NAPLES, Fla. β The price of entry to the Naples luxury real estate market rose faster in October than in any of the 43 metros Realtor.com tracks, even as the national figure fell for a 31st straight month. The Naples-Marco Island luxury threshold, the listing price of the top 10% of homes, reached $3,753,333, up 9.0% from a year earlier, according to Realtor.com’s October 2026 Luxury Housing Report, published Nov. 9. The national threshold was $1,197,014, down 2.3%, as RealtyWire reported Nov. 9.
Naples ranks third among the 10 most expensive luxury markets in the country and was the only one of the 10 with an annual gain. The other nine mostly lost value, with the steepest declines in San Jose, down 12.1%, and New York, down 11.3%. Naples luxury listings also sold faster: the top 10% spent 100 days on the market in October, 21.1% fewer than a year earlier, while the count of million-dollar listings in the metro fell 11.5%.
Diane Mato, a broker associate with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty, has sold luxury property in Naples and on Marco Island for more than 30 years: 962 homes and more than $860 million in sales, a record that places her in the top 1.5% of Realtors nationwide in RealTrends’ ranking. Mato holds an MBA, wrote the home-selling guide Sell Smart, and is a co-founder and editor of RealtyWire.
“Naples belongs at the top of that list,” Mato said. “But that number is the cost of entry to the top 10 percent of listings. It is not an appraisal of your house, and it is not permission to add 9 percent to your price.”
Florida leads the growth list
Twelve of the 43 metros posted year-over-year gains of 1% or more in their entry-luxury threshold, and five are in Florida. Naples led, followed by North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, up 7.7% to $1,796,850; Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, each up 4.1%; and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, up 2.1%. The South accounts for eight of the 12, and the list leans toward vacation and destination markets, the report notes.
Florida and the rest of the list diverge on pace and supply. Four of the five Florida metros sold luxury listings faster than a year ago, led by Naples at 100 days and Cape Coral at 94 days, down 16.1%, while million-dollar listing counts fell in all five. Outside Florida, luxury listings took longer to sell in six of the seven other growth metros, and million-dollar inventory rose in all seven. On our reading, that split matters: in Florida, rising luxury thresholds are coming with shrinking supply and faster sales, while elsewhere prices are rising even as more expensive homes come to market and take longer to sell.
“That smaller pool of available homes may be helping support prices, even as luxury thresholds fall nationally,” wrote Anthony Smith, the Realtor.com senior economist who authored the report.
The local numbers behind the ranking
Local data point the same direction on supply. The Naples Area Board of REALTORS, whose figures cover Collier County outside Marco Island, counted 4,240 properties for sale in September, down 17.3% from a year earlier, in a report released Oct. 23. At the top of the market, RealtyWire’s Top 5 roundup for the week ending Nov. 8 was led by a $28 million Port Royal home on Gin Lane with 107 feet of shoreline on Hidden Bay; the five largest closings in the Naples area that week totaled $65.2 million.
On Marco Island, the Marco Island Area Association of REALTORS reported an October median of $1.5 million for single-family homes, down 16% from a year earlier, on 48 closed transactions for the month.
“When Marco shows a median down on a few dozen closings, my first question is what sold, not what happened to values,” Mato said. “Two or three big waterfront sales dropping out of a month will do that to a median.”
What the threshold measures
Realtor.com’s figures are based on listing prices for existing homes on MLS feeds, not final sale prices. The luxury threshold is the point where the most expensive 10% of listings begins, so it moves when the mix of homes on the market changes, not only when existing homes gain value. A season of pricier waterfront listings lifts it; a wave of modest condo listings pulls it down.
For an individual home, Mato said, the useful comparison is narrower: the comparable homes that have sold, the ones under contract, and the ones still competing for the same buyer.
“Before we talk about a number, I want a seller to know three things: what the comparable homes actually sold for, what is under contract right now, and what a buyer could choose instead of this house,” Mato said. “The highest asking price on the street is somebody’s wish. A closed sale is a fact.”
In Naples that comparison gets specific fast. On the water, the question is whether the comps share the same boating access, not just a bay view. In a condominium, it is the building’s condition and reserves. In a golf community, it is whether the membership arrangement matches, because a required equity membership changes the real price of the house.
Nationally, the decline steepens toward the top of the market: the 95th-percentile threshold fell 4.1% to $1,873,040 and the 99th percentile, which Realtor.com calls ultraluxury, fell 6.2% to $5,125,874. Naples moved against all of it. More high-end market coverage is in our luxury real estate section.
