The Line, and the Matrix Behind It
The town's per-foot line stepped up in the 2022 wave and has held since: $1,988 in 2021, $3,122 in 2022, and $3,168 so far in 2026. The matrix below is the same line taken apart by position, with the sale count beside every median. It is the table this whole report stands on, and every figure in it can be checked against the two boards' closed sales.
Sources: BeachesMLS and PBBOR. Townhouse enclaves excluded, through August 2026
Sources: BeachesMLS and PBBOR, reconciled. Ocean and lakefront cells run three to eleven sales a year, so read them as bands
The Water Premium, Year by Year
Read across the matrix and the town's most important trend appears. The ocean-side median has risen five years running, $4,123 in 2022 to $5,951 in 2026. The interior fell through 2024 and has recovered to $3,071. The multiple between them has widened from about 1.4 times to 1.9 times in the trailing twelve months. Each yearly ocean cell is small, which is exactly why the matrix shows its count, but five consecutive years moving one direction is a trend, not noise. Water is not just worth more in Palm Beach. It is pulling away.
Sources: BeachesMLS and PBBOR, reconciled. Ocean and lakefront years hold three to eleven sales each
The Vanishing New-Build Premium
Cut the same years by the age of the house and a premium disappears in front of you. In 2021, new construction carried about 66 percent more per foot than pre-1980 houses, $3,480 against $2,092. The gap has narrowed every year since. In the trailing twelve months the two sit at parity, $3,201 against $3,193, and in 2026 alone the old houses have edged ahead. The explanation is the one our record book documents at the top of the market. As the repricing matured, the land took over the price, and the building stopped earning its own premium. Buyers in the current window are paying for position and parcel. The vintage of the house is close to free.
Sources: BeachesMLS and PBBOR, sales with a recorded year built. Counts per cell in the table below
Sources: BeachesMLS and PBBOR, reconciled
Lot Size in the Current Window
Lot size still ranks the market inside the trailing year, because big lots and water travel together. Half-acre-to-acre sales carried $4,390 per foot over the trailing twelve months and the quarter-acre core about $3,071, with the counts beside each figure below. The land curve underneath runs to a median near $44M per acre on recent estate sales in our record book. That is why a large parcel lifts the per-foot number before the house is even considered.
Sources: BeachesMLS and PBBOR lot records. Small cells are directional
How to Use Per-Foot Without Being Fooled
Per-foot is a cross-check, never a verdict, and it only means something inside a stated window. Used well, it compares a property against like-for-like sales from the trailing year: same side of the street, similar lot, similar era. Used badly, it prices an oceanfront estate off an interior median, or quotes a three-year average into a market that has moved. Every figure in this report carries its period and its count so it can be verified against the record. We keep the full per-foot map of the town current from both boards and the deed record, street by street, as part of our buyer and seller work. Ask us for the map on any street, and we will show exactly where a property sits inside it.
Bottom Line
Position sets the price per foot in Palm Beach. Over the trailing twelve months the town's median was $3,148 a square foot. Ocean-side houses ran $5,950 across 5 sales, the lakefront $4,807 across 8, and the interior $3,071 across 95. The water premium has widened since 2022, and new construction has stopped commanding one of its own. The land, not the house, is setting the price.
For anyone pricing by the foot: Price against the last twelve months for your own position, ocean, lake or interior. The town-wide median is the wrong number for any specific house.
The record is the reconciled union of BeachesMLS and the Palm Beach Board of Realtors MLS. It covers single-family sales in the core town with recorded living areas, 2021 through August 2026, with South Palm Beach and the townhouse enclaves excluded. The trailing twelve months run from late August 2025 through late August 2026. Position is derived from the verified street, since neither board nor the county's bulk records carry a linear frontage measure for this town. Every median is shown with its sale count, and cells under five sales should be read as directional bands.
Build years and lot areas are the MLS records where present. Medians are used throughout. No owner is named, and this report makes no forecast.
BeachesMLS via Flexmls and the Palm Beach Board of Realtors MLS, closed sales, 2021 through August 2026.
Palm Beach Luxury, The Palm Beach Record Book, August 2026.
