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Ultraluxury Home Sales Bucked Trend in 2025

U.S.: Sales of luxury homes bucked the trend in the U.S. housing market in 2025. In the top 10 luxury markets across the country, more than 1,600 transactions of more than $10 million closed last year. Those transactions were up more than 30% from 2024 and in terms of dollars, the volume was more than $28 billion, up 24% from 2024. The biggest increase was in Los Angeles, ravaged by wildfires and reeling from a mansion tax. In 2025, there were 292 sales of $10 million or more, a 54% spike in sales from 2024. And dollar-wise, the figure for those transactions surged past $5.3 billion, a 60% increase from 2024. New York accounted for nearly 500 transactions over $10 million, including 398 in Manhattan and close to 100 in The Hamptons. Other cities that also had significant sales of $10 million or more were Miami, Palm Beach, Aspen, Phoenix, San Diego and the Dallas area, where 15 deals of $10 million-plus closed in 2025, including the area’s most-expensive estate that sold in Dallas in December for more than $30 million. 

DFW: Those multimillion-home sales were a stark contrast from an overall North Texas market looking to find balance. In the latest figures from the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Home Price Index, single-family home prices dropped 1.42% in November. That continued a trend of falling prices since the beginning of 2025. And the MetroTex Association of Realtors reports that the median home price in North Texas was $375,000 at the end of the year. That’s a drop of more than 6% from the end of 2024.

DFW: Buyers are getting pickier as more home inventory continues to hit the market. Cancellations of home purchases across the country hit a record 16.3% at the end of the year. That accounted for more than 40,000 home purchases that never materialized, according to Redfin. That’s the highest number since 2017. The metros with the highest number of cancellations were in Atlanta, 22.5%; San Antonio and Jacksonville, both at 20.6%, Cleveland at 20.2%; and Tampa, at 19.4%. The lowest cancellation was in Nassau County, New York, at 3.8%. While some deals may fall through during the inspection period, Redfin also notes that higher mortgage, insurance and property costs could also scare would-be homebuyers from completing the transaction. 

U.S.: A new trend has quietly taken hold across the country’s real estate market. Fortune magazine reports that the number of homeowners with mortgage rates of 6% or higher has now surged past those with rates below 3%. Home inventory during and just after the pandemic was low in many areas of the country because homeowners did not want to give up their low mortgage rates, leading to higher prices. That has changed over the past several years, as rates began increasing in early 2022. Now, more than 30% of mortgages in the U.S. are above 5%, including 21.2% at 6% or higher. That compares to only 20% of mortgages under 3%. 

LALALAND: Seems like Larry Page of Google isn’t the only billionaire who bought property outside of the Golden State before the end of 2025 ahead of a potential wealth tax. His Google co-founder Sergey Brin is the new owner of a $42 million Lake Tahoe, Nevada, estate known as Crystal Pointe that was purchased in December. It originally had been listed for $75 million. The eight-bedroom, 9.5-bath mansion sits on five lakefront acres with a main house, a caretaker residence and a beach house, plus more. Brin’s attorney apparently also transferred several of Brin’s LLCs out of California in 2025. An initiative in California is seeking signatures to place on the ballot a measure that would levy a one-time 5% tax on residents worth more than $1 billion. Brin, who still owns several properties in California, has a net worth of more than $260 billion. 

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