The price it takes to buy into the top 10% of the U.S. housing market fell to $1,200,005 in August, down 4.0% from July and 4.0% from a year earlier, according to Realtor.com’s August 2026 Luxury Housing Report, published Sept. 10.
That is the 29th consecutive month in which the entry point to luxury has fallen on an annual basis, and the decline now runs through every tier the report tracks. The 95th percentile, which Realtor.com calls high-end luxury, sits at $1,894,230, down 4.2% year over year. The ultraluxury threshold at the 99th percentile is $5,163,712, down 4.6%. Homes listed at $1 million or more accounted for 12.7% of active inventory, half a percentage point lower than both July and August 2025.
Anthony Smith, who wrote the report for Realtor.com’s economic research team, noted that some seasonal softening is normal at this point in the year but called August’s month-over-month move “a more steep decline than typically seen.”
Luxury listings nonetheless moved faster than they did a year ago. Homes at the 90th percentile spent a median of 74 days on market, four days quicker than August 2025 though about a week slower than July. The 95th and 99th percentiles ran 82 and 98 days respectively, each also four days faster year over year. The typical listing of any price held at 60 days, unchanged from a year earlier.
Los Angeles takes the top spot by falling less
Los Angeles took the highest entry point to luxury among metros averaging at least 500 million-dollar listings a year, at $3,919,381, but it did so by declining more slowly than its rivals rather than by gaining ground. The Los Angeles threshold slipped 1.9% for the month and 1.9% for the year.
Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, Connecticut, the previous leader, dropped 6.0% to $3,881,000 and fell to third. Kahului-Wailuku, Hawaii, moved into second at $3,908,500. Less than 1% separates the three.
Only two of the 10 most expensive metros posted monthly gains. Naples-Marco Island, Florida, rose 1.1% to $3,736,279 and is up 9.4% year over year, an annual gain that has accelerated from 4.1% in June. Realtor.com attributes the strength to supply: the count of million-dollar properties in Naples is down 17.3% from a year ago and at its lowest level since 2023.
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, added 0.8% to $3,300,000, its second consecutive monthly gain, and its year-over-year decline has narrowed from 11.7% in June to 5.6% in August. The report links the shift to the artificial-intelligence boom reshaping Bay Area housing, including tech workers converting equity into cash. RealtyWire reported last month on how AI wealth has split San Francisco and Seattle in opposite directions.
The two markets also sit at opposite ends of the speed spectrum. Million-dollar homes in Naples carry a median 119 days on market; in San Jose the figure is 31 days.
New York-Newark-Jersey City recorded the steepest fall among the top 10, down 9.3% for the month and 10.4% for the year to $2,587,959.
How far the luxury tier runs
The report’s featured analysis this month measures not where luxury begins but how far it extends β the ratio between a metro’s ultraluxury threshold and its entry point.
Nationally that multiple is 4.3: the top 1% of listings starts at $5.16 million against a $1.20 million entry point. Hilo-Kailua, Hawaii, has the widest spread in the country at 6.2, with luxury opening near $2.0 million and ultraluxury beginning at $12.40 million. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach follows at 5.8, then Los Angeles and Port St. Lucie, Florida, both at 5.6, and Reno, Nevada, at 5.4.
Two different things produce a wide spread, the report argues. One is sheer scale. Miami carries nearly 41,000 active listings, more than any other metro, so its top 1% is drawn from roughly 400 homes. Los Angeles holds 634 active listings priced above $10 million, Miami 601 and New York 554 β and no other market in the country tops 110.
The other is a small, concentrated pocket of trophy property inside an otherwise ordinary market. Realtor.com points to Hilo-Kailua, where the micropolitan area covers all of Hawaii County and pairs relatively affordable east-side inventory with oceanfront estate stock along the South Kohala shoreline. Reno works the same way: the metro extends to Lake Tahoe’s Nevada shore, placing Incline Village and Crystal Bay alongside a moderately priced valley market.
One caveat matters for reading any of these figures. All of the report’s calculations use listing prices, not closed sale prices, and cover active inventory drawn from Realtor.com’s MLS feeds, with new construction excluded unless it is actively listed on a participating MLS. Percentile thresholds at the 99th percentile are also drawn from very small samples, which the report flags as volatile in smaller markets.
The August figures extend a pattern RealtyWire has tracked through the year, including Austin’s position as the steepest luxury price decline in the nation. More coverage of the high end is collected on RealtyWire’s Luxury Real Estate page.
