During the fourth quarter of 2018, luxury homes nationwide had an average sale price of $1.7million, up 4.7 percent from one year ago, according to a report from Redfin.
Redfin, which defines luxury homes as those among the 5 percent most expensive homes sold in the quarter, tracked home sales in more than 1,000 cities for its report.
According to the report, non-luxury homes had an average sale price of $341,000 in the fourth quarter, up 4.3 percent.
“In the fourth quarter of 2018, there was a lot of economic uncertainty —mortgage interest rates peaked in November, and the stock market was all over the place. This may have encouraged luxury sellers to hold on to their real estate assets and also caused luxury buyers to be reluctant to make major home purchases,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said in a release. “There’s also economic uncertainty abroad. For example, China’s economy slowed down at the end of 2018, which may be affecting a segment of U.S. luxury sellers and buyers whose wealth is invested overseas.”
Redfin said some of the biggest increases in luxury home prices were in Florida. In West Palm Beach, the average sale price for luxury homes sold in the fourth quarter was $1.62 million, up 35 percent from the year before. In St. Petersburg, luxury prices jumped 30.7 percent to $1.42 million.
Florida cities also experienced some of the largest declines in luxury home sale prices during the fourth quarter, the report found. In Sarasota, the average sale price for luxury homes during the fourth quarter was $1.76 million, down 30.7 percent annually. In Fort Lauderdale, luxury home sale prices dipped 26 percent to an average of $2.6 million.