Sotheby’s International Realty’s top broker in the nation last year joined Corcoran in Palm Beach, after relocating from New Mexico, The Real Deal has learned.
Darlene Streit, also the top real estate agent in Santa Fe last year with $404 million in closed dollar volume, headed east to the tony town of Palm Beach after a 31-year real estate career in Santa Fe, she said. Her career dollar volume totals more than $1.7 billion, according to a press release.
Streit has spent time in South Florida, attending school and spending time at family homes in Miami, Wellington and Palm Beach. Her mother is the golfer Marlene Stewart Streit, who is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and trained in South Florida during the winters.
Streit said she is relocating because her husband developed health issues from living in a high altitude environment. She said her clients are also looking to buy homes in South Florida, and expects it will be a “natural transition.”
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Streit interviewed with other brokerages, but decided to join Corcoran primarily because of Pam Liebman’s leadership, as well as the firm’s presence in Palm Beach, New York and the Hamptons.
Over the past year, Corcoran lured at least two top Palm Beach brokers: Suzanne Frisbie and Jennifer Hyland.
Corcoran is also looking to expand in Wellington, where Streit hopes to help lead the charge, Streit said.
The luxury real estate market in Santa Fe has boomed during the pandemic, similar to Palm Beach and South Florida overall. Streit’s closed dollar volume last year marked more than a 50 percent increase over the $263.5 million in sales she closed in 2020, according to Real Trends data provided to TRD by Corcoran.
Palm Beach has seen a number of record closings in the last two years. Limited inventory has resulted in fewer sales this year compared with the previous year, but properties are still trading for high prices.
Last month, fashion designer Tomas Maier and his husband, businessman Andrew Preston, sold Ivana Trump’s former Palm Beach at 102 Jungle Road for $72.9 million.
Developer Todd Michael Glaser and his partners recently sold a non-waterfront Palm Beach home for $15.5 million, more than double the price they paid for the property last year. That deal added to a recent string of sales for the spec home builder, who pivoted to Palm Beach early on in the pandemic.
Glaser and his partners also recently flipped two waterfront Palm Beach homes for a combined $70 million, $20 million more than they paid for them last year.
An earlier version of this story misstated Streit’s previous state in the headline.