Is the Palm Beach, Florida Housing Market Cooling Off?

By Raymond Fernandez

Originally from New York, I relocated my family to South Florida 20 years ago. Knowing that we wanted to live in Florida but not where exactly, we did a thorough investigation of the entire State and consider ourselves fortunate that we decided on the exact right place for us.... South Florida.

If you’ve seen that Palm Beach, Florida’s 2026 median sale price dropped last month, it’s easy to read that one number and assume the market is turning. It isn’t. Step back from the headline and the picture looks a lot healthier, and honestly a lot more normal, than a single month makes it seem.

Here’s the number everyone’s reacting to. Back in June, we hit an all-time high in the median sale price at $700,000. In July, that came down to $660,090. Yes, prices pulled back. But the month-to-month figure isn’t the one that matters most, because this market is seasonal, and comparing one month to the month before it can tell you a story that isn’t really there.

The comparison that matters is year-over-year. Last July 2025, the median was $613,250. So even after cooling off, we’re still up nearly 8% from where we were a year ago. That’s not a market falling apart. That’s a market coming off a fast runup and settling, which is exactly what I told you to expect if you follow along here.

Zoom out further, and it’s even clearer. I always like to look back to January 2020, because it gives us a big enough sample to see the real trend. Back then, that same median sat at $363,000. Today it’s around $660,000. That’s nearly double in a little over five years. So even after coming off the June record, prices are dramatically higher than the longer view would suggest. One month down doesn’t undo that.

So what does this mean for you? It depends on which side of the table you’re on, and it depends on where you are.

If you’re selling, don’t look at July’s dip and assume the market has turned against you. You’d be selling into a market where prices are still 8% higher than they were a year ago. What changed isn’t that values fell off a cliff; it’s that we’re measuring against a record high. That’s a very different thing.

If you’re buying, this is worth paying attention to, because it may work in your favor. Coming off the peak, you might run into a little less competition and find a little more room to negotiate than you would have a month ago, when the market was at its absolute top. Buyers may feel like they have more leverage now, and in some cases they genuinely do. I’d look at all of this as the market finding a little more balance, which tends to be a healthier place for everyone.

This gets lost in every headline. Your individual situation matters more than any single number you’ll see in the news. South Florida is not one market; it’s hundreds of them. Even within a single master-planned community, I’m seeing some neighborhoods selling extremely well while others are moving much more slowly. Which community are you in? That question shapes your reality far more than a countywide median ever will.

That’s the whole point of a local read. A number in a news story is an average of thousands of homes that have nothing to do with yours. What you actually want to know is what’s happening in your town, your community, your price range, and that’s a conversation, not a chart.

If you’re thinking about buying or selling, or you just want to know what’s really going on in a specific area, I’d be honored to help. Call or text me at (561) 781-7821, email me at info@livinginpalmbeachfl.com, or visit livinginpalmbeachfl.com.