Luxury home prices in the Tampa metro jumped 15.4% year over year during the three months ending in July, the second-largest increase among the 50 most populous U.S. metros, according to a Redfin analysis. Only Miami, at 18%, posted a bigger gain.

Nationally, the median luxury sale price rose 5.3% over the same period.

Redfin defines luxury homes as those in the top 5% of a metro area's price range. In the Tampa metro, the typical luxury home sold for about $1.65 million during the three months ending in May, 4.4 times the typical non-luxury sale price of $374,440, Redfin reported. That ratio was 3.8 a year earlier, meaning the gap between the high end and the rest of the market widened.

The luxury boom stands in contrast to what most South Shore homeowners are seeing. The typical Apollo Beach home was worth about $438,000 in August, down 2.8% from a year earlier, according to Zillow data compiled by Bright Florida Homes. Values peaked at roughly $504,000 in August 2022 and remain about 13% below that mark.

Sarasota County’s high-end sales surge

The luxury surge is even more pronounced to the south. Sarasota County recorded nine single-family home sales of $10 million or more from July through September, up from one during the same quarter in 2025. That is an 800% increase, according to the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee (RASM), as first reported by the Business Observer.

Ten condos and townhomes in Sarasota County also sold for $10 million or more during the quarter, compared with zero a year earlier, RASM's Q3 report shows.

The biggest deal: a newly built estate on Siesta Key that closed Sept. 28 for $26 million, the county’s highest-priced home sale so far in 2026, the Herald-Tribune reported. The 13,035-square-foot property on 1.18 acres was an all-cash purchase, luxury agent Adnan Dedic of Compass told the paper.

Five of the nine $10 million-plus single-family closings landed in September alone. All 10 of the condo and townhome sales at that price level also closed that month.

Cash buyers drive the high end

Cash purchases accounted for 37.6% of Sarasota County single-family sales and 60.9% of condo and townhome sales during the third quarter, according to RASM. Wealthy buyers paying cash are less affected by elevated mortgage rates, which continue to weigh on the broader market.

"Even with new listings increasing across all segments, inventory continues to shrink, showing buyer demand is outpacing current supply," David Crawford, 2026 RASM president, said in the association's Q3 report.

Sarasota County's average single-family sale price climbed 20.2% year over year to $807,627 in the third quarter. The median sale price, less sensitive to a handful of blockbuster deals, rose 3.7% to $485,000.

What it means locally

Apollo Beach and Ruskin sit in unincorporated Hillsborough County, not Sarasota County, so the RASM data does not cover this area directly. But the Tampa metro's luxury price gains and shrinking inventory provide regional context; they do not establish an equivalent increase in Apollo Beach or Ruskin.

The RASM Q3 report, including county-level detail, is available at myrasm.com.