In South Florida, Luxury Home Sales Slow as Buyers and Sellers Struggle to Agree on Price

Written by:

Steve Marcinuk

Date:

29 Apr 2026

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After years of rapid price growth and bidding wars, South Florida’s luxury residential market has entered a cooler, more cautious phase. Rising insurance costs, aging housing stock, and lingering economic uncertainty have slowed transaction volume across Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties. Deals are falling apart more frequently, listings are sitting on the market longer, and a widening gap between seller expectations and buyer willingness is defining the market in early 2026.

Sandra Rathe, Team Lead of The Sandra Rathe Team at The Real Brokerage, has spent 16 years building one of the region’s more established residential operations, growing from a solo agent to a team of 22 agents and eight staff members. Her background as a former CPA gives her a numbers-driven perspective on a market where emotion still runs high.

A Market Caught Between Wanting to Move and Waiting It Out

The dominant theme across the South Florida luxury market right now is hesitation. Both buyers and sellers want to act but are held back by broader economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Rathe describes a pattern in which clients start the buying or selling process, then pull back as anxiety rises. Stock market volatility, global unrest, or a single negative headline can be enough to stall a transaction that was already underway. “It’s making people second-guess things,” she says. “They might get started with the process, and then the scare gets higher, and they slow it down.”

That hesitation is showing up in transaction data. Deals are collapsing more frequently than they were two years ago, often for layered reasons. Many properties built during earlier development cycles now have roofs nearing the end of their useful life, generating costly inspection issues. Insurance premiums have climbed meaningfully, adding pressure to affordability calculations – particularly around the one-million-dollar price point. And while interest rates are no longer the shock they once were, they continue to weigh on buyer math.

The Seller Expectation Gap

One of the more persistent friction points is the disconnect between what sellers believe their properties are worth and what buyers are willing to pay. The pandemic left a lasting impression on South Florida homeowners, who watched prices surge well beyond historical norms and routinely received above-asking offers with minimal contingencies.

That market is gone, but not everyone has accepted it. Rathe says many sellers still anchor their expectations to pandemic-era pricing, expecting premiums that today’s buyers simply won’t pay. “We still have sellers who think we’re in the pandemic phase,” she says.

The gap is narrower than it was a year ago, but it remains a regular point of negotiation. Sellers holding out for peak-cycle prices are watching their listings sit, while buyers – many relocating from New York, New Jersey, and California – arrive expecting to find discounts in a market they perceive as softening.

That perception, Rathe notes, is often wrong. Prices haven’t fallen as much as many buyers assume. Sellers are largely holding firm, even as days on market stretch longer. The result is a standoff: neither side is getting exactly what it wants, and closings are taking more patience and negotiation to reach.

Where Activity Is Holding Up

Not all segments of the market are experiencing the same drag. Lower price points are moving more consistently, driven by a larger pool of qualified buyers and tighter inventory. The slowdown is most pronounced in the middle of the market – roughly the one-million-dollar range – where inventory is accumulating and absorption times are lengthening.

For investors looking to deploy capital in the region, Rathe points to Pompano Beach as a market worth watching. The coastal city has undergone visible upgrades in recent years, including infrastructure improvements, a renovated pier, and broader community investment, which are drawing buyers who might previously have looked farther south. “There’s been a lot of facelift to the community,” she says. “I think there’s a lot of potential going on in the Pompano Beach area.”

Post-NAR Settlement

The industry-wide changes following the NAR settlement have reshaped how buyer-agent relationships are established and compensated. Agents are now required to have explicit conversations about their value and fee structure before working with buyers – a change that Rathe sees as healthy for the profession, even if uncomfortable for some.

For teams with deep market knowledge and strong client service records, the adjustment has been manageable. For agents who relied on transaction volume without building genuine expertise, the new requirements are harder to meet. Rathe says the change is drawing a clear line between agents who bring real skill and those who were simply facilitating showings. “Now you have to really explain your professionalism, your benefits,” she says. “Whereas before, you just showed up and opened a door.”

Technology and the Review Economy

How clients find and evaluate agents has also changed. The Sandra Rathe Team has accumulated over 750 Google reviews and more than 900 Zillow reviews, creating a digital footprint that AI-driven search tools are increasingly surfacing to prospective clients. Other teams with strong review profiles are likely benefiting from similar visibility, but Rathe says volume and consistency across platforms appear to matter most.

“AI is finding us organically. We’re not doing anything different,” she explains. “We had always been focused on making sure that we have great client reviews, and AI is big on finding the reviews in multiple places.”

Technology considerations partly drove the team’s recent move from Keller Williams to The Real Brokerage. Rathe cited the platform’s AI tools, financial transparency features, and broker support infrastructure as meaningful upgrades, as well as a revenue-sharing model designed to help agents build longer-term financial security.

Through the first quarter of 2026, the team reported a 59% increase in closings compared to Q1 of 2025 – a figure Rathe attributes to both the new platform’s tools and renewed momentum within the team. That data is self-reported by the team and has not been independently verified.

Planning in an Unpredictable Environment

South Florida’s luxury market has long been sensitive to external forces – interest rate moves, international capital flows, political developments, and insurance market disruptions can all quickly ripple through pricing and demand. For buyers and sellers navigating this environment, the consistent advice from agents like Rathe is to plan with a buffer rather than wait for perfect conditions.

“When it shifts here, it shifts fast,” she says. “We are always encouraging our sellers. If they have a timeline, it’s always better to get started sooner than later, just in case something happens.”

For a market shaped by cycles of rapid growth, correction, and recovery, the current moment favors those willing to act with realistic expectations rather than hold out for conditions that may not return. The buyers and sellers closing deals today are the ones who have adjusted to the market as it is, not as they wish it still were.

About the Expert: Sandra Rathe is the Team Lead of The Sandra Rathe Team at The Real Brokerage, a South Florida residential operation she has built over 16 years from a solo practice into a team of 22 agents and eight staff members. A former CPA, Rathe brings a numbers-driven discipline to one of the region’s more established luxury teams, with a client review footprint spanning more than 750 Google reviews and 900 Zillow reviews.

This article is based on information provided by the expert source cited above. It is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or real estate advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any real estate or financial decisions.