Coral Gables and Miami Beach have the priciest houses in the country — and it’s thanks to deep-pocketed movers and shakers coming to town.

The Coral Gables neighborhood Gables Estates has the highest home value for single-family homes as of March, according to monthly data from the Seattle-based residential listing company Zillow Group.

Zillow found the typical home price is $19.14 million in Gables Estates, higher than any other area. The company bases its home value by calculating the changes in individual residential values and averaging the middle third of the housing market.

Other Florida neighborhoods, as well as Beverly Hills in California, trailed Gables Estates.

They include: Naples’ Port Royal ($16.49 million), Beverly Hills Gateway ($10.79M), Coral Gables’ Old Cutler Bay ($10.22M), Beverly Hills’ The Flats ($9.28M), Miami Beach’s Rivo Alto Island ($9.1M), Jupiter’s Bear’s Club ($8.99M), Naples’ Aqualane Shore ($8.88M), Miami Beach’s San Marino Island ($8.84M), and Beverly Hills’ Trousdale Estates ($8.5M).

South Florida’s wealth migration has led to surging home values and historically high sales prices, especially in sought-after cities Coral Gables and Miami Beach. Home sales were left at a standstill early in the pandemic, but South Florida — given its warm climate, state’s zero income taxes, and popularity of remote work — became a haven for the wealthy.

Houses, in particular, became the go-to option, given the heightened desire for space. As companies open satellite offices or move their headquarters into South Florida, executives and employees continue to scoop up luxury homes.

“COVID brought this whole new group of buyers that realized they could live wherever they wanted to live,” said Ron Shuffield, president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty. “The way our state handled COVID was a message to the world that we were a business friendly state. That continues today.”

City Beautiful

Nicknamed City Beautiful, Coral Gables is filled with distinguishing characteristics: the University of Miami campus, Miracle Mile, the Plaza Coral Gables or, simply, roads shaded with canopies of banyan trees and lined with residences with Mediterranean flair and terracotta rooftops.

Still, the priciest residences sit far off the beaten path of U.S. 1. The Old Cutler Road area and waterfront Gables Estates stretch near the well-known attraction Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Past residents include Raúl Alarcón, CEO of Spanish Broadcasting System, and Howard S. Frank, a director for the Edgewater-based wealth management firm Fairholme and a former executive for Carnival Corp.

Although home values and prices continue to rise, activity has trickled off for Coral Gables as a whole. Coral Gables had 357 single-family home sales in 2023, down from 425 in 2022 and — a decade high — 814 in 2021, according to data from the Multiple Listing Service. The rising prices are a result of willing buyers choosing the pricier homes on the market.

Economic impact

Real estate developers took notice of the demand for luxury living. MG Developer Miami founder Alirio Torrealba has built several townhouses priced over $1 million near Miracle Mile and the Coral Gables Branch Library. After purchasing several apartment buildings, he has a $50 million development underway called The Village of Coral Gables.

The spotlight on Coral Gables brings more demand to the area from buyers looking to leave New York and California and is encouraging him to deliver even more housing.

“Coral Gables is like a jewel and it’s now in the light in front of the entire world,” Torrealba said. “All of these areas like Coco Plum and Gables Estates are areas of a lot of wealth and help bring up values for all of Coral Gables.”

The influx of new residents has also boosted foot traffic for the city’s retail strips like Miracle Mile and Giralda Plaza, said Belkys Perez, Coral Gables’ director of economic development. In addition to its shops and restaurants, the city has seen some companies scooping up more office space, including Apple and transportation company Ryder.

“We talk to residential Realtors all the time and what they tell us is many of the showings they are doing in the Gables are from the Citadel employees looking to move to Miami,” Perez said of the investment firm.

“Any company looking to come to South Florida is wonderful,” she said. “We feel it’s like rising tides lift all ships for that reason. Everyone is benefiting from that increase in corporate migration.”