Last updated October 18, 2026
Delray Beach Primary Residence Statistics 2026
In Delray Beach, 62.5% of the houses sold from October 2025 to September 2026 were the seller's primary residence; for condos and townhouses it was 47.3%. Of the buyers in 2025, 50.6% of house buyers and 37.8% of condo and townhouse buyers made the home their primary residence. Primary residence means a Florida homestead exemption recorded on the Palm Beach County tax roll, a mandatory public record, not a box an agent may or may not tick in the listing. 135 of the 1,075 house buyers (12.6%) and 444 of the 1,866 condo and townhouse buyers (23.8%) had their tax bill mailed outside Florida. Houses and condos are never blended. Edition 2026-10-18, frozen, published daily.
Key takeaways
- In September 2026, 68.2% of the 85 houses that closed and 52.1% of the 121 condos and townhouses had a homestead exemption on the roll in force when the home was listed.
- Across the complete years 2021 to 2025, the house-seller share was essentially flat (-1.1 points) and the condo and townhouse seller share rose 2.1 points.
- 16.4% of 2025 house buyers and 8.5% of condo and townhouse buyers took title as a company, trust or other entity; 12.6% and 23.8% have the tax bill mailed to another state.
- Condos and townhouses draw the out-of-state and second-home buyer at roughly 1.9 times the rate houses do.
Delray Beach, edition October 18, 2026
Houses Condos and townhouses County
Who is selling: were they living in the home?
Two of three Delray Beach house sellers were living in the house they sold; among condo and townhouse sellers it is fewer than one in two. In September 2026, 68.2% of the 85 houses that closed and 52.1% of the 121 condos and townhouses had a homestead exemption on the roll in force when the home was listed. Year to date 2026: houses 61.3% (893 sales) against 62.7% for all of 2025; condos and townhouses 46.3% (1,528 sales) against 46.7%. Across the complete years 2021 to 2025, the house-seller share was essentially flat (-1.1 points) and the condo and townhouse seller share rose 2.1 points. The monthly series moves inside a narrow band; a single month is a sample of 85 or more sales and should be read with the trailing twelve months beside it.
| Period | Houses sold | House sellers, primary residence | Condos/TH sold | Condo/TH sellers, primary residence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,524 | 63.8% | 3,150 | 44.6% |
| 2022 | 1,129 | 67.1% | 2,463 | 42.9% |
| 2023 | 1,012 | 64.6% | 2,170 | 46.7% |
| 2024 | 973 | 63.0% | 1,792 | 47.2% |
| 2025 | 1,079 | 62.7% | 1,859 | 46.7% |
| 2026 year to date | 893 | 61.3% | 1,528 | 46.3% |
| Trailing 12 months (October 2025 to September 2026) | 1,116 | 62.5% | 1,892 | 47.3% |
| Closing month | Houses sold | House sellers, primary residence | Condos/TH sold | Condo/TH sellers, primary residence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2024 | 74 | 73.0% | 136 | 41.9% |
| November 2024 | 53 | 50.9% | 130 | 50.0% |
| December 2024 | 67 | 62.7% | 122 | 48.4% |
| January 2025 | 92 | 62.0% | 135 | 49.6% |
| February 2025 | 85 | 51.8% | 142 | 42.3% |
| March 2025 | 88 | 64.8% | 188 | 44.1% |
| April 2025 | 102 | 58.8% | 186 | 38.7% |
| May 2025 | 99 | 64.6% | 170 | 46.5% |
| June 2025 | 96 | 64.6% | 163 | 46.6% |
| July 2025 | 86 | 62.8% | 154 | 54.5% |
| August 2025 | 76 | 65.8% | 161 | 38.5% |
| September 2025 | 88 | 65.9% | 147 | 49.0% |
| October 2025 | 83 | 55.4% | 130 | 48.5% |
| November 2025 | 81 | 63.0% | 134 | 52.2% |
| December 2025 | 103 | 71.8% | 149 | 54.4% |
| January 2026 | 79 | 59.5% | 121 | 51.2% |
| February 2026 | 94 | 51.1% | 180 | 53.3% |
| March 2026 | 116 | 62.1% | 205 | 45.9% |
| April 2026 | 100 | 61.0% | 202 | 42.1% |
| May 2026 | 113 | 64.6% | 173 | 41.0% |
| June 2026 | 112 | 66.1% | 170 | 42.4% |
| July 2026 | 75 | 64.0% | 177 | 42.9% |
| August 2026 | 75 | 60.0% | 130 | 46.9% |
| September 2026 | 85 | 68.2% | 121 | 52.1% |
* fewer than 30 matched sales: read as direction, not precision. Shares are not reported under 10 sales.
