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A banner year for top-end luxury US real estate in 2025 saw many of the wealthiest buyers turn their attentions from traditional, regulation-choked enclaves in Los Angeles and San Francisco — and towards more supply-rich metros elsewhere in the country.
As the broader housing market struggled, home sales priced at $10 million or more boomed nationwide, totaling $38.6 billion last year, according to Compass’s newly released 2025 Ultra-Luxury Report.
Out of 84 markets across the the country, the brokerage identified 10 top locales where high-end sales shot up by nearly 32% year-over-year — hurried along by rapid wealth creation on the highest end.
Development-friendly states that historically saw few of these now increasingly frequent ultra-luxury transactions, like Arizona and Texas, reaped notable benefits from the boom — and from California’s lack of interest in meeting demand.
“The growth areas … often have an affinity for development in common,” Mike Simonsen, Compass’s chief economist, told The Post. “They’re development friendly, they’re tax friendly, they’re privacy friendly,”
Highly buildable cities like Phoenix/Scottsdale, Houston and Dallas enjoyed a spillover from supply-constrained hubs on the coasts, Simonsen said.
But the money isn’t always leaving the Golden State completely. More developer-friendly San Diego, which rarely saw $10 million-plus sales before the pandemic, has courted a steady stream of ultra-luxury transactions, offering Los Angeles buyers looking for room to breathe more options and greater privacy.
America’s Finest City recorded a record-high sale of $47 million in 2025 — and now ranks among the top 10 ultra-luxury markets nationwide.
Houston and Dallas were breakout entries as well. The two main Texas metros offer wealthy buyers tax advantages and larger properties than their California counterparts ever could.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area grew from hosting zero ultra-luxury activity before 2020, to racking up 15 sales last year, according to the report. Houston counted just one sale of $10 million in 2019, but in 2025 hosted more a double-digit sales growth in ultra-luxury transactions for the second year running.
Houston’s 22% ultra-luxury sales growth loomed large over the 1.8% growth in the rest of the market, Simonsen noted.
That doesn’t mean that longtime top-performers Los Angeles or San Francisco lost out completely, however.
Transactions totaling $10 million or more surged still nearly 54% in Los Angeles last year, rebounding from a 17.75% decline in 2024.
High-end sales in San Francisco rose by 50%, with a total of 24 ultra-luxury units sold.
Back east, Manhattan remained the most robust ultra-luxury market in the US, with 398 sales priced $10 million and up year — a growth of nearly 30% from 2024.
NYC-based Compass broker Holly Parker told The Post that the Big Apple’s unusually busy end-of-year sales season signaled major market shifts ahead.
“After three decades, you can kind of feel the tremors before the earthquake,” Parker said.
December brought about Downtown’s first ever sale over $100 million, when multiple condos at the West Village’s 80 Clarkson development sold for $129 million. Parker said luxury developments across the city, from Gramercy Park’s 67 Irving to 1122 Madison near Central Park, are attracting eager buyers.
“It’s a function of financial markets,” Simonsen said of Manhattan. “It’s a function of the supply that continues to be available. There people building $10 million condos.”
Nearby, The Hamptons saw its own dramatic price growth, along with number of sales. Ultra-luxury sales out East increased by nearly 83% in 2025, according to the report.
South Florida also continues to attract buyers to its warmer climes, with Palm Beach County and Miami-Dade now making up the second-largest ultra-luxe region in the US by volume.
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