The Short Answer
In North Palm Beach this budget lands almost entirely on houses. The median recorded house runs 4,296 square feet at $1,127 a foot, with a median build year of 2002. On the water sit 21 of the 29 house sales, most along the canal and harbour streets where the dock is part of the lot. The life this buys is specific: a boat at your own dock, the Intracoastal two turns from the seawall, and the village's own country club. The live listings sit on our North Palm Beach page, and the pockets below are where those sales landed.
The Island Yardstick
The clean way to price the village is against the island. In the same two years the island's $4M to $6M band recorded 42 closings, and 28 of them were condominiums. Houses were 11 in two years, every one of them off the water, at a median of 2,334 square feet and $2,157 a foot. Eight of the eleven closed at or below five million dollars. The market today is thinner than that record. Our island buying briefing counted exactly one house listed below five million in August 2026. Beyond that one listing, a buyer holding this budget on the island is choosing an apartment.
- $1,127 · North Palm Beach house
- $1,850 · island condo
- $2,157 · island house, no water
Source: MLS closed sales, North Palm Beach and the town of Palm Beach.
Source: MLS closed sales, and the island listing count from our island buying briefing, August 2026.
Where the Band Sells
The sales cluster tightly. Harbour Isles leads with nine. The pocket is a run of gated waterfront streets off the Intracoastal where the dock comes first. The original village plats and their 1950s club additions supplied 9 more. Older lots there rebuild into new houses. Seminole Landing, the gated oceanfront community at the band's top edge, recorded 3. Hidden Key, a small gated waterfront enclave, recorded 2. The rest scatter across Old Port Village, Captains Key, Prosperity Harbor and Seminole Beach. One sale even landed inside Lost Tree Village, a community that usually trades well above this range.
Source: MLS closed sales, recorded subdivision names
How the Band Behaves
The band negotiates like a real market rather than a trophy one. The median sale waited 70 days and closed at 89.1 percent of its original asking price. Houses built since 2020 account for 8 of the band's sales, which is why the median build year keeps climbing while the streets keep their scale.
Reading the Corridor
North Palm Beach is the county's working option for the buyer who wants a house at this number rather than an island apartment, and its original plats keep rebuilding. Our county-wide study of the five million budget covers every market. This corridor is where that budget buys a waterfront house.
Bottom Line
Five million in North Palm Beach buys a waterfront house. On the island the same budget is an apartment decision. The village's recorded rate runs near half the island's house rate for nearly twice the living area, and most of its houses come with dockage.
For a buyer working this budget: Tell us whether the boat or the address leads your list. The band holds both, never at the same property, and we can show you the pockets where each lives.
Figures are MLS closed sales between $4M and $6M, closed from August 2024 through July 2026. The markets are North Palm Beach and, for the comparison, the town of Palm Beach. Houses and condos are reported separately throughout. Medians are used for price, living area, build year and rate per foot, and waterfront counts follow the recorded waterfront flag. The North Palm Beach dataset covers sales of $3M and above, which fully contains the band. Off-market sales are not in MLS data. Pocket counts follow recorded subdivision names. The island listing count is the active-listing census in our island buying briefing, August 2026.
This is market data, not investment advice.
MLS closed sales, North Palm Beach and the town of Palm Beach, August 2024 through July 2026.
Palm Beach Luxury, the county five million study, the island buying briefing and the community pages.