Who is buying: did they move in?
About one house buyer in two and one condo or townhouse buyer in three makes the Delray Beach home their primary residence. The share is read on the first tax roll after the purchase, so it is the earliest possible reading and a floor: an owner who moved in late in the year, or who filed after the March 1 deadline, shows as non-primary until the following roll. 16.4% of 2025 house buyers and 8.5% of condo and townhouse buyers took title as a company, trust or other entity; 12.6% and 23.8% have the tax bill mailed to another state. Condos and townhouses draw the out-of-state and second-home buyer at roughly 1.9 times the rate houses do.
| Year bought | Houses | Primary residence | Owner mails outside Florida | LLC, trust or company | Condos/TH | Primary residence | Owner mails outside Florida | LLC, trust or company |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1,388 | 55.8% | 12.0% | 8.1% | 2,415 | 44.2% | 20.7% | 6.5% |
| 2021 | 1,530 | 46.7% | 16.1% | 14.1% | 3,151 | 38.7% | 23.5% | 7.9% |
| 2022 | 1,136 | 41.8% | 16.8% | 18.1% | 2,466 | 39.8% | 23.1% | 8.9% |
| 2023 | 1,015 | 47.9% | 15.3% | 16.0% | 2,167 | 38.8% | 21.9% | 9.5% |
| 2024 | 975 | 43.1% | 14.9% | 19.6% | 1,800 | 38.6% | 22.7% | 8.4% |
| 2025 | 1,075 | 50.6% | 12.6% | 16.4% | 1,866 | 37.8% | 23.8% | 8.5% |
What this means if you are selling
The buyer for a Delray Beach house is, more often than not, a family who will live in it; the buyer for a condo is, more often than not, someone who will not. That changes how a listing should be priced and shown. A primary-residence buyer compares monthly payment, schools and commute and reads a comparative market analysis built on nearby closed sales; an out-of-state or second-home buyer compares your unit with the same floor plan in three other buildings and with what a rental would cost, and is quicker to walk when the association fee or the reserve study reads badly. The Delray Beach real estate statistics page carries the current price, inventory and price-cut figures for both markets; the Condo Cost and Liquidity Index carries the fee and time-to-sell picture that second-home buyers weigh.
Series
Editions are dated and frozen; the 2026-10-18 edition carries the seller series from 2021 (read on the 2020 roll, the earliest certified roll in the set) and the buyer series from 2020. The seller series is refreshed daily as closings post; the buyer series adds a year each summer when the Florida Department of Revenue certifies the new roll (the 2026 buyers become readable on the 2027 roll). Earlier editions never change. County context: Palm Beach County market report; the daily indexes behind every city page are on the Housing Data Desk.
Method, source and download
- Sales: BeachesMLS closed sales in Delray Beach (listings permitted for internet display, delivered through Cotality Trestle, PBP connection 23039), joined by parcel number to the Florida Department of Revenue Name-Address-Legal (NAL) tax roll for Palm Beach County. Rolls used: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026. 279 of 23,736 closings since 2020 had no parcel match on the roll used for their year and are excluded.
- Primary residence: a homestead assessed value greater than zero on the roll (JV_HMSTD). Sellers are read on the roll of the year before the closing year (owner as of January 1 of that year). Buyers are read on the roll of the year after the closing year, the first roll on which the new owner could hold the exemption. Both readings avoid the Property Appraiser's practice of removing the exemption when a deed is processed, which makes the same-year roll unreliable for sold homes.
