We’ve known about the inequalities in Miami housing for some time, as home price appreciation has outpaced wage growth by about 28 percent over the last two years. Redfin’s most recent third-quarter luxury report emphasized the gap between luxury sale prices and the rest of the market.
For the second consecutive quarter, Miami Beach ranked as the most unequal city in America, when considered on the basis of price disparity between the top 5 percent of home prices and the rest. According to the real estate company’s report, the average luxury home price in Miami Beach, which was $6.32 million in the third quarter, was more than 12 times the average price in the rest of the city.
“It’s a case of the haves and the have-nots,” said Aaron Drucker, a Redfin managing broker working in South Florida.
Drucker explained that South Florida, which hosts nine of the country’s 20 most unequal luxury markets (including all of the top seven), is abnormally unequal in large part to the market not being driven by the local economy, but rather by outside investment.
“Buyers in the multi-million dollar luxury market are foreign or coming from out of state, while the folks who live and work here full time make up the rest of the real estate market,” he said.
Among South Florida’s other unequal markets were Delray Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Jupiter, Miami and Hollywood. See how they compare below:
