Floridians with homes in the ritziest neighborhoods, including Coral Gables and Naples, are experiencing the nation’s biggest increases in real estate wealth as markets in the Sunshine State supplant those in California and New York at the top.
In February 2020, before the pandemic, California was home to six of the 10 priciest neighborhoods in the country, while Florida and New York City had two each. Today, seven are in Florida, while three are in California’s Beverly Hills and Malibu, according to data from Zillow Group Inc.
These are just some of the changes experienced by the U.S. real estate market over the past four years. In the nation overall, the typical home price has increased by the most for any comparable period since 1979, partly reflecting a lack of supply as homeowners grew reluctant to surrender lower-rate mortgages.
Home values at the end of 2023 were up nearly 50% from 2019, based on quarterly Federal Housing Finance Administration data. But for homeowners in the country’s most affluent neighborhoods, price appreciation generated massive wealth gains for some, but much less for others.
In February 2020, the typical home in the 1,000 most expensive U.S. neighborhoods ranged from $1.1 million to about $10.6 million, according to figures from Zillow. Now, the entry point to move into a top neighborhood is $1.3 million. A home in the most expensive spot in the country, Gables Estates in Coral Gables near Miami, exceeds $21.1 million.
The most expensive area four years ago was the Beverly Hills Gateway neighborhood, where the typical home was valued at $10.6 million. Today, homes there cost just under $12 million.
But that 12% increase was swamped by some of the expensive locales in Florida. The price of a typical home in the Naples neighborhood of Port Royal has soared nearly 80% — from $9.7 million to $17.4 million — earning homeowners there millions in added home equity.
Four years ago, the typical home in the Flats neighborhood of Beverly Hills, next door to Beverly Hills Gateway, was valued at just under $8.5 million, the fifth most-expensive neighborhood in the country. While the typical price has now risen to $9.6 million, the Flats neighborhood ranks eighth among the country’s priciest areas.
New York City fell well outside the top 10 altogether. The typical $6.4 million price tag in 2020 put the West Village at sixth, while the Upper East Side ranked 10th at $5.6 million.
But West Village home prices have dropped 8.2% to about $5.9 million, while home values in the Upper East Side tumbled 26% to $4.2 million, based on the Zillow data.
In all of Manhattan, home prices are down 14.4% compared with four years ago. In February, the typical home sold for $1.04 million, down from a median price of $1.21 million in February 2020, according to Redfin.
And around three in 10 people in Manhattan who searched for a home were looking to move away from the city, according to the Redfin post. Miami was the most popular destination, followed by Philadelphia and Washington.
Read More: New York City lost almost half a million people since 2020
Based on home-price valuation data for the New York City metro area provided by CoreLogic, home prices in Manhattan from January 2020 to January 2024 were basically unchanged. Among the five boroughs that make up New York City, price growth was highest in the Bronx.
Part of the reason for tepid home price growth in Manhattan is New York City residents continue to migrate elsewhere. It lost almost 78,000 residents last year, bringing the total decline to more than half a million since April 2020, according to U.S. Census data.