Welcome to the 10th edition of Sotheby’s Concierge Auction’s annual report on the movements within the luxury real estate market.
We look at the 10 highest-grossing real estate transactions across 56 of the top luxury markets across the United States. Our goal is to help buyers, sellers and real estate professionals better navigate the luxury real estate market by arming them with data to help guide their decision-making. In addition to our annual analysis, in this 10th edition, we also release 10-year trend lines for many of the top geographies to better show historical patterns.
Below are the five most important findings that our data shows generally hold across luxury US real estate markets over the past decade.
Sale prices have peaked
On average, sale prices for luxury properties are up 4.7% compared to 2023, following a general 10-year upward trend. Although prices aren’t as high as at their 2021 peak, a general positive trend will likely continue.
There is a large divergence between the listing and the realized price
Sellers list at ambitious or unrealistic prices, and on average sell for 13% below their initial listing price. There is a significant and consistent delta between the price that sellers initially list at and the price the market is willing to pay. For those that sell within 180 days, this jumps to 94%. For those that take longer than 180 days, this drops to only 81%.
Luxury real estate sells slowly
A median house takes less than 60 days to sell. Luxury properties, however, average 319 days to sell. A significant fraction of properties that surpass 180 days on the market take upwards of years to sell.
Properties that sell slower also sell at lower prices
If a luxury property doesn’t sell within the first 180 days, it typically sells at a significantly lower value than its initial listing price. For those that sell within 180 days, average DOM is 89; whereas, for the majority that take longer than 180 days to sell, average DOM is 514.
Selling slowly is expensive and time-consuming
For luxury properties, the costs of selling slowly are substantial. Sellers find that everything from carrying costs to headaches compound over time.
