South Florida homes listed below what the owner paid: houses vs condos, five counties

On October 18, 2026, 6.3% of the South Florida houses for sale that can be matched to the owner's MLS purchase since 2020 were asking less than the owner paid. For condos and townhouses the share was 18.9%, 3.0 times the house rate. The five counties are Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Martin and St. Lucie. 15,276 of the 45,970 active listings could be matched; 2,183 of them (14.3%) are priced below the purchase price. The owners doing it bought in 2022, 2023 or 2024: 34.6% of condos and townhouses bought in 2023 are now asking less than they paid, against 4.1% of those bought in 2021. Figures come from BeachesMLS listings permitted for internet display; edition 2026-10-18, frozen, published daily.

How many houses and condos are asking less than the owner paid, by county?

In every county the condo and townhouse share is three to five times the house share. Among the three core counties, Broward County has the highest condo share at 22.1%; Miami-Dade the lowest at 13.9%, and Miami-Dade houses are the least likely of any group to be asking below purchase price (2.9%). Martin and St. Lucie read higher for condos (28.1% and 34.8%) and St. Lucie houses stand out at 17.8%, on smaller samples of 121, 224 and 697 matched listings.

Median gap is the median asking price relative to the purchase price among the listings that are below it. Inside the condo and townhouse group, condominiums read 19.2% (1,623 of 8,469) and townhouses and villas 17.4% (209 of 1,200).

Which purchase years are asking below what they paid?

Owners who bought in 2022, 2023 and 2024 account for almost all of the listings priced below the purchase price; owners who bought in 2020 or 2021 almost never are. The 2023 condo and townhouse buyers are the peak at 34.6%. Houses follow the same shape at a lower level: 10.1% of houses bought in 2023 are now asking below their purchase price, against 0.3% of houses bought in 2021. Owners who bought in 2025 or 2026 and are already back on the market read 12.0% and 4.0% for condos and townhouses.

Which cities have the most condo sellers asking less than they paid?

Port St Lucie leads the condo and townhouse list at 40.2% (35 of 87 matched listings). The Broward suburbs and the Palm Beach County coastal cities with large 1970s and 1980s condo stock fill most of the table; each row shows the count so a small sample is visible. For houses the city list is short because the shares are low: Fort Pierce reads 18.7% and no city with 50 or more matched houses passes 18.7%.

How far below the purchase price are they asking?

Of the 2,183 listings asking below their purchase price, 38.0% are asking 10% or more below it and 15.7% are asking 20% or more below. The median condo or townhouse in the group is 7.8% under the purchase price; the median house is 5.1% under. Asking price is not sale price: the Boca Raton Relisting Index and the Boca Raton price-cut page show how often asking prices move again before a sale.

How many South Florida listings are short sales, and how is that different from asking less than the owner paid?

On October 18, 2026, 1.1% of houses for sale across Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Martin and St. Lucie counties (168 of 15,509) and 0.6% of condos and townhouses (179 of 29,890) were listed as short sales. Bank-owned (REO) listings: 1.7% of houses (271) and 1.9% of condos and townhouses (566).

Asking less than the owner paid is far more common than a short sale. On this page, 6.3% of matched houses (351 of 5,607) and 18.9% of matched condos and townhouses (1,832 of 9,669) are priced below the owner's purchase price. The highest short-sale share is Broward County houses at 1.6%, where 5.8% of matched listings are also asking less than the owner paid. A price below the purchase price does not tell you what the owner owes; a short sale means the seller owes the lender more than the sale price.

What is a short sale? A short sale is a sale where the seller owes the mortgage lender more than the home is selling for. The owner is underwater on the loan, so the lender has to approve the price and agree to take less than the full payoff before the sale can close. A bank-owned listing (REO, for real estate owned) comes later: the lender has already taken the property back through foreclosure and is selling it itself. How a Florida short sale works. General real estate information, not legal, tax or credit advice.

Short sales as a share of active listings, by county, October 18, 2026

Full color: houses Light: condos and townhouses. Count only where fewer than 10 listings are marked.

