PB scores the largest homes in South #fff;background:#00660

While LeBron James made news this weekend by reportedly looking at the NBA-sized homes in Gables Estates in Coral Gables, if he really wanted a lot of space he’d head to Palm Beach.

According to analysis by The Real Deal, using data from PropertyShark.com, the biggest homes in South Florida are dominated by homes on the small island of Palm Beach.

All 10 of the largest homes in South Florida in Palm Beach County.

The largest home in South Florida is the 84,626-square-foot home of cosmetics mogul Sydell Miller at 1415 S. Ocean Boulevard.

The larger size of Palm Beach homes is in part due to the relative dearth of land on Palm Beach, meaning most owners seek to build as much as they can on their properties, said realtor Betsey Hall of Fite Shavell.

“Land is scarce here,” she said. “We don’t have much land, being an island, so they certainly build out — they max out the property so they can get as much square footage as they can.”

She also said the island’s past played a role. When South Florida was first being settled, Palm Beach was where the money was.

“This is where, back in the 1920s and 1930s, the biggest estates were — they went from ocean to lake,” she said. “It’s really the history of the island — originally we had these magnificent estates. A lot of the land was sold off [eventually], but you still have those major estates.”

Miami-Dade County’s largest home, the 28,535-square-foot property at 100 SE 32 Road in Coconut Grove, is just the 12th-largest in the tri-county area, just after 3305 Fairfield Lane in Weston, the largest house in Broward County.

But the home with the highest appraised value of the largest homes in South Florida is 545 North County Road, just the fourth-largest, but, at $83.9 million, the most valuable according to 2009 market value appraisals by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s office.