- Cross-check: 754 Delray Beach closings from July 2026 onward were read on both the 2025 and 2026 rolls; 89.5% agreed, the remainder being owners who gained or lost the exemption between the two rolls.
- Out-of-state: the owner mailing state on the roll is not Florida. Entity: the owner name on the roll contains LLC, Inc, Corp, LP, Ltd, Trust, Trustee, Holdings, Properties, Investments, Partners or Company.
- Property type follows the tax legal description: a condominium regime in the legal makes the property a condo whatever the MLS type; townhouses and villas are reported with condos. Houses are never blended with condos.
- Shares are reported only for groups of at least 10 matched sales and marked with * under 30. The current month is excluded until it is complete.
- Nothing here is an opinion of what any home is worth, a forecast, or a statement about any individual owner. Aggregates only.
- Download the aggregate table: 2026-10-18.csv (CSV, this edition) or the latest edition.
- Free to cite with attribution to "PBP Real Estate analysis of BeachesMLS closed sales and Florida Department of Revenue tax roll data" and a link to this page. Questions: info@pbpre.com or 561-395-8418.
Source: BeachesMLS closed sales in Delray Beach joined by parcel number to the Florida Department of Revenue Palm Beach County tax rolls 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026. Edition October 18, 2026. PBP Real Estate analysis. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Questions about primary residences, second homes and who buys in Delray Beach
How many Delray Beach home sellers were living in the home they sold?
Over the twelve months from October 2025 to September 2026, 62.5% of the 1,116 houses sold in Delray Beach through BeachesMLS were the seller's primary residence, measured by a homestead exemption on the Palm Beach County tax roll in effect when the home was listed. For condos and townhouses it was 47.3% of 1,892. In September 2026 alone: houses 68.2% (85 sales), condos and townhouses 52.1% (121 sales).
How many Delray Beach buyers move in as their primary residence?
Of the houses bought in Delray Beach in 2025, 50.6% carried a homestead exemption on the 2026 tax roll, meaning the new owner filed to make it their primary residence. For condos and townhouses it was 37.8%. The rest are second homes, rentals, homes held by a company or trust, and owners who moved in but had not filed; the roll cannot tell those apart, so the buyer-side share is a floor.
How many Delray Beach buyers are from out of state?
12.6% of 2025 house buyers and 23.8% of condo and townhouse buyers had the tax bill mailed to an address outside Florida on the 2026 roll. A Florida mailing address does not prove residence; an out-of-state one is a fair sign the home is not the owner's primary residence.
What is a homestead exemption and why does it identify a primary residence?
Florida law lets an owner who holds title and lives in the home as a permanent residence on January 1 apply for a homestead exemption that lowers the assessed value for property tax. Only a primary residence qualifies, the county Property Appraiser checks the application, and the exemption is recorded on the certified tax roll the Florida Department of Revenue publishes each year. It is a mandatory, audited public record, unlike the optional tax checkbox in an MLS listing.
Why is the seller share so much higher than the buyer share?
Two reasons. Sellers are measured on a roll that already reflects years of ownership, while buyers are measured on the first roll after closing, so a buyer who moves in later or files late reads as non-primary. And some buyers cannot file: companies, trusts without the right language, and owners who are not permanent residents. In Delray Beach the gap in 2025 was 12.1 points for houses and 8.9 points for condos and townhouses. Read the buyer share as a floor, not a count of non-residents.
Has the share of Delray Beach sellers who lived in their home changed over time?
Across the complete years 2021 to 2025, the house-seller share was essentially flat (-1.1 points) and the condo and townhouse seller share rose 2.1 points, from 63.8% to 62.7% for houses and 44.6% to 46.7% for condos and townhouses. Each year is read on the Florida Department of Revenue roll of the year before the closing, so every year uses the same rule. The table above carries the count behind each share; years marked small should be read as direction.
Free to reuse with attribution and a link to PBP Real Estate. Figures, tables and charts on this page may be quoted, screenshotted or embedded. Keep the source line and link to www.pbprealestate.com/delray-beach-primary-residence-statistics/. Aggregates only: no address, listing number or listing-level record is published here.
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