It’s a good time to be selling high-end real estate: The luxury market is posting a record number of sales, and 19 major areas also saw double-digit gains in July, according to realtor.com®’s 2018 Luxury Home Index. The index measures the entry-level luxury price tier, which is the top 5 percent of residential sales among 91 U.S. counties.
In 49 of the 91 markets analyzed by realtor.com®, the luxury tier had an entry point of at least $1 million. The number of sales at or above $1 million climbed 12 percent over the last year, realtor.com® reports.
“The strong economy is bolstering demand for luxury homes,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com®’s chief economist. “They are selling fast and demand for these homes has pushed the entry-level price point to more than $1 million in half of the markets studied. Although there are some pockets of weaker performance, we’ve seen double-digit price growth in 19 markets for the first time in four years.”
Luxury homes are selling faster, too. The median age of inventory in the 91 luxury markets tracked was 108 days in July, down 11 days or by 9.3 percent year over year, realtor.com® reports.
The fastest-growing luxury market in July: Sarasota, Fla., which continued to hold onto its top spot on realtor.com®’s list. Luxury sales prices in Sarasota have risen 21.2 percent since last May. Half of all luxury homes there have also sold within 157 days, which is 21 days faster than a year ago. Rounding out realtor.com®’s list of the top five fastest-growing luxury markets in July were Queens, N.Y.; Maui, Hawaii; Santa Clara, Calif.; and Boulder, Colo. Each of the cities posted a yearly growth of between 13 to 16 percent.
