Top U.S. Cities Where Affluent Home Buyers Can Snag a Deal This Fall

An opportunity could be on the horizon for those who deferred a home purchase in some of the luxury real estate markets that boomed during the pandemic as demand falls.

Among them, the Miami and Naples areas of Florida; urban Honolulu; and Santa Fe, New Mexico, could be among the best luxury markets in the U.S. for buyers this fall, according to data Realtor.com provided to Mansion Global. The data was staked on a combination of falling luxury median price points, which indicate markets that are softening and where buyers could potentially score a deal; a shift in median days on market; and page views, with fewer views indicating less demand.

“We see that these higher-priced markets are seeing falling demand,” said Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com . “And so for buyers who do have access to the capital that they could purchase in one of these markets, they may find more flexibility than in some of the markets that are lower priced and are still seeing a ton of competition.”

Read on for where the opportunity lies and advice in those markets from real estate agents on the ground.

Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach, Florida

Buyers who couldn’t get enough of the sandy shores of this trio of South Florida cities during the pandemic have largely backed off, making it the No. 1 destination for luxury buyers this fall.

The luxury median listing price in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach was down 22% to $2.5 million in the second quarter. Between June 2023 and June 2024, the median days on market for luxury listings rose five days and in the same time page views of luxury properties on Realtor.com fell a whopping 44%.

Mick Duchon, a Miami-based agent with Corcoran, said that some sellers who were stuck in the high-price mindset of 2021 and part of 2022 are starting to come around, meaning there are still properties out there with a listing price ripe for an adjustment. He said it’s an opportunity for people who have been waiting on the sidelines.

Case in point, Duchon was working with a buyer on a penthouse apartment in the South of Fifth neighbourhood in the summer of 2022, when the market had just started to adjust from its pandemic highs. After approaching the seller with a deal and agreeing on it, the buyer decided to wait. undefined undefined “Two years later, we transacted at 15% below that initial contract price,” on the same penthouse with the same buyer and seller, he said.

He added, “If buyers are basing their offers on what has transacted recently, then they should be able to achieve a solid deal.”

Honolulu

Realtor.com found that the median luxury listing price in Honolulu fell nearly 10% to $2.34 million in the second quarter. In June, the median days on market for luxury listings fell 11 days compared to a year ago, while in the same time frame, luxury page views fell 31%, indicating less interest, making Honolulu the No. 2 market for buyers this fall.

Noel Shaw, an agent with Hawai’i Life Real Estate Brokers Forbes Global Properties, said the peak Covid rush to Honolulu has abated somewhat, but other buyers who decided to change their lifestyle and move there as part of their 10-year plan are still trickling in. It’s keeping competition up for those mid-tier luxury listings and makes it imperative to work with an agent who knows the city like the back of their hand. (Shaw grew up in Honolulu, and said the quality of real estate varies block by block.)

“This is an island, the city’s very limited so we still have a limited supply,” she said. “So while there are going to be some great deals within the city, it’s not going to be as easy or obvious as other cities.” undefined undefined The listings luxury buyers should keep an eye out for are the top-tier properties of Japanese sellers, she said. Honolulu is a prestigious second-home market for Asians, Shaw said, but the weakness of the yen right now means that some Japanese owners may choose to sell and convert their funds back to yen. Those prized properties, which are rare in Honolulu because of the constraints on inventory, are the extra sweet spot for luxury buyers looking for top-of-the-line properties these days, she said.

Naples-Marco Island, Florida

The market frenzy has quelled in this Gulf Shore slice of Florida, with the luxury median listing price down 18% to $4 million in the second quarter. The median days on market over the year ending June is the same as the year prior, at 85, but page views on luxury properties are down over 11% in the same time period, bringing the Naples-Marco Island metro into the No. 3 spot. undefined undefined “We’re over the Covid mania, where people came and purchased properties at any price,” said Celine Wells, an agent with Douglas Elliman. “What we’re seeing now is less volume of sales, but very strong sales.”

For potential buyers, “patience is a virtue,” said Chris Wells, Celine’s business partner and husband. Chris added it’s important to have knowledge of the market so you can act quickly when a particularly interesting property comes to market. Most transactions happen in cash, with mortgages brought into the picture post-closing, he said.

He added, “A nice deposit, a quick closing, a cash deal, a short due-diligence period—these are things that help a buyer get the property they desire.”

Mick Duchon, a Miami-based agent with Corcoran, said that some sellers who were stuck in the high-price mindset of 2021.
Pixabay

Santa Fe, New Mexico The Sunbelt and Mountain West experienced huge demand in recent years, and the small in-between market of Santa Fe was not immune to that.

Unlike the other cities on this list, demand is still up there, with luxury page views surging nearly 7% and luxury median days on market falling 33 days, to 86, between June 2023 and June 2024. Prices, however, are trending down, with the luxury median listing price having fallen nearly 14% to $2.98 million from April to June. All together, it makes Santa Fe the fourth-best market for luxury buyers this fall. undefined undefined “People are still wanting to come here. Santa Fe is still very, very desirable,” said Ricky Allen of Sotheby’s International Realty – Santa Fe Brokerage. “They’re coming for the size of the city, the climate, the culture, the lifestyle. … I think it’s a good time to be a buyer.” undefined undefined Allen suggested that buyers see as many properties as possible that check most of their boxes. “You never know what those properties are going to end up selling at,” he added.

(Mansion Global is owned by Dow Jones. Both Dow Jones and Realtor.com are owned by News Corp.)

This article was originally published on Mansion Global.

A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.

The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.

“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”

The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.

It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.

In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.

“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.

The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.

“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.

He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.

The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.

“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.

His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.

“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.

When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.

They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.

The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.

For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.

“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”

As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.

“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”

Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.

Top U.S. Cities Where Affluent Home Buyers Can Snag a Deal This Fall

Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.