Where do the wealthy want to live in South Florida? More are turning to Broward luxury
Fort Lauderdale Beach buzzed with activity on a weekday summer afternoon. Joggers and tourists, moving to the beat of reggaeton and salsa from passing cars, streamed past high-rises across the way.
Other pedestrians dipped in and out of luxury condos, searching for their next home.
Scott and Donna Meyer, a couple of married empty-nesters, spent the day condo-hunting. After visiting Paramount Fort Lauderdale, they stopped by the Four Seasons Hotel & Residences Fort Lauderdale. After selling their single-family home in Weston, they were looking for a ready-to-go beachfront condo.
“We love it here,” Scott said, appreciating what he described as a “low-key environment.”
Booming market
Hundreds of other wealthy buyers seem to also appreciate the environment of Fort Lauderdale Beach and other communities north of the Miami-Dade line. The luxury market is booming in Broward.
The county saw an 18% increase in sales for houses and condos priced above $1 million when comparing sales data for the first half of 2022 to 2021, according to the Multiple Listing Service and the latest Keyes/Illustrated luxury report. Broward had a total of 1,691 closings, up from 1,387.
Miami-Dade, in comparison, saw more deals but a slowdown in year-over-year activity. The county saw a 2% decline in transactions, to 3,146 closings from 3,217 during that same period.
“I’ve watched the luxury market evolve in the last decade in direct correlation with the market improving here,” said Julie Jones, vice president of ultra luxury sales at Douglas Elliman Real Estate. Jones specializes in selling luxury condos in Broward.
Why the attraction?
“It’s easier to get around than Miami,” she said. “There’s less traffic. Someone who sells their house on Miami Beach can enjoy the same family lifestyle with less congestion and make a profit on their Miami homes.”
Broward benefited from the same windfall that Miami-Dade experienced during the pandemic. Out-of-towners from Boston, Chicago, Maryland and New York poured into Broward in search of housing as more companies allowed their employees to work remotely or expanded to South Florida. The newcomers wanted to benefit from tax savings, year-round warm climate and loose COVID-19 public health rules.
Also boosting Broward: Miami-Dade’s higher home prices, which drew luxury buyers a little north to the neighboring county. Just like prospective buyers shopping the median sales price, luxury shoppers crossing the county line would have noticed a big price difference.
Miami-Dade has an average $1,107 price per square foot for condos and $831 price per square foot for single-family homes; Broward has $967 price per square foot for condos and $667 price per square foot for single-family homes. In other words, buyers get more bang — land, square footage, amenities — for the buck.
“Miami is the Wall Street of the south. Broward got overlooked,” said Mike Pappas, president and CEO of the Keyes Company. “Palm Beach and Miami led the way in terms of the prices. Broward didn’t see such intensity and so now it’s getting its run because there’s better pricing.”
The wealthy are shopping for their next home in the same Broward neighborhoods. They turn to Fort Lauderdale, Parkland, Lighthouse Point/Pompano Beach, and Davie/Plantation/Southwest Ranches for single-family homes. Fort Lauderdale — specifically Fort Lauderdale Beach, Victoria Park and Coral Ridge — has the most condo sales followed by Lighthouse Point/Pompano Beach.
Plenty of space
The 44-year-old Seth Cohen just sold his waterfront Fort Lauderdale home in search of a more private, residential estate. He bought a multi-million dollar house in Southwest Ranches where he can have more privacy, and his four kids can have plenty of space for basketball courts and ATV tracks.
“My kids wanted to have a playground,” Cohen said. “There’s nowhere else that you can get that kind of land in Broward or Dade.”
Southwest Ranches is known for its mansions with ornate gates, long-winding driveways, large plots of land and grazing horses.
“Miami is chaotic. The traffic and population are too crazy for most people,” Cohen said. “If people are spending money and are family people, I can see why they would want something like Fort Lauderdale. It’s not as fast-paced.”
Benefits for business
Long-time Broward residents and small business owners celebrate the influx of wealthy buyers, including Brian Blouin, a charter broker for Miami-based yacht rental YachtLife. “We’re seeing a doubling of our chartering compared to last year,” he said.
Blouin manages the Fort Lauderdale inventory and has seen an increase in demand for newer and bigger yacht models than in previous years, and has had to find new inventory to match the demand in Broward.
Other business owners are benefiting from wealthy transplants. Reuben Ezekiel, 55, owns and runs Fountains Jewelers, a store in Plantation that specializes in buying and selling high-end jewelry. Ezekiel has had so many new clients that he no longer has to advertise.
His typical clients are locals, usually from Hawks Landing and Southwest Ranches, people who have moved there because they can get bigger homes for their families than they can in Miami.
“Now people don’t even sell us any jewelry, they’re just coming in to buy.” Ezekiel doesn’t recall a similar change in client behavior in over 33 years of running his business.
More wealthy buyers are expected in Broward and Miami-Dade in the coming months.
Out-of-towners are forecast to move to South Florida given the steady stream of corporate expansions. Still, demand falls short of 2021 due to rising interest rates, low supply and a rocky stock market. Gone are the days of long lines and listings selling within 72 hours.
“People are reading on the news that the market is getting softer. They want to wait. They still want a good deal,” said Michele Tabb, Realtor for the brokerage firm LoKation Real Estate.
“The richest people want the good deal,” she said. “They want a good value. No one wants to feel like they’ve been taken advantage of.”
This story was originally published August 7, 2022 at 4:30 AM.
