A report released by Douglas Elliman Brokerage showed a continuation of market improvement in South Florida during the final quarter of 2019. According the brokerage’s activity reports, prices and sales were up in both Miami Beach and Miami Mainland, while inventory fell.

“Overall the market continues to illustrate stability, and in many cases the anticipated strength resulting from tax reform coupled with the maturation of our markets is being realized, Miami Beach and Palm Beach are gaining significant strength, and we see no signs of the momentum changing,” said Jay Phillip Parker, chief executive officer of Douglas Elliman’s Florida brokerage.  “All of our markets including the west coast, where we opened our first office in St. Petersburg, are seeing increased activity which I believe will continue to produce positive results for 2020.”

In Miami Beach, median sales prices rose 5.6 percent to $400,000 year-over-year and number of sales rose 14.3 percent to 775.  The luxury single-family market, driven by the influx of high-income earners from high tax states, set a record. Median sales prices in that sector skyrocketed 66.6 percent to $13,325,000.

In Miami, median sales prices rose 4.7 percent year-over-year to $335,000, while number of sales rose 6.7 percent to 3,754. Coral Gables saw median sales prices of luxury single-family homes rise 16 percent year-over-year to $3,566,425 and in Fort Lauderdale, luxury single-family homes price per square foot rose 7.7 percent year-over-year to $616.

“While the markets in South Florida and the Gulf regions are showing various conditions, it’s safe to say that overall results in the state this quarter were encouraging,” said Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel Inc. and author of the reports. “As we’ve been saying for several months now, Florida continues to benefit from the SALT tax runoff from other markets, and this will likely continue spurring similar improvement.”