Listings for sale on October 18, 2026: short sales and bank-owned (REO) beside asking less than the owner paid

County	Type	For sale	Short sales	Bank-owned	Asking less than they paid (matched)
Palm Beach	Houses	3,995	0.6% (24)	0.7% (27)	4.5% (69 of 1,523)
Palm Beach	Condos/TH	6,487	0.4% (25)	1.0% (64)	20.2% (507 of 2,508)
Broward	Houses	4,283	1.6% (69)	2.3% (98)	5.8% (100 of 1,729)
Broward	Condos/TH	10,087	0.4% (37)	1.8% (181)	22.1% (718 of 3,245)
Miami-Dade	Houses	4,618	0.8% (39)	2.6% (121)	2.9% (44 of 1,506)
Miami-Dade	Condos/TH	12,340	0.9% (106)	2.6% (317)	13.9% (495 of 3,571)
Martin	Houses	465	1, count only	5, count only	9.2% (14 of 152)
Martin	Condos/TH	359	1, count only	2, count only	28.1% (34 of 121)
St. Lucie	Houses	2,148	1.6% (35)	0.9% (20)	17.8% (124 of 697)
St. Lucie	Condos/TH	617	1.6% (10)	2, count only	34.8% (78 of 224)
Five counties	Houses	15,509	1.1% (168)	1.7% (271)	6.3% (351 of 5,607)
Five counties	Condos/TH	29,890	0.6% (179)	1.9% (566)	18.9% (1,832 of 9,669)

How we count: active Residential listings on October 18, 2026; a listing counts as a short sale or bank-owned only when the listing agent marked that condition in the MLS, so an unmarked short sale is not counted. Shares are shown only where at least 30 listings are for sale and at least 10 are marked; smaller groups show the count only. Houses and condos/townhouses are sorted by the tax legal description and never combined. Asking less than they paid compares the asking price with the owner's most recent MLS purchase price since 2020; it is not a mortgage figure. These are market statistics, not an opinion about any home's price and not a forecast.

Source: PBP Real Estate analysis of BeachesMLS active Residential listings permitted for internet display, as of October 18, 2026; asking less than they paid from the 2026-10-18 edition of /south-florida-listed-below-purchase-price/. This data is not verified for authenticity or accuracy and may not reflect all real estate activity in the market. Based on information © 2026 BeachesMLS, Inc. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

What this means if you are selling

The buyer's agent knows what you paid before the showing; the number is public record and sits on every portal. If you bought in 2022, 2023 or 2024, one condo seller in three or four in your building's market is already asking less than they paid, and the buyer is comparing your price with theirs, not with your purchase price. A seller who prices against what closed in the last 90 days, not against the 2022 purchase, spends fewer days on the market and cuts less often. If you bought before 2022 the table says the opposite: the market is above your purchase price and the question is only how far. How PBP prices a listing and the Boca Raton Condo Cost and Liquidity Index carry the rest of that conversation.

Series

This is the October 18, 2026 edition. A new edition is published each day the data refreshes from that day's snapshot; earlier editions never change. The county reports (Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Martin, St. Lucie) carry the daily price, sales and supply figures behind it.

Method, source and download

• Definition: a listing is counted as asking below the purchase price when its current asking price is lower than the price recorded at the owner's most recent MLS closing for the same property, where that closing happened before the current listing began.
• Matching: active listings on October 18, 2026 in the five counties are matched to closed MLS sales from January 1, 2020 onward by parcel number, and where the parcel is missing, by normalized address, unit and ZIP. 15,276 of 45,970 listings (33%) matched. Owners who bought before 2020, off-market, or in a new-construction sale that was never in the MLS are not matched and not counted, so the shares describe recent MLS buyers and the all-listings share is lower.
• 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.
• The comparison is asking price against purchase price only. Improvements, closing costs, mortgage balance and the final sale price are not in the data and are not estimated. Nothing on this page is an opinion of what any home is worth or a forecast.
• Shares are shown only for groups of at least 30 matched listings (counties, purchase years) or 50 (cities).
• Download the aggregate table: 2026-10-18.csv (CSV, this edition) or the latest edition. Listing-level records are MLS data and are not redistributed.
• Free to cite with attribution to "PBP Real Estate analysis of BeachesMLS listing data" and a link to this page. Questions: info@pbpre.com.

Source: PBP Real Estate analysis of BeachesMLS listings permitted for internet display; active snapshot 2026-10-18, closed sales 2020-01-01 through 2026-10-18. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.