Back in April I wrote about who was actually buying real estate in Miami. My argument then was simple. Serious buyers were done browsing. They already knew whether they belonged in Brickell, in the Grove, or on the water, and they showed up informed. Three months later the mid-year numbers are in, and they’re even stronger than I expected.
June provided a vibrant backdrop to these dynamics. Playing host to the World Cup brought an influx of global visitors, giving Miami a weeks-long stage to showcase its lifestyle to prospective residents. While many of those visitors will likely reach out to an agent in the coming months, active buyers already on the ground wasted no time closing deals.
Given all this, it’s time to update my answer to the question I’m often asked: who is buying Miami real estate right now?
The Mid-Year Numbers Are Not Subtle
Miami-Dade just posted its strongest June in three years. Per the Miami Association of Realtors report released July 17, 2026, total sales rose 14.3% year over year to 2,107 closings. This is the tenth month of gains in a row.
But the number that really stopped me in my tracks was luxury home sales. Sales at $1 million and above climbed 29.1% in June, from 374 to 483 closings. The association’s chief economist singled out million-dollar single-family home sales (up 40% from a year ago), and credited the acceleration of wealth migration. In fact, South Florida is now averaging one $10 million home sale per day.
Read that again: one $10 million home sold per day!
And while all that buying is happening, the shelves are thinning out. Active listings fell 14.9%, and single-family inventory dropped 22.7%, which works out to 4.9 months of supply. Single family home sellers hold all the cards there. However, with 12.3 months of supply, condos demand a different playbook entirely.
Who Is Buying Miami Real Estate at Mid-Year?
Three buyers keep showing up at closing tables: the relocators, the global buyers, and the cash buyers.
The Relocators: Henley and Partners projects a record 165,000 millionaires will relocate globally in 2026, and Florida remains their favorite American landing spot. Miami is currently home to more than 92,000 millionaires, a number that has nearly doubled in a decade. New York alone is losing $10.7 billion in net adjusted gross income a year, while Florida gains $20.7 billion. There’s a reason the New York to Miami run is the busiest private aviation corridor in the country. These families are not shopping for vacation homes. They’re moving their tax residence, their firms, and their children’s schools south.
The Global Buyers: Foreign purchases of South Florida homes hit $4.4 billion in 2025, up from $3.1 billion the year before. Yet those numbers actually understate the real total, as standard reporting rarely captures early-stage development. Across new condo towers, international buyers (representing 73 countries at last count) accounted for nearly half of all pre-construction sales.
The Cash Buyers: Cash covered 38.1% of all June closings and 48.5% of condo sales. Move up into the luxury tier, and cash virtually dominates the conversation. Last year, 82% of Miami’s million-dollar condo sales closed all-cash. Mortgage rates sat at 6.49% in June and this group could not care less. They are not borrowing.
Where the Money Is Landing
Brickell
Brickell is still the front door for global capital, and condo towers absorb that demand line by line. Interestingly, right now this is the one corner of the Miami real estate market where a prepared buyer has real leverage. With twelve months of condo inventory county-wide, buyers who do their due diligence hold the upper hand. True long-term value reveals itself both in the physical details and on paper: from building maintenance and the afternoon light to healthy reserve funds and completed recertifications.
The Roads, Coconut Grove, and Coral Gables
In Miami, domestic money heads for the canopy. Families coming down from the Northeast want what these neighborhoods spent a century growing: banyan and oak-shaded streets, 1920s architecture, true yards, and a sense of permanence that no new tower can manufacture at any price. Turnover in these enclaves is low even in balanced markets, but with single-family inventory down nearly 23% county-wide, available homes in these historic neighborhoods are exceptionally scarce. A well-kept house on a good street in The Roads, the Grove, or the Gables does not linger.
Miami Beach (On the Water)
With my Miami Beach clients the conversation is narrow on purpose: waterfront units, and only the right ones. Two lines in the same building can perform completely differently, and buyers know it. Recertification timelines and reserve funding now separate the buildings people trust from the ones they quietly cross off the list. In this market, knowing the building beats knowing the zip code.
What This Means If You’re Buying This Fall
The buyers winning right now share one habit, and it is discipline. They know the comps. They know the single-family market at 4.9 months of supply demands a different playbook than the condo market at 12.3 months. And they still recognize value when they see it. For $1 million, Miami delivers 58 square meters of prime property. In Monaco, the same money buys 16. New York and London are in the thirties. The world has done this math, which is exactly why the window keeps narrowing.
If you’re weighing a purchase in Brickell, The Roads, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables or on the water in Miami Beach, come sit down with me before the fall season and we’ll map it out properly:
- Which micro-market you actually belong in.
- What the evidence says you should pay.
- Where the quiet opportunities are sitting right now.
I apply the same discipline I bring to building a home valuation to the buy side, and it costs you nothing but a conversation.
Barbara Gretsch · Miami Real Estate
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Barbara Gretsch is a REALTOR® with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty, serving Miami and South Florida’s $1M+ residential market, including Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, The Roads, Brickell, Key Biscayne, and Miami Beach. barbaragretsch.com