In September 2026, a Palm Beach County single-family home that sold for $500,000 to $599,999 went under contract in a median of 33 days. A home that sold for $1.5 million to $1.999 million took a median of 79 days. Florida Realtors released both figures on October 16. Together they show two markets inside the county moving in opposite directions, and the countywide median price covers that up.
For a buyer, the split affects how fast you have to decide, how much room you have to negotiate, and how to read the headline numbers on any listing site.
The average jumped because the mix of sales changed
In September 2026, the county's median single-family sale price was $656,000, up 6.7% from September 2025. The average sale price was $1,286,181, up 20.8%. Total dollar volume rose 17.6% to about $1.5 billion, even though closed sales fell 2.7% to 1,132.
So fewer homes sold, but more money changed hands, because a bigger share of the sales were expensive homes. The median is the price of the home in the middle of the list, so it barely moves when the top of the list gets heavier. The average moves a lot.
The full third quarter shows the same thing. From July through September 2026, the county recorded 3,580 single-family closings, up 2.8%. The median was $655,000, up 5.6%, and the average was $1,253,312, up 24.9%. Sales of $1 million or more reached 995 for the quarter, up 23.3%. Sales of $10 million or more went from roughly 17 to 47. Working backward from the report's year-over-year changes, $1 million-plus homes made up about 23% of Q3 2025 closings and about 28% of Q3 2026 closings.
That five-point shift explains most of the gap between the average and the median. A typical home in the middle of the market gained in the mid-single digits. It did not gain 20%.
The two markets, tier by tier
The table below uses the Florida Realtors September 2026 detail report for Palm Beach County single-family homes. The last column is our own rough math. It divides active listings at the end of September by that month's closed sales, which approximates how many months the current listings would last at September's pace. The report sorts sales by sale price and listings by current list price, so treat that column as a guide, not an official months-of-supply figure.
| Price tier | Sept 2026 closings | Change vs. Sept 2025 | Median days to contract | Active listings, change vs. Sept 2025 | Listings per month of sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $400,000 to $499,999 | 144 | -17.2% | 39 | 436, -23.5% | about 3.0 |
| $500,000 to $599,999 | 143 | -25.1% | 33 | 477, -24.5% | about 3.3 |
| $600,000 to $699,999 | 136 | +20.4% | 41 | 396, -29.0% | about 2.9 |
| $700,000 to $799,999 | 90 | -18.2% | 29 | 280, -32.4% | about 3.1 |
| $1M to $1.249M | 69 | -9.2% | 37 | 229, -25.6% | about 3.3 |
| $1.25M to $1.499M | 55 | +12.2% | 34 | 254, -3.4% | about 4.6 |
| $1.5M to $1.999M | 62 | +19.2% | 79 | 279, -13.4% | about 4.5 |
| $2M to $2.999M | 71 | +44.9% | 71 | 292, -14.1% | about 4.1 |
| $3M to $4.999M | 32 | +18.5% | 77 | 283, -10.2% | about 8.8 |
| $5M to $9.999M | 23 | +27.8% | 91 | 237, -6.0% | about 10.3 |
In the closings column, the middle tiers mostly lost sales while the upper tiers gained. Days to contract tell a different story, with the shift coming around $1.5 million instead of at the round $1 million mark.
Below $1 million, sales fell because listings dried up
A drop in sales usually suggests buyers are pulling back. Under $1 million in Palm Beach County, the listing counts point the other way. Active inventory fell 22.5% in the $300,000 to $399,999 range and 32.4% in the $700,000 to $799,999 range between September 2025 and September 2026. Over the same period, median time to contract fell sharply in most of those tiers, including 41.1% in the $500,000 to $599,999 range and 48.2% in the $700,000 to $799,999 range.
When homes sell faster and there are fewer of them, the drop in closings comes from supply. Buyers in these tiers are competing for a shrinking pool of homes. The September summary shows sellers countywide received a median 94.7% of their original list price, up from 93.4% a year earlier. Countywide months' supply fell from 5.0 to 3.6.
