By E.B. Solomont

Five years ago, $20 million home sales in Aspen, Colo., were rare, happening no more than a handful of times a year.

An influx of uber-wealthy buyers has now upended that norm, handing the affluent Colorado ski area 34 deals above $20 million last year, up 161% from 2024, data from Aspen Snowmass Sotheby's International Realty show. The median single-family home sale price in Aspen hit $13.95 million during 2025's third quarter, compared to $9.97 million in Palm Beach, which begs the question: Is Aspen now outpacing Palm Beach, a hotbed of ultra-luxury home sales, as one of the priciest markets in the country?

Long known as playgrounds for the rich and famous -- one snowy, one sunny -- Aspen and Palm Beach are increasingly two sides of the same coin when it comes to luxury real estate.

Each is home to dozens of billionaires. Restaurants like Sant Ambroeus and boutiques like Brunello Cucinelli have outposts in both locales. Some of the wealthiest people have property in both places, too. "People run in packs, and they run to the same destinations," said Palm Beach real-estate agent Dana Koch of the Corcoran Group.

The meteoric rise in Aspen's ultraluxury market has made comparisons between the markets unavoidable. Both Palm Beach and Aspen saw deal volume and prices soar starting in 2020. That's continued to be driven by strong financial markets. "The one-percenters are making money hand over fist," said Aspen real-estate appraiser Randy Gold. Real estate, he said, "is a hard asset that they can enjoy."

Both are small markets that are protected geographically, adding to their exclusivity. "Palm Beach is an island. Aspen is basically an island in the mountains surrounded by [public land,]" said Aspen real-estate agent Riley Warwick of Douglas Elliman. "Once you're here, it's very private."

Each also has a limited supply of homes. There are only so many beachfront properties in Palm Beach, for example, or homes on Aspen's Red Mountain, which has fueled major price appreciation in both. "The numbers are mind boggling, but the reality is these properties are unicorns," Koch said. "When they come up for sale, you have buyers out there who will pay a premium."

Here's how their real-estate markets stack up.

Billionaires by the dozen

Palm Beach and Aspen are neck-and-neck when it comes to the number of billionaires in town. Aspen (population: 6,556) has about 80, according to Forbes, compared with Palm Beach (population: 9,493) with 70. For what it's worth: Roughly 62% of Palm Beach's population is over age 65 compared to 16.4% in Aspen.

At least a dozen billionaires own homes in both places, including Citadel's Ken Griffin, industrialist Bill Koch, fashion designer Tom Ford and Microsoft's Charles Simonyi, who recently assembled a 3-acre property of prime waterfront on North Ocean Boulevard for around $ 250 million. Car-dealership owner Terry Taylor, who has a $ 76 million ski-in, ski-out mansion on Red Mountain, also owns a $22.2 million mansion on South Ocean Boulevard. Former casino mogul Steve Wynn and financier Thomas Peterffy teamed up to buy an Aspen estate but own separate houses in Palm Beach.

Worth noting: Walmart heir Rob Walton (net worth: $110 billion) is the wealthiest property owner in Aspen. In Palm Beach, that title goes to Julia Koch (net worth: $74.2), the widow of industrialist David Koch.

Constrained and Costly

High in the Rocky Mountains, Aspen has roughly 6,200 housing units compared with Palm Beach, a barrier island in South Florida, with 10,500.

Both have extremely constrained luxury inventory. Aspen had just 94 homes listed for sale above $10 million on Zillow as of Jan. 7, when Palm Beach had 92. During the third quarter of 2025, Palm Beach had eight single-family home sales, while Aspen had 12.

Some of the priciest real estate is in small pockets within each market, including the Estate Section, with its large ocean-to-lake properties, and Red Mountain, where grand estates have views of the Roaring Fork Valley and Independence Pass. Homes set in a grid pattern are on the North End of Palm Beach and in Aspen's West End neighborhood.

Worth noting: Both Aspen and Palm Beach are roughly 3.8 square miles.

Taxes vs risk

Florida is known as a tax haven for a reason. The Sunshine State has no state income tax, and its effective property tax rate is 0.74% for owner-occupied homes, according to the Tax Foundation. By comparison, Colorado has a 4.4% state income tax and an effective property tax rate of 0.50%.

Insurance costs vary widely, with some insurers pulling out of Florida altogether. For homes valued at $1 million or more, the average premium was $4,260 in Colorado in 2022, according to the most recent data available from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. In Florida, the average premium for a home of the same value was $11,457.

Worth noting: Between 2020 and 2024, the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared four disasters in Colorado compared with 10 in Florida.

The cost of buying in

Ultraluxury deals are fueling major price jumps. Aspen's median single-family home sale price was $13.95 million during 2025's third quarter, up roughly 37.4% from the third quarter of 2020. "The entry point to get in here now is just expensive," said Gold. "Thank God I own my own house. I could never buy my house now. Never." In Palm Beach, the median single-family home sold for $9.97 million during the third quarter of 2025, up 69.8% from 2020. In some instances, homes have traded for double -- or more -- than pre-Covid pricing. In April, an oceanfront estate that traded for $24.2 million in 2020 fetched $51.4 million.

Worth noting: Cash sales accounted for 100% of single-family home sales in Palm Beach during the third quarter.

Supersized sales

With finite inventory, competition for luxury homes has pushed prices in both markets into a new stratosphere. Aspen had two deals above $30 million in 2020, a number that jumped to 16 in 2025, including a teardown that former Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure sold to his neighbor for $37.3 million. Palm Beach had five deals above $30 million in 2020 and 11 in 2025 -- including the $86.5 million sale of a waterfront property owned by fund manager Gerald "Jerry" Jordan and his wife, Darlene Jordan. Palm Beach logged five deals above $100 million during the five-year period while Aspen had one.

Worth noting: In Aspen, one-third of single-family home sales during the third quarter surpassed $20 million.

The escalation game

Ken Griffin has spent years -- and some $450 million -- assembling a 27-acre oceanfront compound in Palm Beach. But the record for a single-family home sale belongs to luxury car dealership owner Michael Cantanucci and his wife, Kimberly Cantanucci, who paid around $170 million for a 1.6-acre oceanfront property in 2023. The most-expensive sale in Aspen came a year later, when Steve Wynn and Tom Peterffy paid $108 million for an estate at the base of Red Mountain.

Sellers in both places are now aiming even higher.

Write to E.B. Solomont at eb.solomont@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Car-dealership owner Terry Taylor has a house on Ajax Mountain. "Aspen vs. Palm Beach: Which Has the Priciest Homes?," at 8 p.m. ET on Jan. 9. incorrectly said his house is on Red Mountain.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 09, 2026 13:29 ET (18:29 GMT)

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