South Florida $10 Million-Plus Luxury Home Sales Hit Four-Year High—Fueled by Surging Wealth Migration

The South Florida luxury real estate market had a banner year in 2025, posting the second-highest number of $10 million-plus home sales in the region's history, driven by an influx of wealthy buyers. 

From January to December 2025, there were 361 closings in South Florida involving high-end properties priced at $10 million or more, trailing only the 444 record set during the pandemic-era buying frenzy in 2021, according to the latest report from the Miami Association of Realtors®.

The findings are based on the December 2025 figures released by the association and the Southeast Florida Multiple Listing Service (SEFMLS).

"The surge in South Florida ultra-luxury home sales illustrates our massive wealth migration," association Chairman of the Board Alfredo Pujol stated. "The wealthy, including billionaire Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are moving to Miami not just because of taxes. They are coming here because of our growing fintech hub, weather, lifestyle, beaches, and more. Miami is the city of the future."

Ana Bozovic, a Miami-based real estate agent and founder of real estate research firm Analytics Miami, agrees with Pujol's take.

An end-of-the-year report and 2026 forecast from Analytics Miami closely aligns with the Miami Association of Realtors' assessment of the local luxury market.

Bozovic says Miami-Dade County has increasingly benefited from an influx of wealth fleeing what she calls "hostile jurisdictions," where high earners face the prospect of increased taxation and other unfavorable policies.

"The negative momentum cycles in our feeder jurisdictions will keep growing and they will keep pushing capital our way," Bozovic tells Realtor.com®. "Most people cannot perceive the magnitude of all this until it becomes very, very obvious."

California's loss is Florida's gain

A prime example of this trend is seen in California, where a major health care union is pushing a November ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% wealth tax on billionaires. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said in a recent interview with The New York Times that he has been working behind the scenes to defeat the proposed tax in an effort to stop the flight of billionaires from the Golden State, which is already underway.

Since the wealth tax idea was first floated as a way to offset federal funding cuts to health care for low-income residents, several high-profile billionaires have begun moving their assets out of California, with many redirecting them to Miami. Among them are Google co-founders Page and Brin, and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel. 

"The writing is on the wall.," notes Bozovic. "Billionaires are securing Florida residences and relocating capital in response to California’s proposed wealth tax, a trend that is directly feeding record demand in South Florida’s luxury market."

Besides domestic billionaires looking to shield their assets from taxation, Bozovic says global wealth mobility has emerged as a major factor, with cash-rich foreign investors flocking to Miami and scooping up trophy properties.

"Global buyers accustomed to paying significantly higher prices per square foot in markets like London, New York, Hong Kong, or Monaco still see Miami as comparatively underpriced," she says, adding that the backbone of South Florida's top-tier market is cash transactions increasingly driven by mobile wealth, both domestic and international.

Data from the Miami Association of Realtors supports this conclusion, showing that cash sales accounted for 40% of all closings in Miami last month, compared with just 27% nationally.

In the $10 million plus tier, 81% of closings were all cash, according to Bozovic.

What's ahead for Miami's luxury segment

The high share of cash buyers reflects Miami's position "as the preeminent American real estate market for foreign buyers, who tend to purchase with all cash as well as some moving from more expensive U.S. markets who can buy more with their profits from real estate sales," states the association's report.

Bozovic predicts that Miami's housing market will not be reverting to pre-pandemic norms and will continue its ascent.

"This is not a bubble. New price points are here to stay and have become the new market reality," she argues.

Looking to 2026, Analytics Miami forecasts that pricing and liquidity will remain increasingly concentrated in luxury and ultra-luxury tiers, driven by tight inventory, cash-driven demand, and continued global capital mobility.

"I expect that we will continue to see new records at the upper echelons of the South Florida market," forecasts Bozovic.