This is not a one-month blip. For the full third quarter, every tier from $300,000 to $999,999 went under contract faster than in Q3 2025, by between 15.6% and 32.6%. In practice, a buyer around $500,000 to $800,000 who waits a few weeks to decide is often deciding after another buyer already has.
Your budget also has to cover more than the purchase price in this range. The Sun Sentinel reported in September that property insurance costs are still putting pressure on Florida homeowners, including in Palm Beach County. In a tier where offers come in close to list price, carrying costs like insurance may be one of the few parts of the monthly payment you can still shop around on.
The real dividing line sits near $1.5 million
The $1 million mark is not where the market changes. In September 2026, homes that sold for $1 million to $1.249 million went under contract in a median of 37 days. Inventory in that band fell 25.6%, similar to the tiers below it. The $1.25 million to $1.499 million band went under contract in 34 days, 38.2% faster than a year earlier.
Above that, the market slows. The $1.5 million to $1.999 million band took 79 days, up 182.1%, and the $2 million to $2.999 million band took 71 days. One month can swing widely in tiers with only 60 or 70 sales, but the third quarter points the same direction. In Q3 2026, the $1.5 million to $1.999 million band took 54 days to contract, up 31.7%, and the $2 million to $2.999 million band took 56 days, up 19.1%.
Most buyers comparing parts of the county look at homes from $1 million to $1.5 million as luxury. By speed and supply, that band in September 2026 behaved more like the rest of the market below $1 million.
From $1.5 million to $5 million, sales grew while buyers took longer
When sales and days to contract both rise in the $1.5 million to $4.999 million tiers, it means buyers there are active but not rushing. Above $5 million, the September pace actually picked up from a year earlier, with 91 days to contract at $5 million to $9.999 million, down 47.1%, and 124 days at $10 million and up, down 16.2%. Even so, those are still the slowest tiers in the county. They have choices. Homes of $1 million or more made up 1,789 of the county's 4,481 active single-family listings at the end of September 2026, about 40%. They accounted for 327 of 1,132 closings, about 29%. Inventory at $5 million to $9.999 million fell only 6.0%, and at $10 million and up it was nearly flat, down 0.9%.
The biggest sales pulling the average up are concentrated along the coast. The Palm Beach Daily News reported that a Manalapan estate sold for $83.2 million, closing September 30. The same paper counted 13 residential sales of about $29 million or more in the Town of Palm Beach between May 1 and October 8, compared with nine in the same period of 2025. It also reported that single-family listings on the island were unusually low heading into the October season. Those figures describe the island and its immediate neighbors. Countywide, the $3 million to $4.999 million tier had nearly nine months of listings at September's pace of sales.
For a buyer above $1.5 million, that usually means time to compare, a longer inspection and negotiation window, and sellers who have watched similar homes sit on the market. For a seller in that range, the median days to contract in your specific band is a more realistic timeline than the countywide 43 days.
What to watch before the November 16 release
The next county report comes out November 16, 2026, with October data. Three numbers from the September report suggest where things go from here:
- New pending sales. Pending sales fell 13.7% to 1,062 in September 2026. Contracts come before closings, so this is the earliest sign of softer closing totals later in the fall.
- New listings under $1 million. Every tier from $200,000 to $799,999 added fewer new listings in September 2026 than a year earlier, with declines of 12.2% to 22.2%. If that continues, homes in those tiers keep selling fast.
- Cash share. Cash buyers made up 1,522 closings, or 42.5% of the total, in Q3 2026. That shapes how fast a deal can close and how much weight a financing contingency carries in a competing offer.
If you're buying or selling in Palm Beach County and want to know which side of the $1.5 million line your price range falls on, The 90th Group can pull the tier-level figures for your range and go through what they mean for your timeline and offer strategy. Contact Us.
