read other financial stories from News Without Politics
