How South Florida’s luxury market has kept its heat

Homebuyers flocked to South Florida during the pandemic, shelling out record sums for waterfront mansions and keeping brokers in all tiers of the market extremely busy. 

High mortgage rates have since cooled the region’s housing market — but don’t count out wealthy buyers altogether.

“Sales have been slowing down since last summer, because of interest rates completely,” The Real Deal’s residential bureau chief, Katherine Kallergis, said on the latest episode of TRD’s weekly podcast Deconstruct. “But we have seen some very big deals.” 

Deconstruct chatted with Kallergis about how well-heeled cash buyers are still paying the big bucks for trophy properties up and down the coast — take Rush Limbaugh’s former 2.7-acre oceanfront compound in Palm Beach, which sold for $155 million last month. 

“Those deals are going to happen regardless of what’s going on,” Kallergis said. 

Still, pricing has shifted, she added, and some buyers have been forced to sell at a loss. 

Kallergis also discussed demand for new-construction properties, how the crypto market and the collapse of FTX has affected the buyer pool and why brokers are more reachable now than they were in the heady days of 2021. 

Tune into the full episode, now streaming on Apple, Spotify and wherever else you get your podcast fix.