Coldwell Banker’s 2025 Mid-Year Global Luxury Report indicates the U.S. luxury home market remains strong, with more buyers whose significant financial gains on the sales of their current homes are pushing them into a new level of home-buying opportunities.
Elena Novak, a lead real estate researcher analyst at PropertyChecker.com, told The Epoch Times that the trend of “move up” buyers is real and growing.
However, Novak cautioned that the housing ladder is getting stuck.
“While these buyers do help free up some mid-range homes, many other homeowners are staying put because they don’t want to give up their low mortgage rates,” she said. “This limits supply for first-time and middle-income buyers.”
Luxury real estate brokers are seeing more all-cash offers, especially from ultra-wealthy clients, per a new survey of Coldwell Banker brokers.
Brokerage president Jason Waugh said high interest rates and real estate’s appeal as a safe haven during economic volatility are driving this trend.
Economic uncertainty is creating a divide in the luxury real estate market between ultra-rich buyers and the merely wealthy, according to a new report from brokerage Coldwell Banker.
- A survey of some 200 agents specializing in luxury property found that ultra-wealthy buyers, defined as individuals worth at least $30 million, are still making big-ticket purchases despite trade war and recession fears. They are also driving a substantial rise in all-cash offers. Meanwhile, affluent but less wealthy buyers are more sensitive to interest rates and are acting more cautiously, according to the report.*
As wealth concentration increases, so does demand for upscale properties.
This demand drives market prices higher and influences urban development.
Recent studies show that the wealth gap is widening globally.